I'd make an argument that the amount of shit talking in competitive video games is likely one of the reasons it's perceived as juvenile by mainstream audiences and actively undermines the desire to be accepted as a legitimate sport where you can bring in serious earnings. It undermines growth of the scene (as in mainstream broadcast/spectating appeal) and makes being a professional gamer that much more of a pipedream or an anomaly.
It's like the FGC wants to be like professional wrestling (which is sports entertainment a.k.a. NOT respected as a professional sport) instead of something like the NBA or NFL.
My question is, why the underlined? Why is it that everyone always wants to copy that model? Why is it that we can't be like Boxing or MMA? Where you got Mayweather trash talking, Rios calling Pacquiao out for somehow spiking his urine with DMAA and stuff like that?
As many top organizers such as the Cannons (of Evolution) have stated. The current "league" system in Esports just does not fit the culture and history of competitive fighting games. Fighting games were born in the arcades, and this has created a culture where we are loud, brash and at times abrasive. Respect wasn't someone's right, it had to be earned and any newcomer was treated to the coldest damn shoulder people could give until they could earn that respect. At the same time, the arcade environment meant that you had to be loud just be necessity. Compare this to other Esports which were either played at home or at game centers where everyone was huddled at their own station with headsets, separate from everyone else.
It's this unique environment that gave birth to the culture of hype that fighting games have. Fighting game events have this rawness, this realness that sometimes seems missing from other Esports events. I mean, compare the Evo stage to say, that of the WCG. The former is smaller and has the crowd close to the players, the latter has a large divide between the players and the crowd. I mean, compare any EVO event to say, how the SSFIV AE event at WCG in China last month. It's just hard to imagine someone jumping off the stage and crowd surfing at WCG the way Latif did at Evo2011.
And another thing, before you say that "neither the WBO, IBC, UFC, etc. promote these things", well actually, none of the major organizers promote this kind of stuff either. But at the same time, we all recognize that this is all part of the human drama of competition and helps get people attached to certain players/athletes which, in the long run, leads to growth in viewership.
