Competitive Ass

Video game tournaments are like a small subculture where if you can't handle the way people act and treat you ("can't handle the heat"), you shouldn't bother ing and should expect to be chewed out if you lose. I guess you can say I did this image out of mild frustration due to the rant I posted. Sometimes I play and watch competitive video games tournaments (mostly fighting) on youtube. It's surprising how boastful and insulting the winners can be towards the losing player(s) and how frustrated/violent the losers can be.

Some games I've played online have live chats turned on while doing the match. All I could hear on the other side of the receiver is trash talking and unnecessary insults coming from the victor. No "Good Game" or "Nice Match" or any kind compliment ever came from most of the winners I've played against online. It made me think about how their life is like when they are not playing video games. Even in online matches that don't have live chat feeds, you can still know when the winner is bragging by how he plays his character near the end of the fight.

During my years at working in a video game store in downtown Boston with live public consoles for people to play, whenever I see someone playing a video game in a group or competitively, whether it's a fighting game or racing game or even a sports game, the amount of trash talk, insults, frustration, and soon vulgar fighting shouldn't exist. It gets to the point where they bring real "tournament" outside and see who will bleed first in a fist fight. During my time there, I've noticed different types of "bragging" competitive victors:

The Charismatic Know-It-All type: To the "charismatic" players, who think they know everything, think that the other player is just a challenger that needed to put in his place. When those charismatic player's win, there's a long stream of sighs, disapproving shaking of the head, "you should have done this and that", "you can't play", "you are a waste of my time", etc.

The Loud Yelling and Dancing type: Is much like the Charismatic type except he doesn't restrain himself from his victory over a simple match. Yet, he dances, yells in your face, brags that he is a tournament champion from a distant land, and tries to crush any sense of pride and respect you have.

The Silently Insulting type: The Silent winners are those who use their gameplay as a way to insult you by trolling, giving you no wiggle room to do anything, taunts in game, and when the game is over he doesn't acknowledge your presence and shrugs/shoos you off without any respect and/or talks trash under his breath.

In that small store, these players get a reputation on being a skilled-asshole player. Me being the one who lost to such players over a period of time and hearing them talk on and on about how bad I was, I couldn't help but feel sad for that player. If he treats people who are not as good as him in something that bad, what about other people around him, even friends and family?

"...The winner should not act like a bragging ass." Some people would argue against this. In any competitive game/match, the winner has the right to boast and brag all he wants about his triumphant victory. Different people celebrate in different ways. Seeing how they react to a victory shows the type of person they are inside:

- the kind player who shakes hands with you and says two simple words, "Thank you", "Good Game", "Nice Match", "Awesome Skills", etc. and maybe wishes to play you again in a friendly match.

- or the kind that tries to make you break by throwing insults at you and treating you like your defeat doesn't matter.

In heated crowded tournaments, one needs to be loud and try to steal the spotlight from another. Its part of the atmosphere. Some can't help but slide to that level, and others use it as an excuse to be an asshole.

If you are ever against a player who boasts and brags about his victory over you and/or talks trash to you, it is best to take a deep breath, stay calm, and remain quiet. Your hurt reaction aids their right to continue to be an ass. Don't Feed The Troll! that there can't be a winner without a loser and even the LOSERS are WINNERS. How so? You gain KNOWLEDGE. Whenever you lose to someone who is better than you at a game, you learn from your mistakes and continue onward to try to get better. Some winners don't bother increasing their skills since they think that they are at the top of the mountain. Or if you want to have a good laugh, think of the bragging winner as a clown performer, trying to give you a show on how stupid one could be. It's like watching a cartoon gag.

All in all: BE THE BETTER WINNER! Show respect to the one who loses. Your simple, kind act and gesture shows that you think of others around you and know that they are just as important in your victory as your own skills.