No controller boot? Matrix Infinity

[Neipas02]

Hmm quick simple question.

There's a train traveling southbound that leaves the station at 7:00am and another train traveling northbound that leaves the station at 8:00am..
Its NOT a leap year.. Sooo..

Why is it when I don't have a controller plugged into the ps2 at boot time it takes forever for it to come up with the ps2 intro and then it won't load a game. But with a controller in it zips right through the sequence and boots the same game fine..

Is it doing a controller check at the beginning? And why doesn't the game boot?.. Do regular unmod'd ps2s behave this way? I never noticed.

I've got a Matrix Infinity installed with the basic bios.

Oh and by the way I know this is sort of a "It hurts when I do this!.. Well then don't do that!" Kinda question.. But I'm just curious.