The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Katowice competition for CS:GO is currently ongoing, but we've already had controversy as the audience in Poland has been giving player locations away to those on stage, as you can hear with the chants of "last on B" in this Twitch clip (as brought to us by Dot Esports).
The VP of Pro Gaming as ESL Michal Blicharz has since responded on Twitter condemning those who do it, while also adding that the players can't hear them and that those offending these rules will be asked to leave.
He further elaborated on Reddit to clarify that doing this can lead to fans being ejected out of the venue, as players can still hear noise even if they "normally can't make out what's being said."
"We will take extra precautions and spend time talking to the audience before matches in the right time slots. Regardless of what our technical preparation for sound related things is, there's no reason why we shouldn't double down on maintaining proper fan culture inside our event," he continued.
"I will speak to our audio engineers and will maybe get more precise info on some of the details on how our audio system on stage works. It's a custom build. Fwiw I've been told by players that our sound system is very good. I do not recall players saying it's inadequate (which does not mean such opinions aren't out there, it only means I am not aware of those) - so at least a portion of the player base is actually happy about it."
Do you think fan callouts are a big problem?