Maximilian “HandOfBlood” Knabe, a Twitch streamer and YouTuber, conducted a memorable interview at SPOBIS. At Europe’s largest sports business event, he introduced himself as “Mr. Knabe”, the head of the LoL team Eintracht Spandau. He was playing a role and he took it very seriously. After 20 minutes, the moderator had enough.
Eintracht Spandau is a phenomenon in the e-sports scene of League of Legends. With the popular influencer HandOfBlood as the figurehead, the club managed to build a large fan base in no time.
The strategy behind it: Don’t just be a club, be an entertainment machine.
HandOfBlood loves to slip into crazy roles in his YouTube videos, dresses up in suitable costumes, and often exceeds the pain threshold – his own, when the costumes are too crazy, and his viewers’, when he drinks cow’s milk as a cat.
The latest exceeded pain threshold is that of Alex Schlüter, among others a moderator at the streaming service DAZN. He was HandOfBlood’s discussion partner.
However, the streamer stuck to his uncomfortable role of “President Knabe” – and saw it through to the end. Until Schlüter leaves the stage saying, “I would stop at this point”.
How the interview went, we show you on MeinMMO.
More about the German LoL phenomenon Eintracht Spandau can be found in the video:
Moderator leaves the stage during President Interview
The panel at the “SPOBIS” fair dealt with the topic: “How to become one of the most well-known and popular sports presidents in the country within a year.” A serious professional topic with a serious moderator. However, the guest speaker had a different plan.
HandOfBlood did not miss the opportunity to appear as President Knabe. The streamer often takes on this role when he appears in connection with his LoL team Eintracht Spandau.
However, President Knabe is… peculiar. A parody. A serious guy who takes things out of context and expresses strong opinions – all with a humorous background.
Moderator Alex Schlüter apparently expected an engaging conversation about the scheduled topic. But it was supposed to go differently.
In the meantime, there is a video of the entire interview on the YouTube channel of Eintracht Spandau (via youtube.com). Here in the article you can find a summary of the action.
“Uli, if you see this”
It started off noticeably. President Knabe is not even properly seated when he shouts into the camera: “Uli, if you see this […] you wouldn’t have thought, would you? With your football club, you’ll soon be in the district league if it continues like this.” The reference to “the game against Augsburg” makes it clear he is speaking to Uli Hoeneß, former president of the football club Bayern Munich.
The moderator Schlüter is still fully engaged, joking along. Even when President Knabe said he and Hoeneß had smuggled “Nürnberger” out of prison, the moderator laughs along: “Let’s leave it at that.”
It continues in that rhythm. When asked what Eintracht Spandau actually is, Knabe responds with a monologue about the spelling of e-sport. The emphasis on the word is on the “E”, which is of course pronounced in German.
Schlüter still wishes for an answer to his question and said, “Somehow I didn’t get it.” Knabe replied with a cheeky, “I figured as much.”
Transfers, Jersey Sponsors, Half-Time Songs
Then, there actually are some appropriate answers. But it is not about Eintracht, but about e-sports as a serious sport.
There, the president immediately introduced a new definition: the so-called A-sport – old sport or “sport by old definition”. This refers to established sports such as football or basketball. As an e-sports club, one does not want to be confused with A-sport clubs.
Still cheerfully and with a grin, Schlüter asks the next question: “What is the secret recipe of Eintracht Spandau?” It still seems as though the moderator actually expects serious answers. But not with President Knabe.
The great A-sport clubs lead by example, right? I always say: Play down the boot nicely, concentrate on what you can do – they can write that down – transfers, jersey sponsors, half-time song. We at Eintracht do nothing else for several decades. Great name, great coat of arms, anthem, that’s it.
Now the moderator shows the first signs that the interview is getting on his nerves. Because Alex Schlüter continues to try to squeeze proper answers from the parody sitting next to him. But a long pause before the next question speaks volumes.
Schlüter doubts Knabe’s statements and probes further – the explained recipe is not enough to win e-sports fans over to his side. In the question, the moderator refers to Eintracht Spandau as the “St. Pauli” of e-sports. A perfect setup for President Knabe:
Ugh, I can’t hear that anymore. Some dude said that to the press once, now it’s being “copy-pasted”. I don’t understand the comparison – St. Pauli is in Hamburg, Spandau is in Spandau. […] And fans like those from St. Pauli don’t want to have either. They don’t even buy VIP tickets or anything like that. […] The most appropriate way, and that’s how I justify it – Uli, there he is again, he once helped them out […] the savior games of St. Pauli […] since then he is the absolute messiah there. And I am the messiah of Eintracht Spandau. Next question!
“Uh… fictional? We’re not fictional”
Now comes the question where it slowly gets out of hand. Because moderator Schlüter wants to talk with the fictional character President Knabe about fictional things surrounding Eintracht Spandau. So also about the invented role of President Knabe.
The interesting term “referential sports satire” is mentioned, and Schlüter wants to know something about content production and storytelling surrounding Eintracht Spandau.
Knabe responds: “Uh… fictional? We’re not fictional. The only fictional things are our competitors’ title hopes.”
Schlüter probes further, mentions the numbers reached on YouTube, and wants to know something about the secret of success. Knabe replies: “The answer is before you. It’s mostly because of me. […] The numbers you have written down don’t matter to me that much. […] As long as we are ahead of our rivals, the losers from BIG.”
The exchange continues like this for a few minutes. At some point, the first “Mr. Knabe, are you serious?” comes from the moderator. When the president lightly laughs off FIFA as a “basis democratic organization” and connects “Franz” with an envelope, it was also too much for moderator Schlüter.
After that, the moderator shifted the topic to sponsors, and President Knabe concluded that security was needed. Excitement in sports does not arise from uncertainty about who wins. For example, in football: Nothing has changed for years, and the same clubs keep winning.
By the way, we already had the team from Eintracht Spandau on MeinMMO in the podcast:
“Mr. Knabe, I would stop at this point”
Schlüter makes one last attempt to take something serious away from the conversation. He asks if fans want security, is that the reason why only a third of Eintracht Spandau’s budget goes into sports development. Knabe replies:
[…] As if a third of our budget only goes into sports and bla, so don’t come at me with that. We are first season, we became vice-champions and qualified for the Europa League. […] Whether a Hans Wurst was entertained in the end is irrelevant to me. […] You need trophies in the cupboard, otherwise the sponsors wouldn’t be involved. Right now with us, it’s like: Federal Youth Games for adults – we’ve just finished shot putting, broke the 3-meter mark, and now we get a nice orange slice from Mom. That’s where we are right now.
Completely professionally and with only a minimal visible shake of his head, moderator Alex Schlüter ends the interview at this point: “Mr. Knabe, I would stop at this point”. A yelling President Knabe defiantly calls after him: “Get lost!”.
Then Knabe finishes the panel alone. In his last moments, he gives more insight than in the whole 15 minutes prior and explains that his entertainment product doesn’t end with the conclusion of a match, but only really begins afterwards.
But then the role kicks back in, and in the end, President Knabe trivializes his statements again. What a performance.
In the end, however, there was a reconciliation between the two. On Twitter, President Knabe and moderator Schlüter appeared together in a photo:
Another successful action by the Eintracht or perhaps a bit “over the top”? Let us know your opinion and leave a comment.
If you would like to read more about the club Eintracht Spandau, you can find something suitable here: LoL team of HandOfBlood positions itself against the AfD — “Perverse understanding of freedom”
