No football, no Eurovision, no wine. The last thing that faced Europe and France were some pixels. Yes, you read that right. The Spaniards and the French no longer clash to see which part of the Pyrenees we will keep. Now in dispute are colored dots.
In France they have Mona Lisa and Liberty leading the people. In Europe, The Meninas and the Guernica. But the work of art that confronted the communities in line of the two countries these days was a creative artistic mural created by users of Reddit.
Now this war (peaceful and virtual, of course) is over, and there has been a clear winner, hasn’t there?
What is RedditPlace?
the April Fool It is the Anglo-Saxon April Fool’s Day and is celebrated every April 1st. It’s the day to crack jokes, tell white lies without malice and laugh fondly at those who believe them. But, for some time now, this day has also been associated with the Place project on Reddit.
In 2017, the popular site launched this social experience, which it wanted to bring back in 2022. From a blank virtual canvas of one million pixels (1000 x 1000), registered users can paint their creations. But yes, changing only one pixel every 5 to 20 minutes.
This is where the collaborative aspect of this project is born, since communities can organize themselves to draw up a design together. And it doesn’t matter what it is: flags, video game characters, instruments, memes, monuments…
In addition, nothing prevents another user from taking over one of the pixels that another has painted and, therefore, that the creation of a team ends up being superimposed on that of its rival. The longer it lasts without being covered by another, the more visible the design will be and the more advantage it will have over the opponent.
This year, this spectacular and original cybernetic experience lasted until April 4th. Four days of frenetic virtual battle between different communities in lineamong them, the French and the Spaniards.
The struggle for the flag, led by banners
The streamers They don’t always make headlines for making questionable decisions. Most of the time, they take their mission to entertain the audience that follows them seriously and these days, they have given us a hilarious showdown to conquer the virtual battlefield.
The French community has organized to create a huge tricolor flag in the lower left corner of the canvas. At the same time, the logo of Karmine Corp, an eSports team founded by two well-known streamers French, Kameto and Kotei.
Ibai Llanos didn’t hesitate for a moment to ask his millions of followers for help in attacking this design with the overlay of the logo of his own eSports team, Finetwork KOI, which the streamer The Spaniard was launched alongside footballer Gerard Pique in December 2021.
That’s when a fun pixel battle broke out between the two communities. For his part, Rubius also wanted to tap into his large army of fans to stand up to the French. He failed in his first attempt to cover the Eiffel Tower with his face, but others followed streamers
Hasbulla Magomedov, for those who don’t know, is a young influence Russian who has become very famous on social networks and who, despite his physical appearance, is already 18 years old. Now, and without eating or drinking it, it has become a symbol of the entertaining virtual fight between Europe and France.
After the French resumed their positions and reconquered the pixels to form the flag and the Eiffel Tower, the community of streamers The Spaniards asked for help from Latin America, which did not hesitate to collaborate in other initiatives (although unsuccessful) such as the composition of a gigantic letter “Ñ” with the flags of all the countries .
As the hours go by, the French flag is again attacked and taken back, and again attacked. another French politician is committed to encouraging Internet users in his country to fight for cyberspace. And, now that the battle is over, the merits of both teams have been recognized to show that it was all just a game.
Everything that’s happened these days has been really funny @Kammeto.
Your community is huge, lots of respect and ggs to all. ❤
– Ibai (@IbaiLlanos)
April 5, 2022
They were even placed for the next Reddit Place (in 2027?).
Good game France, you fought well.
Thanks for every moment. No strong emotions.
See you in the next 5 years❤️🇫🇷
– elrubius (@Rubiu5)
April 5, 2022
Beyond France and Europe
Although the heated battle between the two neighboring countries has received a lot of attention, the Reddit canvas has also been used for the creation of authentic works of art. For example, the numerous references to video games with the design of characters such as Kirby, Zelda or Minecraft stand out.
Many Reddit users also wanted to show their support and solidarity for Ukraine. They were organized to draw representative elements of the country’s history and culture, as well as the national flag, an image of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and phrases against Vladimir Putin.
Here you can see the final result: