eSports thrives on live emotions on site – the VBL CC finals in Cologne proved this once again. But such an event also poses unusual challenges for the players – especially for those who are inexperienced offline.
Players who attended a FIFA offline event for the first time at the final of the Virtual Bundesliga Club Championship by bevestor were correspondingly numerous after two years of pandemic. When all eyes and cameras are on the protagonists of the day, even hardened old hands can shake their legs for a moment:
“I was nervous for a short while when I was running in. But I didn’t feel any of that in the game,” says Burak ‘burak__may’ May in an interview with eSport.
Concentration problems
“The tension is different when there are cameras on you all the time and people running around your pitch. Personally, it brought me out a bit in the first game that there was so much movement,” Daniel ‘HSV_Daniel7’ Dwelk explains his situation.
Commentators and hosts talk themselves into a frenzy only a few metres away from the player, directly opposite the opponent jumps up in jubilation or rage. It seems hard to find the full concentration on the game.
Creating a homely atmosphere
“It’s quite different when you see your opponent,” says Levy Finn ‘levyfinn’ Rieck. However, like many others, the Rostock native has found a way to block out the atmosphere and surroundings: “I always listen to music – it’s a bit of a ritual for me. That way I feel like I’m sitting in my own home.”
At times, the 19-year-old was not only physically in motion in front of his screen, his lips also followed a tactful pattern: “I listen to hip hop. I sing along then too – just to get down.”
Overall, the cog rode the principle: what works on the Baltic Sea will also lead to success in Cologne. “With Henning it is important that our coach sits next to him, gives him a lot of rest and talks to him. We try to create the conditions there that we usually have online here as well.” With these familiar tactics, the league newcomers sailed undaunted all the way to the semi-finals.
Even the much-cited home advantage of 1. FC Köln had no positive effect at all in the end, according to Denis ‘Denis’ Müller in the Strassenkicker Base: “The home advantage didn’t do us any good at all, because we play on a different setup than we do in our stadium. We were able to save ourselves the stress of travelling, but it helped us rather less. “
Stimulant big stage
The young Anders ‘RBLZ_Vejrgang’ Vejrgang seemed to be a bit rattled by the pressure on him at the beginning. In conversation with eSport, however, he stated that he was still struggling a little with the 90s mode.
In earlier conversations with eSport, the great FIFA talent already stated that he did not think about pressure. Extreme outbursts of emotion on both sides are well known with the 16-year-old Dane. He did not hide them even on the big stage.
His handling of the hitherto unknown situation was remarkable. While there were still desperate tears in the group phase, the atmosphere even seemed to fire him up in the finals. After goals, he repeatedly sought eye contact with his family in the stands, jumped up and clenched his fist.
Vejrgang found the switch that all FIFA professionals have to find at some point in order to be able to deliver their full performance in the spotlight on stage.
Exercise makes perfect
The pressure to perform in offline tournaments is quite different from online in familiar surroundings, sealed off from the public. The more of these events take place again, the more detached even the offline newcomers can react in the end – like ‘burak__may’: “You try to ignore it and get into this tunnel of players as best you can.”
In the end, the positives of such an event outweigh the negatives. The VBL-CC final proved that with all the emotions shown.
