Is it the personality, or the skill that makes your favorite esports players?

[KoolkatBrianYT]

For me, it's the personality, I'd rather see a guy get smacked in a tournament, but have fun and make jokes while doing so, not winning, and be an emotionless robot who doesn't talk on stream, or in anything other than a monotone voice to teammates.

[Slottr]

-Moved to Esports-

[Crunchy Dragon]

Both.

 

Having the skill is impressive, but I'm not gonna sit and watch somebody who's only good at the game. Personality is important for sure, but I wouldn't choose one over the other when it comes to favorite pro players.

[Sauron]

I watch speedrunners a lot more than esports these days and I'd definitely say personality is what keeps me watching a specific runner beyond a single impressive run.

[NinJake]

Also not necessarily related to eSports. But I recently wanted to try out Path of Exile again after being intimidated by it years ago when I last tried. In order to help me get a better understanding I hopped on Twitch and found 2 streamers who helped greatly towards my learning/enjoyment of the game. 1 of the streamers only had 5-30 viewers at any point in time and the ability to me to communicate more 1 on 1 (with the twitch chat giving advice as well) really helped ease me into the somewhat complex game.

 

The other streamer had thousands of views, and I've actually seen him play Diablo 3 back years ago and has an absolutely hilarious personality and although you can tell he tries to do good... he's ultimately in it to enjoy the game and try things that maybe haven't been tried before.

 

When I have watched actual eSports, I normally tune in and pick a team at random and root for them as I don't follow eSports to the point where I know what players are on what team, or what teams have the best stats etc...

 

I do agree with the statement where there's no clear line as to what makes a streamer/esports player enjoyable to watch.

[DoctorNick]

Both. Personally don't watch any streamers.

[myselfolli]

I'd say it's personality over skill for me, Pengu's paint tutorialy for R6 are hilarious and informative every time.

 

With that said, the skill isn't unimportant, I do want to see "my guy" showing me new stuff and giving me opportunities to learn as well.

[thepimson]

I would say skill because I can learn from him. Especially like in CSGO, I like to watch s1mple or kennyS play because how aggressive they are and it suit my style of playing as well.

[Engineer.AI]

SKILL, I figure, is just not enough to warrant audience appreciation, the way we would like it to.
 

If given a pie chart of sorts, most people (wrt not just Esports, but any sport in general) love to watch a PLAYER and his PERSONALITY. It happens in every sport, now that I think of it.

 

However, going back on old matches, I really enjoy the skill aspect of a player's persona.

 

What i'm saying, is that in current, personality means a lot; while retroactively, I prefer watching players with skill.

[The Hollanesian]

Watching Daigo's skill and personality got me into Fighting Games. Watching Tokido's skill and personality kept me in it.

[Guest]

I don't really watch eSports but when I see clips I like seeing the guys that just wreck people like a hacker.

 

Aside from that, I've seen pros in some other YouTuber videos & they're reasonably friendly so it doesn't matter.

[WambleCropped]

Honestly they need both. Its like LTT, Linus is really good with computers. But, if he was a rock and barley spoke i wouldn't watch him.

[DiddyDogg]

For me it's both, but I prefer personality a little bit more (60/40% or so)