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[eSports] are fun and I like watching them with my friends.
Romanian My Escutcheon
Two of ForksRegistered User regular
Two of ForksRegistered User regular
What are eSports?
So why should I care about eSports?
Well, it's the bleeding edge of a new generation of competitive experiences, with a growing viewer base equivalent to that of most traditional sports; last year the Finals match for the League of Legends World Championship drew in about 36 million viewers. For the sake of comparison, last year Fox reported an average viewer count of 20 million people per NFL game. And with more and more games in development actively planning for a competitive or eSports component, the potential for growth is exponentially increasing year by year.
And like any spectator sport, it's just fun to watch for a variety of reasons; the skill of the players involved, the camaraderie (or tribalism) of the teams involved. Plus, if you play the games that are active in the eSports scene, it's really interesting to see the contrast of how the game is played at a professional level, just like any other traditional sport.
Okay, so which games are active in the eSports scene right now?
There's a lot of them. Like, a lot. A lot. Odds are if you've played it, it probably has a competitive scene associated with it.
...okay, maybe not Oregon Trail. Oregon Trail might not have a huge eSports footprint.
I'll just list a couple of the big ones here, and maybe people can suggest some more worth checking out later.
Real Time Strategy: Starcraft might be considered the grandaddy of modern eSports, or at the very least the first game to prove that eSports had the potential to become the next great spectator experience for a new generation. Professional Starcraft 2 was massive in South Korea not that long ago; you've probably seen this video of the 2010 Korean Air OSL Finals already. Eventually Starcraft would lead to the advent of MOBAs, the eSport you've definitely heard of before. And they're still playing professional SC2 in Korea today.
Fighting Games: Fighting games might also be considered the grandaddy of modern eSports, if only because of their inherent competitive nature and the skill involved in so many of the genre mainstays like Street Fighter. The Evolution Championship Series has been going on since 2002, and it's become one of the best known fighting game championship tournaments in the world, if not the best known outright. And of course I'm going to post the video of Daigo countering Justin Wong. How could I not?
First Person Shooters: FPS eSports were my first experience with competitive gaming, and they might be rallying for a comeback; early on, Halo and Call of Duty dominated this slice of the competitive scene, and Major League Gaming was the premiere eSports organization because they were the only ones hosting tournaments. When League of Legends started a hard push into eSports, a major part of MLG's target audience went with them. Now, with League's popularity starting to see a bit of a backslide, and Blizzard hosting the very first Overwatch Open, Overwatch might be poised to bring FPS eSports back into the spotlight for the first time in a long time.
Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA): Yeah, we weren't getting out of this OP without talking about DotA or League of Legends for a bit. Based on a mod called Defense of the Ancients for Warcraft 3, MOBAs orient around a team of uniquely designed heroes laying siege to an enemy team's base; you blow up their stuff while trying to keep them from blowing your stuff up in turn. Over time, the success of the mod led to two standalone games, both of which would stand in eternal enmity; League of Legends and DotA 2, each of which with its own competitive scene. Of the two, League is the larger beast in the eSports scene; Riot Games made a conscious effort to develop League over time as a competitive spectator sport, and they were rewarded for it with quite possibly the largest competitive footprint in the entire history of the gaming industry. While DotA 2 hasn't seen quite as much mainstream success, their competitive scene's far from nonexistent; The International, DotA's premier invitational tournament, drew in more than 2 million viewers last year, and boasted one of the largest prize pools in eSports history, with over $20 million being distributed to the top competitors.
Okay, there are a lot of games involved in eSports. How do I know which ones to watch?
Pick a game. Any game. Search for videos on YouTube or streams on Twitch; odds are you'll find something.
If you're looking for a more concrete suggestion, League of Legends is holding its 2016 World Championships in two weeks. This year's lineup of teams is probably The Best Ever (TM), which seems like an indicator of a good time.
Or you could ask in this thread. Please ask in this thread. I just spent an hour and a half writing this. I require validation.
An hour and a half?
I really like eSports. I don't know if that's clear.
Wikipedia wrote:eSports... is a form of competition that is facilitated by electronic systems, particularly video games.
Most commonly, eSports take the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between (but not limited to) professional players.
So why should I care about eSports?
Well, it's the bleeding edge of a new generation of competitive experiences, with a growing viewer base equivalent to that of most traditional sports; last year the Finals match for the League of Legends World Championship drew in about 36 million viewers. For the sake of comparison, last year Fox reported an average viewer count of 20 million people per NFL game. And with more and more games in development actively planning for a competitive or eSports component, the potential for growth is exponentially increasing year by year.
And like any spectator sport, it's just fun to watch for a variety of reasons; the skill of the players involved, the camaraderie (or tribalism) of the teams involved. Plus, if you play the games that are active in the eSports scene, it's really interesting to see the contrast of how the game is played at a professional level, just like any other traditional sport.
Okay, so which games are active in the eSports scene right now?
There's a lot of them. Like, a lot. A lot. Odds are if you've played it, it probably has a competitive scene associated with it.
...okay, maybe not Oregon Trail. Oregon Trail might not have a huge eSports footprint.
I'll just list a couple of the big ones here, and maybe people can suggest some more worth checking out later.
Real Time Strategy: Starcraft might be considered the grandaddy of modern eSports, or at the very least the first game to prove that eSports had the potential to become the next great spectator experience for a new generation. Professional Starcraft 2 was massive in South Korea not that long ago; you've probably seen this video of the 2010 Korean Air OSL Finals already. Eventually Starcraft would lead to the advent of MOBAs, the eSport you've definitely heard of before. And they're still playing professional SC2 in Korea today.
Fighting Games: Fighting games might also be considered the grandaddy of modern eSports, if only because of their inherent competitive nature and the skill involved in so many of the genre mainstays like Street Fighter. The Evolution Championship Series has been going on since 2002, and it's become one of the best known fighting game championship tournaments in the world, if not the best known outright. And of course I'm going to post the video of Daigo countering Justin Wong. How could I not?
First Person Shooters: FPS eSports were my first experience with competitive gaming, and they might be rallying for a comeback; early on, Halo and Call of Duty dominated this slice of the competitive scene, and Major League Gaming was the premiere eSports organization because they were the only ones hosting tournaments. When League of Legends started a hard push into eSports, a major part of MLG's target audience went with them. Now, with League's popularity starting to see a bit of a backslide, and Blizzard hosting the very first Overwatch Open, Overwatch might be poised to bring FPS eSports back into the spotlight for the first time in a long time.
Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA): Yeah, we weren't getting out of this OP without talking about DotA or League of Legends for a bit. Based on a mod called Defense of the Ancients for Warcraft 3, MOBAs orient around a team of uniquely designed heroes laying siege to an enemy team's base; you blow up their stuff while trying to keep them from blowing your stuff up in turn. Over time, the success of the mod led to two standalone games, both of which would stand in eternal enmity; League of Legends and DotA 2, each of which with its own competitive scene. Of the two, League is the larger beast in the eSports scene; Riot Games made a conscious effort to develop League over time as a competitive spectator sport, and they were rewarded for it with quite possibly the largest competitive footprint in the entire history of the gaming industry. While DotA 2 hasn't seen quite as much mainstream success, their competitive scene's far from nonexistent; The International, DotA's premier invitational tournament, drew in more than 2 million viewers last year, and boasted one of the largest prize pools in eSports history, with over $20 million being distributed to the top competitors.
Okay, there are a lot of games involved in eSports. How do I know which ones to watch?
Pick a game. Any game. Search for videos on YouTube or streams on Twitch; odds are you'll find something.
If you're looking for a more concrete suggestion, League of Legends is holding its 2016 World Championships in two weeks. This year's lineup of teams is probably The Best Ever (TM), which seems like an indicator of a good time.
Or you could ask in this thread. Please ask in this thread. I just spent an hour and a half writing this. I require validation.
An hour and a half?
I really like eSports. I don't know if that's clear.
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