It’s a strange world, with its own rules and language codes. Such as “camper”, “flamen” or “wallhack”. Have you heard of it? If so, then you are probably a video gamer or e-sports enthusiast. Because it is their world into which the current Tatort episode entitled “Game Over” takes us. Here it is the Munich commissioners Ivo Batic and Franz Leitmayr, played by Miroslav Nemec and Udo Wachtveitl, who have to find their way around the world of video games and e-sports like ethnologists. Because of course, the two are too old for that at more than 60 years. And those who hunt criminals in the real world every day have no time for video games. Or for watching other people “stare at screens.”
At least that’s how Commissioner Leitmayr perceives his first e-sports tournament in the film written by Stefan Holtz and Florian Iwersen and directed by Lancelot von Naso. And that’s a bit reminiscent of the episode “#REHASH” of the US animated series South Park from 2014. There it is young Kyle who wants to play a video game with his younger brother Ike. But then he is surprised to find that Ike prefers to watch a certain PewDiePie play on the internet. How come? Kyle can’t get that into his head. At Leitmayr the question is: How can something like this be sport? The answer of the younger colleague Kalli Hammermann: adrenaline. “Such an e-sportsman has an adrenaline rush like a Formula 1 driver.”
If that’s true? Quite possible. Although Leitmayr Kalli replies: He would have said the same thing about musicians. Otherwise, Kalli, played by Ferdinand Hofer, is actually allowed to come out as a video game aficionado in this case, which involves the murder of a young policewoman. The video game classic “Counter-Strike”, an online tactical shooting game often played in e-sports? he knows The term “replay” for the recording of a computer game? he knows And otherwise he seems very patent when it comes to video games. Does that also apply to the film as a whole, which is still about the young e-sports shooting star Oskar from Munich, police officers playing e-sports, a lot of money and fraud?
You can replay the next SWR crime scene on your cell phone
Well, in fact, the e-sports scene looks quite realistic here. Which is probably due to the fact that the Munich eSports eV stood by the crime scene makers in an advisory capacity. Well, there are the digs from Batic and Leitmayr. But that might not be necessary. After all, eleven percent of video gamers in Germany were over 60 years old in 2022. Unfortunately, the fact that e-sports are a man’s world here is also very realistic. Because even if a good 50 percent of gamers are now female, they hardly ever appear in professional e-sports.
It’s also about video game addiction. And when the film combines a “real” gun chase with a virtual chase, then of course it’s about the question of play and seriousness. But this is not done in an overly moral or dogmatic manner. Although it has to be said that the colleagues from the SWR crime scene are a little further along in blurring the boundaries. On June 18 there is an episode that you replay on mobile can.
But back to the question of what makes e-sports a sport. Well, as the film shows, you can put a lot of time and energy into it, just like in professional football. And why not when in real esports tournaments like “dota 2“Up to 19 million dollars in prize money are now waving. Of course, as in the film, this also attracts fraudsters. Or, as in the real world, investors such as the Savvy Gaming Group from Saudi Arabia. Last year, with the ESL, they had one of the largest German eSports tournament organizer bought. A big scandal for fans. But in the end, this is perhaps what shows most clearly: that e-sports have arrived in the real sports world.