FaZe effect

a phenomenon observable in most online video games with compet-tive matchmaking and ranks, in which random players tend to be far more abrasive and uncooperative than those you meet in casual drop-in games or community servers, even ones hosting games in compet-tive format. this is counter-intuitive to the -ssumption that less mature players will be deterred by the stiff penalties for ruining matches, which turns out to grossly underestimate how consciously dedicated some people are to being awful.

there are a variety of reasons for this, not least of which is because clueless kids think they’re going to be mlg esports pros and thus blame anything that goes wrong on you, regardless of how well anyone is actually doing, and frequently ragequit, leaving you unable to pick up the match. in higher ranks and tiers, it is common for players to not care about playing because they think too highly of themselves, while many players in lower ranks are using smurf accounts so they can grief newer players trying to git gud.

named after faze clan, a (real) professional esports team that many of the aforementioned clueless kids like to reference in their screen names.
joe was warming up for a round of compet-tive counter-strike: global offensive by d-cking around in some servers with custom game modes. he was having more fun here than he thought he would playing silly mini-games, but he was dragged away by his two friends only to end up in a lobby with a temperamental fourteen year old boy and someone with racial epithets in his name using micspam to blare references to stale internet memes. the faze effect strikes again.
##mlg #esports #compet-tive #counter-strike