Zidane and sport invite themselves to r/place, the pixel battle that ignites the Internet

Hundreds of thousands of people who coordinate, clash, betray and unite live: since April 1, a pixel battle has set the Internet ablaze. Originally, the American forum Reddit, which chose to relaunch for the second time this year its “Place” section. On it, each user has the possibility of placing a pixel on a gigantic digital fresco, every five minutes. By getting organized, Internet users are therefore trying to get a piece of land to draw flags, logos, even works of art, in a good-natured atmosphere. An opportunity to get noticed that sports fans have not missed.

Zidane, national pride

On certain places of the fresco, the collaborative experience quickly turned into a demonstration of forces between countries. Argentinians and Portuguese have thus succeeded in displaying their two flags and representing Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo at their crossroads, arm in arm. Harangued by influencers, the French have drawn a huge tricolor flag, on which has been affixed a giant portrait of Zinédine Zidane, erected as the main national pride.

Coordinator of French works, streamer Kamel “Kameto” Kebir has at times surpassed the 200,000 viewer mark on Twitch. He took advantage of the event to highlight its esports team, the Karmine Corp, whose logo was represented on the fresco for a time, before disappearing. Other rival teams of the KC, such as Vitality, Fnatic or the Ukrainians of NAVI also made their appearance temporarily on the Place.

Formula 1 very represented

With more than 50 million users, Reddit is one of the strongholds of the American Internet. It is divided into more than a million sub-communities, called subreddits, which have thus mobilized their forces to be represented on the web. Some of them, assigned to football clubs, have managed to perpetuate their coat of arms on the fresco, like Chelsea or Barça. Next to that of Liverpool, a pixelated Jurgen Klöpp poses with the Champions League trophy.

Particularly active on the forum, the communities of Formula 1 and NBA fans also took over the space made available to them, notably reproducing a famous montage of Nico Rosberg in front of an explosion. But its location is, like all the others, temporary: until the still unknown time at which the Square should end, on Monday, the pixels that make it up can still be replaced…