Two days ago, the Vietnamese Esports community was abuzz with news that the fanpage of a US warship had been hacked. It would have been an unremarkable incident if the hacker hadn’t used the page to livestream the legendary game Age of Empires. Shortly after, reports surfaced that the US Navy confirmed they lost control of the official Facebook page of the destroyer USS Kidd (DDG-100) as far back as October 3.
Lieutenant Nicole Schwegman, a spokesperson for the US Navy, stated that the official page of the USS Kidd (DDG-100) had lost control, and the military immediately sought assistance from Facebook. However, for reasons unknown, the fanpage did not return right away and took additional time. Currently, the social media page of the USS Kidd (DDG-100) has been “returned to its rightful owner” but has not posted any new updates since September 23.
Notably, when this page started livestreaming AoE, many Vietnamese internet users flooded in and left a plethora of comments in various tones. Some joked that the US Navy’s gameplay was quite smooth but perhaps not familiar enough, as they were “still stuck in the Stone Age,” while others pointed out that the player was smooth but “the E-spamming was a bit lacking.” At this moment, after regaining access to the account, all streams have been deleted from the fanpage, but Vietnamese netizens still come to “roast”.
However, there is a truth that hackers are becoming increasingly rampant, and even the highest echelons of government can sometimes fall victim. Moreover, hacking and livestreaming an Esports title can negatively impact the perception of outsiders, especially government and authorities, towards Esports in general and the AoE community in particular.