Re: Pixels podcast @ Starcraft player expelled from tournament for words

In responce to http://frenchspin.com/2014/12/pixels-1-good-job-xbox/#comment-254
There was a segment about "Tournament player excluded after tweeting about rape"

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I have a comment on “Tournament player excluded after tweeting about rape” thing.

There is one thing i’d like to say, but, unfortunately, this is a loaded topic so a preface is required. Wall of text inc.

PREFACE:
What happened to the girl competitor after she said she is uncomfortable with the language her opponent used is obviously unacceptable. And you are absolutely correct that this is an issue in the broader Internet culture (and possible offline culture as well) in that every time someone publicly admits to being scared or uncomfortable about anything, that person gets ganged up on by trolls looking to exploit said discomfort for personal gratification (of various sorts). This <has> to stop.

MAIN THING

That being said, the fact that the guy got expelled out of tournament for words tells me one simple thing – it is not about the competition anymore. Well, maybe it is, but competition is not the ultimate goal, to which everything else is secondary. Because if competition was the ultimate goal, then the guy wouldn’t be kicked out of the tournament. Because kciking him out of the tournament hurts the competition.

I don’t know what it is about, if it is not about competition.

Maybe it is about the show. Maybe it is about the community. But since both the show and the community are built around the competition, and competition is undermined by kicking players out for reasons not directly related to sportsmanship, i expect both the show, and the community to suffer for this. At the very least, i enjoy any plays between males and females less now, because i know the guy may be holding back for fear of being attacked for being too harsh on the girl.

You see, the only thing that makes Stacraft competitions worthwhile is the fact that they are held between people, who devote their entire lives to mastering Starcraft. And i mean <THEIR> <ENTIRE> <LIVES>. The fact that they benchmark other players against this ability, and have some unconscious sexual sublimation going on around Starcraft is par to the course.

The Starcraft “rape” language is a very direct consequence of the fact that Starcraft players benchmark other players on their Starcraft ability and are committed to it with their entire psychological being, more primal factors notwithstanding. Using this language in the context of Starcraft is simply saying “i’m going to play against you with as much commitment as i would having sex with someone, and i will win”. There is no word that encompasses these two things simultaneously better than “rape”.
Unfortunately. For you, though, not for me.

If you are uncomfortable with the word “rape”, please find a different one. But i won’t stand for losing the concept of committed victory-driven sportsmanship just because you don’t like the word that is used for it.

What makes Starcraft “rape” okay is the fact that the opponent can “rape” you right back. Indeed, the best and most enjoyable plays to watch are those, where both opponents are actively trying to do just that.

A lot of people are trying to tie it into “comfort”, saying that this kind of language is not okay, because it “makes other, different players uncomfortable”. On this, let me ask you: are sports about comfort? Are e-sports in particular about comfort? How much space should comfort have in sports and e-sports? Are sports and e-sports supposed to be comfortable above all else, or are they about overcoming all sorts of adversity, psychological adversity included?
Because a sport where you can get a default win by claiming your opponent made you uncomfortable with his words or actions is, frankly, not a sport.

P.S: The people who say it is about sexism are basically projecting their own delusions onto others.
If the same thing happened to a guy, nobody would bat an eye. Giving girls different treatment IS sexism, and by expelling the guy out of the tournament, the tournament organizers embraced it.