The Origin of the Tea-Bag

You are in an intense gun fight with a “certain” player, everything you have learned over the past years of gaming is being tested.

Running around with a shotgun and seemingly no knowledge of how to use it, he jumps around and shoots you over and over again, your temperature quickly rising as you reach for the “Esc” button.

Then he does the unspeakable – positioning over your dead body, he spams the crouch button.

This move is known as the Tea-Bag (ask an older friend why), in which players of all types and sizes use their ability to crouch in a game in order to ridicule other players.

We all do it, honestly. I try not to, but some people start it and then I just have to join in.

Tea-Bagging is used after the death of a player in order to provoke them or stir up trouble. Normally, this occurs when a player does something stupid in a match like using a “super” and then getting killed without shooting anyone, or charging at a group of players without thinking.

In other words, the tea-bag is a form of “trolling”.

So where did it start and how has it become such a big thing? Let us take a look.

Where did it come from?

Tea-bagging never existed online until the creation of the competitive online shooter, in which it is still quite relevant today. You would never tea-bag someone while playing Pokemon with them on your Game Boy Advanced.

Tea-bagging in video games was essentially born with the release of Halo on Xbox. Yes, consoles gamers and Bungie are to blame for the creation of the tea-bag.

The game was the first console game to take advantage of Xbox Live, in which players from all around the world could face off against each other in intense gun fights.

With so many different personalities and egos, things were bound to get ugly sooner or later, and with a few presses of the crouch button while positioned over a dead players head, the tea-bag was born.

But it was not until Halo 2 that the tea-bag was really brought to life. Compared to the original Halo, Halo 2 featured a longer respawn timer, which players could take advantage of by tea-bagging, and making sure the dead player witnessed the grotesque act in all its glory.

Bungie knew what they had created, and they embraced it rather than punishing players for the action.

In Halo 3, they even programmed physics into the heads of the player who was being tea-bagged, so when a player would crouch over a dead body and do the dirty deed, its head would move in the motion of his crouches.

Thus, tea-bagging was born. Other games like Call of Duty and Destiny have also fallen victim to the phenomenon.

I haven’t had one Trails of Osiris session without some guy crouched over my head, but I just do the same to them when I kill them. It seems that as long as there is a respawn counter, which results in your body being vulnerable and watchable, tea-bagging will occur in a game.

I have even tea-bagged in Dark Souls III (Yes, I’m sorry) as there is an emote which lets you drop to your knees.

When lined up correctly, this provides a perfect tea-bag for that guy who invaded you and thought he would leave your world alive.

We have gone as far as to see the constant movement of crouching and standing as a tea-bag. In the recent Overwatch beta, a character also managed to find a way to tea-bag me without any shame. I have even been tea-bagged in the Tower on Destiny, a place that changes the camera third person. Players would just stand next to me and spam the crouch button.

Female Tea-Bag?

One thing I have noticed is that a tea-bag angers female gamers much more than male gamers, which is understandable to a certain extent. If anything, the tea-bag is no longer a male-only movement, rather just a way to irritate players.

Female gamers however, have created their own unique version of the tea-bag called the “Lip-Stamp”. As over-the-top as that sounds, there has to be some sort of equality when it comes to these things to prevent another hashtag (insert gate name here).

Female gamers should not let the fact that they are tea bag-less, get in the way of having just as much fun trolling other players as male gamers.

Should we accept it?

Well there is really nothing we can do to stop people from doing it, but there has to be a line drawn to determine a right time to perform this terrible act. You cannot just go around tea-bagging people for no reason, and this is what causes issues online.

Gamers should try and be more professional when playing online with other people and not tea-bag for the sake of it, rather save it for times where a good press of the crouch button is necessary. Also never provoke people online for the sake of it, I know trolls will be trolls, but it is all fun in the end.

So where does tea-bagging go from here? Well, no one knows for sure. More and more games are being released which feature the ability to tea-bag players.

DOOM just released and it is a tea-bag frenzy in the multiplayer. As long as there is a respawn timer, the tea will keep on brewing I say.

What are your thoughts on the tea-bag? Let us know in the comments and forum.