#this was inspired by how a lack of crowds at the 2020 olympics totally fucked with everyone involved
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I wonder what aliens would think of home team advantage.
I got into hockey a couple years ago to troll my best friend and immediately developed an undying loyalty to my team that goes beyond blood and water. The most surprising thing to me was when I got to go to a playoffs game in my team's home arena prior to the Sickness. Not being a sports person, I'd never been part of a crowd like that before and I could not imagine being a member of an away team skating onto the ice in front of a massive wall of their opponents' colors. It would be intimidating as hell, especially if you had literally no exposure to it.
And to an alien, it might not make sense. Imagine species who use sporting event as purely skill contests, with no social element. Sure, there's entertainment in watching, but only intellectually: watching a skilled person excel at physically demanding tasks. What if there were aliens that watch sporting events like documentaries, who build their "arenas" like black-box theaters, small and dark, and tailored to connoisseurs—and silent. It would be rude, after all, to distract the athletes from their competition.
Imagine these aliens realizing that humans also have similar physical competitions and being curious about if their two species can compare. They invite human teams into their arena theaters to compete with their own and they realize very quickly that humans are not very good at "sports." Even without the distraction of a talking crowd, the humans seem to distract themselves: they seem on edge, perhaps even uncomfortable, and while it becomes clear that they possess some skill, because they do manage to score against leading teams, they seem a far cry from the bombastic, playfully aggressive, overly competitive personalities that humans display in so many other contexts.
And then the humans are gracious enough to invite the aliens to play in their home arenas—and foolish enough to challenge them to bring their best.
"Watch out," one human player says to their alien counterpart, with a twinkle in her eye. "At home, we'll have home team advantage."
At first, this isn't so strange. They do actually have some understanding of what we would call a home team advantage, but only the contextual part: if you train in a familiar space, you will do better in that space because you are more familiar with it. But the aliens aren't worried. Earth has demanded their best athletes and with the humans' displays so far, it's clear that familiarity with the terrain will not do too much to give them an advantage.
They are provided with vids and research about human sporting arenas, which point out that they're made to accommodate massive crowds, but that doesn't faze most of the alien players. Perhaps the crowds are for educational purposes, since so many visual records show human young in the crowds—full family units in fact. It's a bit curious that they're all wearing the colors of the team's...crest? Insignia? But that's humans for you, always looking for groups to align themselves with, even if they don't actually participate. And so they don't think anything of it.
When they enter the building and hear the roaring of thousands of screams they fear something has gone horribly wrong. Some begin to panic, asking if they should leave, until their human interpreter laughs and explains: the voices are not afraid. They're excited to see their team play.
"Who?" The team captain asks, trying to regain composure.
"The fans." The interpreter is almost beaming now. They are wearing a very professional pantsuit and blouse—in the same colors as the team's insignia.
Before the aliens can wonder what rotating blades have to do with sporting events, they're pulled off to a locker room. They won't admit it, but they're already shaken by the sound of the crowd. They're used to playing in polite silence, punctuated by the occasional comment from the audience.
"Now, we know this is a very different experience for you," the interpreter says. "And human sporting events can be overstimulating to a lot of humans. So we've worked with your government to help create personal audio dampeners so you aren't overwhelmed by the noise. We've also requested that the stadium refrain from playing music or putting on any light displays. It'll just be you and the crowd."
That's not as comforting as she might think. And when the alien team comes out onto the playing field, some of them almost bolt. There are so many humans and they're...chanting? At first, the aliens worry that the chanting is for them...but then they hear the name of the opposite team in the rhythm of it and when that team enters, the resounding scream of joy almost breaks through the audio dampeners.
Not only that, the human team they faced only a few rotations ago is nowhere to be seen. Gone are the uneasy, self-conscious players from before. They're confident now, they swagger, and wave to the crowd and the crowd screams back and that only seems to give them more energy. Some of the players begin to remember, then, that humans are hypersocial creatures. Have even been called a hivemind by some, less charitable members of the alien species. But they don't put it together until they play.
The crowd transforms them. They score two points in the first half of the first round and the paper-thin defense that the aliens had broken through easily in prior games has become a solid wall. Even with the sound of the crowd dampened, the aliens can see its effects: the humans' newfound confidence brings out that oh-so-human desire to risk everything on a dangerous play and somehow it almost feels like the crowd betters the odds. But it's not just filling them with confidence and intimidating their opponents. The humans try harder in front of their crowd: move faster, hit stronger, endure longer.
At first, the team captain thinks it's just a fear of embarrassment, at failing in front of so many witnesses. But xi soon realizes it's more than that. They don't just want to not do badly in front of a crowd, they want to do well for the crowd. They want the crowd to scream in joy—and when a human scores the game-winning point they do, surging to their feet as one in a joyful scream that does break through the audio dampeners.
The alien team loses this time, and not just the game. The team captain and xir players have never had such a response to their game and while they don't need the same kind of constant social affirmation humans do, it is enviable to have a whole crowd of people get so much joy out of watching you play. Returning to the sporting theater is almost disappointing, especially when humans in the human team's colors start showing up in the audience. They don't get to yell in these spaces—some do and are quickly asked to leave—but they come anyway. The captain almost wishes to have their own audience. But that isn't done in xir culture and so they push it aside as foolish daydreams. Until they get the comm from Earth. A written message, with a visual component:
"Dear Mx. Aliens: My name is Seul-ki. It's nice to meet you! My friends and I watched the game you played against the Wildcats and thought you did well! I have watched a lot of vids of your games now and I think your team has the best defense in the interplanetary league. My friend Ashwani and I wanted to buy jerseys of your team but you don't have those so we made some. We also wanted to ask you to please let us be your official fan club, because we read you don't have one. Thanks for reading, S & A."
Attached is a picture of two human young smiling and wearing black clothing, with numbers on it. One of them wears the team captain's number and a bright intimidating smile with far too many teeth. A human smile. Xi has forgotten the old adage for dealing with humans: they will get attached to anything. It was meant as a warning, but at the moment, it feels like a blessing.
It would only be a boon to diplomatic relations, xi thinks, to include these youth in their sporting culture. In fact, xi considers with a growing excitement, perhaps xi could even invite the fan club to their home arena. It would be good to hear a crowd calling xir name.
#long post#humans are space orcs#i like sports#this was inspired by how a lack of crowds at the 2020 olympics totally fucked with everyone involved#humans are human#humans are awesome#hockey
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