Hey Sup Forums, I was arguing with my e-sports watching friend, and the topic of real sports came up

Hey Sup Forums, I was arguing with my e-sports watching friend, and the topic of real sports came up.

My friend and the people who play the same game as him refer to player career histories, or anything historical about the game's scene as "storylines". i argued this makes him sound like an autist, but he is convinced that all sports fans do this, even non esports.

Being that ive never heard anyone in irl refer to football or basketball histories or player careers as "storylines" (and being that is main supports for his argument are search results on reddit and facebook for "nfl storyline"), ive turned to here.

So Sup Forums, is my friend under an incorrect assumption, or is this the use of this term a common occurence in sports communities?

Other urls found in this thread:

archive.4plebs.org/sp/search/text/storyline/
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

bump

In my limited experience (having never talked sports or esports irl in English) your friend is wrong.
It's worth noting that storylines do exist in sports journalism, and can be used to refer to careers in that context. In turn those storylines influence the image fans have of players in pretty dramatic ways. For a pretty damning example, see Lebron.
From a narrative standpoint you can see careers like storylines, however in general I believe it's mostly people who like narratives (ie. journalists and nerds) seeing things through their bias.

Man that was a long pointless post wasn't it.

Well its obvious that "stories" exist in sports, as the history of a sport technically creates a story and has many parts of it, but ive never heard anyone use the term as often as esports players. whenever sports fans or casters talk aboutbthis topic, i usually here the word "career" or "in the past" being thrown around, rather than talking about the players as if they were a cast of anime characters he used it in this context : "[players] personality brings a great dynamic to the storyline of [game]", whereas i would never in my life hear a lebron fan saying his personality brough a great dynamic to the storyline of modern basketball. its very autistic imo and it triggers me that he thinks search results from reddit and facebook are anywhere near enough evidence to support his argument, espescially when hes acting like he knows about sports communities when i know we have the same amount of experience with sports

Not many people explicitly refer to the word 'storylines' but obviously when discussing sport journalists refer to players past career and accomplishments and use this to construct the narrative they want to create. That's why sport is so good, it's like a movie where you don't know the ending and the ending can change many times and flip flop throughout a game

I'm telling you man, your friend is a nerd. You should bully him.

I know "stories" (using the term loosely) are an important part to the entertainment of sports, its just the context its widely used in in esports makes it sound autistic imo. if sports fans/casters were saying stuff like "i wonder how the outcome of the game will affect his storyline" rather than "i wonder how his career is going to be effected by this game", i think less people would be interested in sports because the former makes it sound like they are talking about a cast of tv show characters

thank you user i will try but he is convinced hes right, even though ive told him multiple times that his sources do nothing to sway any of my doubts. he is now telling me to find proof of the term NOT being used in sports communities, denying that the burden of proof is still on him at this point because his "sources" are shite

>"i wonder how the outcome of the game will affect his storyline" rather than "i wonder how his career is going to be effected by this game"
When you put it like that... how about "legacy" as a comparably used term?

>he is now telling me to find proof of the term NOT being used in sports communities
Tell him that's not how falsifiability works.
Or ask him to prove that the term "rubberbiscuits" isn't used in esports to describe bad luck.

i believe ive heard legacy used a lot by sportscasters as well, never in esports though. i have a feeling esports caster are trying to push this "storyline" thing to try to make it seem like an anime, as there is very heavy cross pollination of communities there.

bump

Ive been following the csgo competitive community for about two years and I've never heard anyone use this term, you have any idea what game he follows?

Don't know how it's in CSGO right now but "storyline" is a staple tool in #eSports. Since the majority of viewers either don't play the game or play but don't understand what's going on, you have to create a narrative, storyline to make people care about shit on screen.

This gook has been sleeping on a floor and sharing a room with 20 other gooks, he's facing a slav that's living in a dirty commieblock and if he doesn't win this, his family will starve.

YOU DECIDE WHO TO ROOT FOR. THESE OUTCASTS HAVE A PERSONALITY, TRUST US. Don't forget to spend money on things we are advertising, by the way.

Cs is a lot more transparent, most of the pros stream so you can easily tell the cunts and the people who seem funny and nice. It also seems a lot more laid back, I remember the final of a major and it was nip vs fnatic, both Swedish teams and huge rivals, and there was a voice com and even in the last round nip were cracking jokes, and its the same situation with the casters. You're talking about dota I presume, right?

It's pretty uncommon, only time I can think of it happening would be like, when Kobe retired and we all spent the year looking back on his "storyline" in the NBA, but even that isn't really perfect. So nah your mate is wrong. Also:
>PG24
>West in Indy
>KG and Rondo in Boston
>Sullinger with normal hair
You went back a wee while for this one

op here didnt think my thread was still alive! its smash bros, specifically melee

Huh, sounds pretty weird, I've been loosely following smash Bros on Reddit to try understand the game and improve for a few months, never heard that being said, granted I didn't pay much attention to melee

ive seen people post anime fanart of their favorite players, people type fan fictions of "anime endings" to tournaments, constantly see people refer to moments in matches as "that was so anime", hell most of the players have anime fanart of themselves as their twitter pictures. so i believe the thing the user was saying about spoonfeeding narratives to bring in outsiders could be very true. it feels like the casters try to create this imagine that fucking video games tournaments are similar to an anime

i reccomend finding character-specific discord groups if you want to improve as a crazy rate tho. chatrooms full of people who only main certain charcters, including some of the best who play thay specific character

>>Being that ive never heard anyone in irl refer to football or basketball histories or player careers as "storylines"

thats literally what WWE do..

so yes quite clearly your friend is a moron

archive.4plebs.org/sp/search/text/storyline/
Here's a proof OP, see how little that term is used and it's almost exclusively used in an ironic way, or moking a sport or and athlete and compare them with WWE . But your friend is autistic and he'll think it's used seriously, and I wouldn't show my power levels.

People only use "storylines" when talking about refball I feel

As an avid NASCAR fan, we do talk about "storylines", but it's almost never in reference to a single driver or their career. It's usually talking about a rivalry between drivers or how things play out over the course of several races. Like the storyline between Logano and Kenseth last year, tho it didn't last long. You might be able to refer to the rise of Truex as a storyline, but that's more the story of the team as a whole.