The streamer Adam “Loop” Bahriz is legally blind due to a disability. However, this does not stop him from playing his favorite shooter GS:GO, and he does it better than most others.
Who is that? The streamer Loop has been playing and streaming CS:GO on his channel for several years, even though he is at a disadvantage compared to other players.
Loop was born with a very rare hereditary disease called hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy, or HSAN (via Ruhr University Bochum), which prevents proper formation of the receptors of nerve cells, among other things.
As a result, Loop cannot feel pain and is legally blind. Despite his disability, he is a big fan of the shooter Counter Strike: Global Offensive, which he plays at a high level and has participated in several championships in the past.
– Based on a norm for visual acuity of 1.0 (100%), someone is considered visually impaired if they achieve at most 0.30, but more than 0.05 on the better eye, despite corrective glasses or contact lenses.
– If the visual acuity on the better eye is between 0.05 and 0.02, it is referred to as a severe visual impairment.
– With a visual acuity of less than 0.02 allowing for practically only light/dark perception, or if the field of vision is less than 5 degrees, one is considered blind under the law (via. Federal Association of Ophthalmologists)
“My cousins played it in school”
This is what Loop says: In a conversation with e-sports YouTuber Jake Lucky, he explained why he loves and plays the fast shooter so much. He got to know CS:GO through his cousins, who played it in school.
He did not expect to be able to play such a game, but was positively surprised:
[…] There is something about [CS:GO] that makes it very easy to get into the game. Let me give you an example: When I tried to play Call of Duty as a kid, there was always a lot of action, corners, camping spots. The user interface is very complex. […] In Counter Strike […] the environment is very simple. It’s very easy to notice people, especially compared to other games. It’s a very beginner-friendly game, in my opinion.
Apart from increasing the game sound to the maximum level to hear his surroundings, the streamer does not use any other aids while playing. He does not have special equipment like specific mice or keyboards for people with disabilities.
To compensate for his visual impairment, Loop developed, according to his own statements, very fast reflexes. He also sits very close to the screen to see what exactly is happening there (via YouTube).
Loop plays CS:GO over ESEA (E-Sports Entertainment Association League), an online platform for semi-professional and professional players. There he even managed to reach the high rank A+ for a while, although he is now back at A. A+ is the third highest rank in the league after S and G.
The near future holds even more CS:GO for Loop. He shared on his Twitter that he ordered a new expensive PC, from which he expects more FPS and better performance.
Another legally blind player told us about her adventures in the MMORPG FFXIV:
