Context
The Blast Paris Major 2023 is the nineteenth and final Counter-Strike: Global Offensive major tournament. Being held in Paris (France) it features many teams across the world that have qualified via regional rankings and also features a prize pool of a couple of millions. In case you have somehow never heard of CSGO you're beyond hope and may as well jump to the funny pictures because it is not my job to educate you. I have to mention the Pick'Em Challenge here that allows users to pick which teams they think will win their matches and advance to the next stage. The details of how and what to pick are not relevant but your picks will get graded according to the performances of your selected teams and at the end of the tournament you're rewarded with a coin depending on your choices. If you did great, you'll receive a diamond coin and if you did awful you'll receive a bronze coin. All of this is similar to Ecclesiastes, meaning it is all vanity but some people do take this challenge very seriously. And so does our protagonist of this drama: Thorin
Thorin
Thorin is the pseudonym of Duncan Shields, a well-known esports journ*list and content creator in the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) community. He has been involved in esports since the early 2000s and has built a reputation for his insightful analysis, deep knowledge of the game, and controversial opinions. Thorin calls himself 'THE ESPORTS HISTORIAN' for his extensive knowledge of the games, teams, and players he covers. While Thorin is respected for his expertise and knowledge, he is also a controversial figure due to his tendency to make provocative statements and engage in heated debates with other members of the community. He has been involved in several high-profile controversies, including a heated exchange with literally anyone. He regularly spergs out about various topics on his YouTube, Twitter, or other social media platform. Forever remembered will be the time when he went on a massive anti-Polish diatribe during a live talk show:
โPoland is one of the worst countries in Europe, bro,โ
"Well [the World Championships are] in Poland and I think the tickets are pretty cheap so I assume it will be sold out.. Because what the frick else is going on in Poland? And theyโve got that existential hole of being Polish to try and fill with some esports.โ
"The second they opened [the Schengen Agreement] up, everyone in Poland was just like โCool, letโs get the frick out of Polandโ and they just went to the next countries.โ
"Maybe, itโs like when you have the Olympics somewhere in Africa and they can all pretend theyโre part of the developed world for two weeks, and then everyone just leaves and theyโre still in the dirt.โ
Nevertheless, you can find a lot of funny exchanges between this guy and professional players who notoriously struggle with English like shown in the picture below:
There's also so much more to mention but I guess you get the gist of what I'm trying to say: This man is abrasive, rude, and somewhat on the spectrum. He's also regularly made fun of for saying 'I AM ESPORTS' during a heated debate whether women should have their own circuit.
Introduction to the latest drama
Let's move back to the Pick'Ems challenge as that was the catalysator of his recent maldout. In the earlier stages of this challenge, you have to pick a team that will go 3-0 and qualify for the next stage and a team that will go 0-3 and go home. The most common strategy for the latter is to pick a bad team (on paper) that should realistically lose all games no matter who they play against. More often than not, the usual candidates are teams based in Oceania and Asia. One such team is Grayhound. Being located in Australia, their competition solely consists of other drunk Aussies and kangaroos - both of which aren't particularly great at video games. They seemed like an easy pick but somehow surprised the community by winning their first game against the Russian squad FORZE only to then lose 0-16 (the worst possible score) against a European mix called Apeks.
Drama
Thorin uses their latest results to fire back at the team:
https://x.com/Thorin/status/1655674564636975118
If the best you can do at a major is ruin people's pick ems but have no chance of progressing you're as busted as their pick ems.
Frick outta here pulling that angle major after major after major.
As expected, many people in the scene and randos started piling up on him and there is drama everywhere. Let's start with the star of the show, the 18-year-old teen playing for Greyhound:
https://x.com/vexite_/status/1655685465440149505
this yours?
And Thorin in his autism-fueled rage couldn't take a joke and started going ham:
https://x.com/Thorin/status/1655998310245703710
It's almost impressive how utterly dogshit you are at CS:GO. You're the reason the team isn't challenging to make it to the next swiss. Enjoy getting carried, shitter! :>
(Some Reactions)
To which Vexite replied with the following:
https://x.com/vexite_/status/1656005245095276547
so weโre posting photos of each other now?
To which Thorin replied by mocking Vexite's looks:
https://x.com/Thorin/status/1656017789889519630
Like you can talk. You're uglier than your stats this event LOOOL!
And a bunch of other tweets in a matter of minutes:
Thorin finally finishes with the following statement mocking vexite's performance at the major and on twitter:
https://x.com/Thorin/status/1656028309577244674
vexite got 16:0'd three times:
By god with that face IRL.
By Apeks at this major in the server.
By me on twitter.
Side Drama
Semphis
Then there's also some drama involving a former player who got really into fitness:
https://x.com/semphisss/status/1656114945287925760
What do you suppose they do? Forfeit the major spot and miss competing in the biggest tournament of the year + sticker money and experience / exposure for the organization because they aren't likely to do well?
Did I get that right?
You didn't even attempt to understand my point. You got to go off with your stupid strawman, though.
Do a better job explaining yourself then, what did I misunderstand?
Kiss my arse, frickhead.
The last time I called you out in person you didn't take your eyes off my feet, I understand it's the internet but why are you so hostile and unable to have an actual discussion here? Did I say something offensive you didn't like? Ironic.
Smooya
Another Bri*ish professional player uses the aforementioned standard response:
https://x.com/smooyacs/status/1656105128015933440
i am esports
To which Thorin replied and this fun little thread is created:
https://x.com/Thorin/status/1656159175985053702
Nah, you're just a stupid little rat. In that sense this major would have been the right city for you.
Figured out a knife and fork yet?
40 years old bozo stays mad๐๐ฏ
You're the one drinking a shandy then begging me to forgive you and ask Richard to forgive you.
Act tough for the next idiot kids, though. Like you did with refrezh :>
tl;dr:
old man tells professional cs team they are shit
18-year-old posts funny picture of bronze coin
old man spergs out (again)
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I've really grown to appreciate Thorin after what's happened to the Dota 2 caster scene. Never take the unapologetic r-slurs in your community for granted, they could be replaced by something far worse: foids.
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Hey, there aren't that many terrible foids in the Dota2 caster scene. They wisely stick to the panel mostly.
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I mean CSGO had a token foid that kept casting big games even though nobody liked her. This is really outdated info though since I havenโt watched CSGO since like 2016.
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