Reddit has become this powerful tool that people, especially millennials, gravitate to. There are sub-reddits for almost anything you can think of. Games such as League of Legends and Overwatch have built a strong community on Reddit for better or for worse. These sub-reddits are the go to place for the latest news, post-match discussions, and memes. The problem is that the most vocal ones of the community tend to be trolls or toxic. There is a lot of overreaction and keyboard analysis from people that do not have all the information. This wouldn't be a problem in traditional sports, but in e-sports, the majority of the players grew up with Reddit and so they are apart of the community and read all of these comments. There is more pressure to perform and win because you know if you don't then Reddit's wraith will come down on you.
Another by-product of a strong community are the memes, which are formulated based on some truth or an actual event and then blown out of proportion. Last Sunday, Team Liquid faced off against the Golden Guardians, who are undoubtedly the worst team in the league right now. Not only did Team Liquid find a way to lose the game, but they also brought back a series of memes. The first one being that no matter how much money their own Steve spends, they will always finish 4th and it just so happened that with the loss, they are tied with Clutch Gaming for 3rd-4th and so they are 4th again. Side note, "Paid by Steve" is also a meme. The second meme is from their jungler, Xmithie. He was apart of a team called Immortals, who made it to Worlds, and they were one win away from advancing to the knockout stage. During one of the final team fights, Xmithie missed a point blank ultimate, which is unheard of for a professional player. His team ended up losing the fight, the match, and their chance at the knockout stage. The third and most polorizing meme is from their ADC, Doublelift. In League of Legends, every player carries the Flash summoner skill to escape dangerous situations. For whatever reason, in many high profile matches, Doublelift has been known to die with his Flash up, which as a fan is perplexing because everyone uses it whether you are in Bronze or Challenger. Both memes reeled their ugly heads on Sunday and were jokingly brought up in the post-match analysis.
I, personally, love Reddit because I only have to go to one place to get all my e-sports news. The comments section on most threads are very amusing to read because I don't have a whole lot invested in any one team or player, so in general I won't get offended by anything. I also follow some of my favourite personalities on YouTube because I love the video content that they produce. I don't read a lot of articles, but I will definitely watch video interviews. The community can do some amazing things, but I hope a balance can be found so that it doesn't have to negatively affect the players as much.
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