Does homesoil advantage exist?

Ever since the ex-CIS based Virtus.pro's record shattering win over NiP in the spring of 2013, people have talked about homesoil advantage. Since then other big wins have taken place, starting with CM triumphing at ESWC.

Other notable wins are fnatic winning DreamHack Winter, Titan getting upset by iBUYPOWER at ESEA S15 Finals, and most importantly, Virtus.pro winning EMS One Katowice. Not to forget Na`Vi topping SLTV IX Finals.

This article will take a look at the arguments for and against it existing, what may cause the changes in teams' performances, and whether these teams even had homesoil advantages at the events they won.

Both finalists were Swedish at Summer 2013, but the crowd only cheered for NiP 

Does homesoil advantage exist?

This is naturally where we need to begin this article. Does homesoil advantage exist? It's not quantifiable, and the results aren't nearly as clear as people think. If we go back twelve months from today, we get a fairly sizable sample size for data - which is conveniently after NiP's dominant run that would've devoured every argument for homesoil advantage - and we can start tackling this issue in more depth.

The examples everyone who believes in homesoil advantage existing most commonly refer to are the four listed in the opening paragraph of this article. All four of those victories were surprises in the sense that you couldn't have realistically predicted they would happen. All of those teams went into those events as clear underdogs, yet somehow came out on top.

Event	Winner	Runner up
DreamHack Bucharest	NiP	Lemondogs
SLTV StarSeries VII Finals	VeryGames	Astana Dragons
RC EMS One Fall Finals	VeryGames	NiP
ESWC	Clan-Mystik	VeryGames
TECHLABS Final	Astana Dragons	AGAiN
MSI Beat It	VeryGames	fnatic
DreamHack Winter	fnatic	NiP
SLTV StarSeries VIII Finals	AGAiN	Na`Vi
ESEA S15 Global Finals	iBUYPOWER	Titan
Assembly Winter	H2k	Minttu
DreamHack Stockholm	Titan	NiP
EMS One Katowice	Virtus.pro	NiP
Copenhagen Games	NiP	Virtus.pro
SLTV StarSeries IX Finals	Na`Vi	NiP
DreamHack Summer	NiP	Na`Vi
ESEA S16 Global Finals	iBUYPOWER	compLexity
DreamHack Valencia	LDLC	Epsilon
ASUS ROG Summer	myRevenge	ENCORE
Gfinity 3	Virtus.pro	Titan
ESL One Cologne	NiP	fnatic
SLTV StarSeries X Finals	fnatic	Na`Vi

Bolded teams played the grand final on homesoil

Out of the 21 tournaments listed above, eight were won by teams playing on their homesoil. Six of them didn't really have a realistic candidate from the host country who'd be capable of winning the event, while six were actually won by a team playing against the home team.

Additionally, out of those eight tournament wins by the home team, some of them don't hold much weight. Clan-Mystik got one upset win at ESWC over Astana Dragons, but their grand final win came against another French team -- one with clearly a bigger fan base. Similarly at DreamHack Winter both finalists were Swedes, and neither scored a big upset en route to meeting in the final -- where once again, the underdogs, who had significantly less fans in the arena, prevailed.

France against France - who has the advantage? 

What causes homesoil advantage?

Statistics don't necessarily support homesoil advantage, but let's take a closer look at it anyway. I don't believe that simply playing in your own country alone does you any good, and I've never suffered enough from jetlag despite extensive traveling between continents to regard that as a serious piece to this puzzle.

Furthermore, I've seen super one-sided crowds at events where neither team is from the host nation, and I've never seen it have a huge effect. I can buy some teams crumbling under the pressure of having a huge crowd in front of you during a grand final, but I refuse to believe it gives players superpowers - great players may shine more, but they'd have likely done that on the biggest stages regardless -- see Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund at ESL One Cologne for example.

A much more likely candidate for affecting results is the motivation level of certain teams when playing home. I fully believe Na`Vi, and the old ex-CIS Virtus.pro roster, believe they can play better at CyberSports ARENA. I also believe Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas and his team were more motivated to win EMS One Katowice than they'd ever been to win a tournament. It's obvious from the way they prepared, and how they've spoken about the tournament. However, here comes the difference.

Homesoil advantage may help you put more effort into preparing for an event, but once there, it won't improve your performance. I don't doubt for a second certain teams will put in more effort before playing in front of their home crowd, but at the end of the day, that doesn't imply causality -- simply correlation. When channelled correctly it will lead to better results, but the real driving force here is the added practice and preparation, not a crowd cheering in your favor, or the familiar hotel food you ate in the morning.

Though Brazil wound up being ridiculed by Germany in the World Cup this summer, you can bet the players representing the host country put in more effort into preparing for this tournament, than they would've had it been held in Argentina, or Germany. Same thing applies in CS:GO -- playing at home may motivate you to put in more hours, but the crowd itself won't magically make you a better team.

Tournaments at home mostly affect motivation 

What do all these homesoil victories have in common?

Playing on your home soil isn't enough to win a tournament. You don't get magical superpowers from playing near home. However, as mentioned before, it can spike your motivation and therefore lead to better performances. Sometimes that even gives you extra confidence going forward, and raises your team's ceiling for months to come -- see Virtus.pro as an example.

However, there is something these wins do have in common. It's often teams right on the verge of moving to the next level, who likely gain a boost in motivation that helps them perform well once, and that then translates into long term confidence. fnatic likely kept their confidence from Epsilon's DreamHack Summer run, but I don't doubt that iBUYPOWER feels less pressure at ESEA, with little to no on-site spectators present.

Clan-Mystik likely also felt extra motivated to play at ESWC due to it being in Paris, while Natus Vincere has always exceled in Kiev. Unless you buy into teams ghosting in their home country - which I don't - there is little explanation to why teams can perform better there. The only logical explanation is that they're more motivated, and therefore put in more effort prior to the event actually starting.

There's also one other possible factor -- the visiting team could get nervous from a huge crowd, and it could affect their performance negatively. I find it entirely possible that a team who can't deal well with pressure, or starts by going down early, finds it tough getting into the game with the crowd affecting their focus. I believe a strong crowd can hurt the visitors - which could explain why the NiP team has always struggled in Kiev, and were shut down by Virtus in Katowice - but I don't believe it alone can make a team better.

Virtus were inches away from becoming contenders  

Do North Americans have homesoil advantage in Dallas?

Due to iBUYPOWER having done so much better at the previous two ESEA Finals events - winning both - than at tournaments in Europe, fans have started citing the homesoil advantage as the reason. If iBUYPOWER plays better in North America than in Europe, even against the same competition, does it mean that it is indeed the continent they're playing on that determines their results?

First of all one should try to define homesoil advantage. It's true iBUYPOWER's roster has three American players - for whom Dallas could be home, though in reality all of them live thousands of miles away, roughly the equivalent of living in other countries in Europe. On the other hand, their roster also boasts two Canadian players, for whom USA is even a different country. What causes the incline in performance then?

The ESEA S16 Finals win over Titan was in Januay, when the ex-VeryGames roster were fresh off a lengthy winter break following a disappointing showing at DreamHack Winter. They weren't yet in top shape, and actually ran through iBUYPOWER in the upper bracket before losing twice in the grand final. For them it should have been a relatively easy event to win, and even if there were more teams to practice against in early January, they might not have opted to do so.

For iBUYPOWER on the other hand, it was a chance at redemption. They knew it wasn't a high priority for Titan, and they were fresh off getting laughed out of Sweden with another group stage exit at DreamHack Winter -- which was their first event in Europe since DreamHack Summer, five months earlier. In other words, iBUYPOWER had a lot more at stake there.

Same can be said for ESEA S16 Finals for iBUYPOWER. While Virtus.pro, NiP and Na`Vi were fresh off of attending Copenhagen Games, SLTV StarSeries IX Finals and DreamHack Summer - and were waiting for a break. For these teams ESEA were the final stop at the end of the tunnel - if we ignore IronGaming - while for iBUYPOWER and compLexity, it was the equivalent of all of those tournaments wrapped into one.

It's much more likely the North Americans are significantly more motivated to do well at ESEA than the Europeans, because they don't get to attend as many events. Give them more international events, and you will see their performances decline. Finally, considering how iBUYPOWER has folded under pressure at every event in Europe, playing at ESEA also likely helps them in that sense - they have less pressure. However, the non-existant crowd surely doesn't help them.

For Skadoole & co, ESEA means much more than for Europeans 

With no hometeam present at ESL One Cologne, and fnatic winning over Na`Vi in Kiev, this argument was mostly forgotten for a while. But will it return later on in the year, as events take place in Paris, and Sweden?

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