IEM Dallas has ended with G2 Esports scoring a surprise championship, but for better or worse, the crowd may be the most memorable part of the event.
The Dallas crowd won the hearts and minds of the Counter-Strike 2 community. Between the cowboy calls and country-based chants, no one can deny that Texas loves CS. G2 Esports ended the event with a win supported by stand-in Jacky “Stewie2K” Yip, endearing the squad to the North American crowd. But amid the cheers and groans of the crowd, a few moments left a bad taste in the mouths of international players.
The various crowd chants and wolf whistles at IEM Dallas have split the CS2 community, and it’s easy to see why.
The most notable display of passion was during Vitality’s run to the grand final, where many crowd members started a “F*** apEX” chant as a taunt toward Vitality in-game leader Dan “apEX” Madesclaire. The captain played reasonably well, scoring a 1.03 HLTV rating across the event. However, his status as a foreign captain of a superteam had fans rooting against him.
Chants against apEX continue throughout the event, including Vitality’s loss in the grand final. The final moments of the tournament saw another chant, “F*** the French,” take over the stream. A multikill MP9 spraydown from Yung Stew to clinch the trophy immediately followed.
The CS2 community is divided on the IEM Dallas crowd. The response has been generally positive, with fans praising the crowd’s chants and ESL for properly broadcasting them. Trash talk has always been an accepted part of Counter-Strike esports, so why should this even be any different? Even apEX himself took the chants in stride.
However, others claim that the IEM Dallas crowd went too far with the chants. Targeting individual players and entire nationalities isn’t very common, and some fans called it bad sportsmanship from the crowd. ESL hasn’t released a statement on the chants, but with largely positive reactions, expect the next North American event to be similarly rowdy.
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