In a tournament game at CS:GO, a scene causes a stir. The audience on-site indirectly revealed an opponent’s position by loud shouting and general excitement. Now, the desire for soundproof booths is growing.
Which pro is writing this? The Counter-Strike pro Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth from the team Astralis recently played with his team in the ESL Pro League Season 10. After his team was eliminated, he shared his thoughts on Twitter about the current tournament format.
He says that it leads to problems when playing CS:GO matches in front of a live audience and the audience can be heard. He says this even though the audience wanted to help him in one scene.
This is the problem: At live tournaments, professionals sit at computers set up on a stage.
While the players wear headsets designed to reduce ambient noise, critical information still breaks through. The audience is audible over the headsets. As a result, players receive important information that could reveal the positions of opponents.
The spectators don’t even have to clearly shout out the positions. If it gets loud in the audience when a player looks at a position in CS:GO, he knows that there is an opponent sitting there. Because the spectators see both sides and get louder when a key moment in the game is approaching.
In a current example, you see the player Xyp9x looking at a wall. He suspects opponents behind it but does not see them. He repeatedly looks at the spot, each time drawing loud reactions from the audience.
The fans get more immersed in the situation with each glance at the wall. Because Xyp9x is right in his suspicion: there are opponents behind the wall. And the spectators know this.
Eventually, Team Astralis can score a kill at this point. The audience played an important role in this. In the Twitch clip, you can see the situation:
“Bring soundproof booths!”
This is what Xyp9x says about it:
Being on stage for an important match puts you under high pressure. You rely much more on instinct and intuition. Reacting to the excitement of the audience is pure instinct. When the crowd gets loud even though there is no action in our line of sight, players become paranoid about what will happen.”
Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth on Twitlonger.
But the audience is not the only influence. As early as 2017, the pro wrote a post on Twitter and explained there that the speakers are also audible to the players. “Typically, the spectator camera shows where many players are located. If you throw a grenade there, it creates bass sounds that are very easy to hear.”
In this way, you can quickly determine whether there are opponents in positions that cannot be seen. If the grenade detonates and is shown to the audience, then there are likely opponents there. Players perceive this as bass.
His solution to the problems: He wishes for soundproof booths for the tournaments. “And I’m not talking about booths that just look a little soundproof and still allow players to hear the crowd and the bass. I’m talking about real soundproof booths that eliminate outside noise.”
He says in his post that the excitement of the fans is an important part of live tournaments. He does not want the audience to be silent throughout the match and only clap at the end of a round, like in tennis.
“I think we need to work together to overcome these hurdles to ensure the best possible fan experience while protecting the competitiveness of our game,” he adds.
Loud audience disturbs pros in CS:GO, even when they help
This is what other pros say: After the match of Astralis, player Dupreeh took to Twitter to address the community. He writes, “Shouting out positions or revealing them verbally is shameful. Regardless of the fans. Getting excited about flanks or clever plays is a common LAN factor. […]
Trust me – When the crowd gets excited, every player on the server looks for flanks or undiscovered positions. Not a single person on this planet would ignore that. If someone claims that, they are lying. This is the same for both teams and sometimes not advantageous.”
Player Twistzz from Team Liquid explains on Twitter that the audience is part of a tactic. “Every player always checks positions when the crowd goes wild. […] The audience luring has been a tactic for a while. It’s just a clever use of your environment.”
This CS:GO player was so confused after several games that he searched for his teammates at his desk:
Reginald from Team SoloMid demonstrated different kinds of problems already in 2016. He stated back then that the LoL audience in Las Vegas was so loud that he could not understand his teammates over the headsets. He also mentioned the competitiveness of LoL because the audience got louder whenever an important gank was about to happen.
This CS:GO player was so confused after several games that he searched for his teammates at his desk:
