The ESL, a large Counter-Strike: Global Offensive esports league, announced all the changes it made to its rule book ahead of the upcoming IEM Cologne 2023 competition in Germany. And among the changes is a very important one: Crocs are banned.
On July 20, ESL announced over 50 new and amended rules take effect immediately, but it’s the Croc ban that stood out amid a clarification regarding open-toed shoes and foam clogs aka Crocs. Numerous fans and players online across Twitter and Reddit joked about the Croc clarification, seen specifically in a tweak to rule 4.3 found in the events section of the ESL Pro Tour General Rules Book.
Clarified in “4.3 Clothing” that Crocs are considered open shoes and therefore not allowed.
That's another angle. I remembered placing a bet on an eSports sometimes ago and couldn't even follow it up as I got no link to it. So, they have more to do to promote it.
I have a feeling it probably has more to do with the stages that they play on and trying to reduce the risk of falls as players climb the stairs and walk around the wires and such. I don't really know of any cases where the players have had issues here, but banning open shoes in these types of environments isn't unheard of.
I've seen some pretty unkept people who wear crocs. They look goofy and anything far from professional. I suspect this is a problem because of the low barrier to be a part of CS:GO.
I think the ESL just got tired of seeing people in those dumb looking shoes. If they were really concerned about cheating, or 'coaching', (basically, stealth communication during a match,) there would be no shoes at all.
