Professional Fortnite player and streamer Tyler "Ninja" Blevins has come under fire from the gaming community on all sides at the moment. Everyone is chiming in to discuss whether "It's Just a Game" is positive or not.
Ninja is arguably one of the most successful gaming and esports personalities in the world, with numerous accolades and achievements. Sadly, though, he still shows that he is just a gamer at his core and was recently found raging about video games once again in on Twitter:
The phrase "it's just a game" is such a weak mindset. You are ok with what happened, losing, imperfection of a craft. When you stop getting angry after losing, you've lost twice. There's always something to learn, and always room for improvement, never settle.
— Ninja (@Ninja) February 18, 2020
There's a lot to unpack in Tweet. He mentions that people who say the words "It's just a game" have a weak mindset. Raging professional video gamer Ninja continues his absurdity with: "When you stop getting angry after losing, you’ve lost twice." The Tweet in question currently has 21.2K Retweets and 143.6K Likes and the latter half really bugged a lot of people but let's be honest, the entire Tweet did.
At this moment, it really seems like this was sent and posted out of rage itself. While we understand Blevins' disposition within the gaming and esports industry, he has to remind himself that he's an incredibly impressionable figure in the industry. His fanbase is really young and that genuinely looks up to him in a wide variety of aspects, especially within the video games and esports scene. Ninja is a very talented player who does seem very likeable, especially during his streams on Mixer.
However, this type of Tweeting doesn't help anyone. So people are allowed to get angry over video games for no reason at all now? Smash a few Xbox consoles and PC monitors in the process and that's justifiable? The entire Tweet reeks of someone who was just angry. It isn't the correct attitude to take. When a video game (yes, we're talking about those here) stops being fun anymore, you should stop playing it. What you shouldn't do is push the agenda that raging in video games is OK because it really isn't, Ninja.
The gaming community from all sides responded
This opinion by Ninja was met with huge response from both sides of the fence, garnering over 40K replies and interactions to this Tweet alone. Here are a few notable ones among many:
ninja it's just a game
— 9 V O L T (@9_volt_) February 18, 2020
I feel like the "strive for excellence" sentiment here is good, but one of the most important things for people to get good at when they play games competitively is losing, because they're going to do it a lot. You can strive for excellence without getting angry when you lose.
— Brian Kibler (@bmkibler) February 19, 2020
Dig the sentiment but you can still care about your craft and not get angry after losing. I used to get super angry when I would perform badly. But lately it's much more about analyzing, learning, etc. Just accepting that losing is the first step in that process of learning.
— Cohh Carnage (@CohhCarnage) February 18, 2020
Gamer rage is a real known problem
With hugely successful games like League of Legends, Overwatch and Fortnite, these games are some of the highest-rated for in-game toxicity and extremely vulgar communication between matches. What we need is a better understanding of how to manage the situation and not produce what seems like a rather spur-of-the-moment Tweet.
Ninja is a professional streamer and takes his craft very seriously as he's invested his entire life and career into what he's doing. That is worthy of respect but that energy and anger that drive Ninja could be put to so many different positive aspects in his career. For example, we could see more in-game strategies, more practice time, research, etc. Of course, it's also important to know that what might work for Ninja, may not work for you.
Losing, in many different aspects, is where you learn and grow the most. It's incredibly important to take what you personally can from the experience, put your foot forward and do your best even if it might be small. It's those small steps that matter the most because at least you're going somewhere.
