The ZDF has not exactly distinguished itself with a new contribution to the “IEM Cologne 2023” tournament of CS:GO. The contribution seemed to many viewers like a mockery of the event and fans are responding with confusion.
What is presented in the report? The ZDF reports on what it is like to play the gaming classic “Counter-Strike” for a prize pool over four days. In doing so, the ZDF reporter portrays the e-sports athletes from the shooter as heroes of a “new digital world”, “which is still foreign to many.”
Some viewers have also noticed that the reporter uses a sarcastic tone at times and asks whether slaughtering, bombing, and dying would be fun.
- You can watch the segment, which lasts about two and a half minutes, in full length in the ZDF media library.
In response to a fan’s comment that CS:GO has a lot to do with communication and team sports, the reporter does not delve further. Instead, he shifts to the topic of “merchandise” and explained that jerseys cost over 75 euros.
Furthermore, he highlights the following points, which are perceived as mocking by viewers:
- Fans wait several hours to enter the arena to “watch others play computer games”
- The avatars remain dead after the round; the players have nothing to fear except for a painful wrist.
At the tournament, there was also Counter-Strike 2 to play in advance. What it is about, you can see in the following video:
What are the reactions to the contribution? In social media, predominantly negative comments can be found regarding the ZDF contribution. Many players find the reporting “ridiculous” and express that they feel sad and angry about this contribution.
Some suspect the age of the reporter as the cause for the “negative mood” in the report. The reporter is 60 years old (via gameswirtschaft.de) and accordingly does not belong to the target audience of the event. A younger reporter might not have referred to CS:GO as a “foreign world for many.”
A user even offers himself to the ZDF as a reporter. He claims to know more about e-sports and would therefore like to create such reports himself.
To give you an impression of the mood on social media, we have selected some quotes:
- mardy505: “How negative, condescending, and biased does ZDF report on e-sports?! That makes one so angry and sad.”
- dat_olen: “There’s slaughtering, bombing, dying… Sorry ZDF, but that’s just a ridiculous report.”
- Maggse: “It’s 2023 and the public broadcaster still can’t report reasonably about e-sports, a disgrace. The whole contribution serves only one purpose, to create as much negative sentiment against something that they don’t understand.”
Some users also feel reminded of the killer video game debate. The discussion revolved around whether video games would promote the willingness to use violence among children and youth. A study found that video games neither make children stupid nor violent but the opposite.
Moreover, many fans notice that the mentioned aspects also apply to football (via twitter.com). In football, for example, there are also jerseys to buy and the sport fills entire stadiums with athletes chasing a ball.
And yet, football is not reported on as if it were something strange. And CS:GO has been around since 2012. It has thus established itself.
CS:GO indeed still encounters misunderstanding among some due to its affiliation with the shooter genre. Already at the beginning of the year, a journalist reignited the killer video game debate: Journalist resurrects the killer video game debate in 2023: “Young men sit in front of these games and hunt others.”
