100 Thieves CoD coach Crowder explains why coaches shouldn’t be allowed on stage
Crowder (Twitter) / 100 Thieves (Twitter)Despite being the coach of 100 Thieves’ professional Call of Duty team, James ‘Crowder’ Crowder does not believe coaches should be allowed to be with their teams on stage during matches.
The question of whether coaches should be allowed on stage during matches has been circling around the competitive CoD community for several years now.
In previous years, such as the Black Ops 2 season, coaches were allowed to stand behind their team and be in constant communication with them, even during the course of matches.
The rule change led to a sharp decline in the number of coaches for a few years, until almost every pro-level team began to hire coaches again over the past 12 months or so, leading to more and more fans wondering if the CWL will begin to let them be on stage during matches again.
Speaking on this topic on their March 9 podcast, Crowder, FaZe Clan’s ZooMaa, CWL caster Maven, and CWL analyst NAMELESS all seemed to agree that it would not be such a good idea.
Matt ‘Mr X’ Morello is arguably the most recognizable coach in CoD esports history, as he was ever-present on stage during matches.Cheating could become an issue
The first argument brought up against having coaches on stage was that it could open the door for a lot of teams to start trying to take unfair advantage of having an extra man be involved in the match.
“I don’t think so, and my reasoning is because people can cheat if they do that,” said NAMELESS.
Maven, who himself has had some coaching experience with UNiTE Gaming and Team Curse, gave a first-hand account of how big of an advantage a coach can have.
“When I coached UNiTE, because I didn’t know CoD like that, literally all I did was I was their eyes bro,” added Maven. “Like when someone didn’t spot something, because you know when you’re really focused on one side of the screen, you’ll miss stuff. I was literally just there eyes, that’s just horseshit.”
Former coach and now CWL caster Maven believes that having a coach on stage would present an unfair advantage.Might take away from player roles
The reason that Crowder, who just coached 100 Thieves to their first ever major tournament win at CWL London, doesn’t want coaches to be allowed on stage is because he fears it will impede player development.
“Having an in-game leader, having that aspect to you as a player goes a long way,” he said. “If you were able to have a coach to be the leader while everyone is zoned in and playing, it would kind of be lame.”
100 Thieves coach Crowder (middle) believes that the presence of a coach on stage would take away from players’ roles on a team,ZooMaa, a prominent pro player himself, believes that players should not be able to rely on a coach to do some of their job for them.
“I feel like part of being a good player is being aware, and if a coach is doing that job for you, it just takes the whole point away,” he explained.”
You can watch the entirety of episode one of the Crowder Hours podcast below, with the discussion about coaches starting right at the beginning.
With all four pretty much in total agreement about why coaches shouldn’t be allowed on stage during matches, it’s probably safe to assume that most, if not all, of the pro players and coaches agree with them as well.
With that said, it’s highly unlikely that the CWL and MLG will change their stance on their policy regarding coaches, so fans should not expect to see a sixth member on stage anytime soon.