Esports

Sports A new generation has brought in a new era of sports and although scoffed at by some, e-sports definitely has a future in today’s world. E-sports is the competitive play of video games which was once reserved for children’s entertainment, now has turned into multimillion dollar a year industry. Sports is defined as “Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively”(cite dictionary.com). This definition may be changing in the near future. The skill and fascination with certain games has allowed a hobby to be turned into a profession and a form of entertainment even if you are not playing it. E-sports is the broadcast and showing of the best players in the world playing certain video games which companies sponsor and fund to advertise and utilize their equipment. E-sports although mainly popular in Asian countries such as South Korea and China, it has caught on in other countries such as Sweden and U.S.A and is sweeping across the world. A humble beginning for video games has turned into a profitable and entertaining industry. Mainstream video games started in 1972 when Atari swept the nation(cite video game). The video game system was very basic and the simple games were easy to master. These video games were not holding the attention of players for very long and also did not take any special skills to master. The aimed demographic for these “toys” were mostly a younger generation who chose to play it for recreation for the most part. There was no multiplayer or online play so you basically had to compete against yourself. Once multiplayer abilities were incorporated into video games, people soon wanted to be better than their friends and if possible, better then the masses. At the start there was only pong, now video games have every type of game imaginable from first person shooter zombie games to games that teach you how to cook. The appeal to videogames is no longer limited to a young generation and even the reasoning why the stereotypes on videogames are changing. The entertainment system since then has slowly evolved from a single button controller to games that use twelve buttons or utilize a full keyboard and mouse. The extra buttons along with the overall difficulty of the games have allowed people with exceptional hand eye coordination and excellent quick decision making skills to really set them apart from the rest. The “toys” once reserved for children and the technologically savvy are now played by the masses and many can respect the hard work and skill it takes to be talented at a game. Video games slow transition into a sport is also because of peoples yearning to watch skilled people play a game. Just like in sports where football fans will sit down weekly on Sunday to admire the skill of players, gamers sit in front of the TV or monitor to admire their friends or cyber athletes talent. Some people now choose to watch video games for a few reasons, the main two being to learn skills or tips that the better players might know, or to just merely be entertained. Since the players are getting paid to play, they obviously have a few tricks up their sleeves which the casual gamer could benefit from their knowledge. This is one reason to watch but generally the people watch e-sports games to be entertained. They may be a casual gamer, a potential cyber athlete, or just someone who’s played the game at some point in their life and when they see the skill and knowledge on showcase in the matches. I believe that most of the watchers have played the game at some point in your life but if you even have seen it played before, you will respect and admire the skill it takes to be paid to play a video game. But since it is an actual industry, there are many people benefitting from it, not just the gamers. The companies that sponsor these vents, leagues, players, and teams also benefit from the industry. Like other sports where companies sponsor events to get advertising by athletes wearing badges or stickers with company names, e-sports is the same. A very popular e-sport game called starcraft actually has the player wear jackets that resemble NASCAR in that they are covered with sponsor names. These sponsors pay for player’s salaries, equipment, and also for the venue. All they get in return is advertising so they are banking that e-sports will be viewed by enough people and fans will either buy into the advertising, or think they want the same equipment as the pros. It is just like the young basketball star wanting to buy the next Michael Jordan shoes but instead it’s the young gamer who goes out and buys the two hundred dollar gaming mouse that he sees his favorite player using. Well known e-sports sponsors are Intel, Snickers, Samsung, HBO, Panasonic, AMD, IBM, Pringles, and many more. These companies invest a lot of money into the industry only hoping to get reimbursed by advertising and product sales due to their commitment to the cult-like following of e-sports. E-sports started off with a cult following but with the help of television broadcasting it was brought to the masses. A major e-sports league was shown early Saturday morning in the U.S.A for awhile but horrible timeslots and a network that does not attract many viewers made it short lived. However, in Korea their success has been greater and longer lasting with two networks dedicated to showing matches twenty four hours a day. The one station actually was the ninth rated among all cable networks and boasted a 3.1 viewership rating(insert citation for korea times). One of the networks actually has many hours a day dedicated to the game and has recently even streamed the coverage with an English announcer over the web with viewers hitting over a million. Starcraft is the most popular e-sport so in turn, it also has the biggest bankroll with the top players getting large six figure salaries some close to $300,000(cite weemee). The top players of this game are icons in Korea with the game being so popular that the Korean Air Force actually adopted a team due to citizens mandatory 2 year army service. The e-sports stars at first were forced to serve in the army but after growing popularity in the game, even the Air Force allowed the players to continue to participate after going through boot camp. The culture over there loves e-sports with the finals of certain tournaments filling up stadiums with attendances reaching 100,000 plus. (time magazine citation)The hobby has truly become an a profession and form of entertainment in South Korea. Millions of people watch the Korean starcraft and over a million enjoy the streaming English version as well. This bodes well for e-sports as one can hope that with the introduction of new games and more features that are favorable to e-sports, e-sports will continue to grow. MLG which is the known e-sports league in the USA attracts millions of players/visitors to their website for tips and videos of matches. The Olympics for e-sports known as WCG(World Cyber Games) grows each year in countries, participants, and prize money and last year it attracted millions of participants with 800 finalist from 78 countries all striving for a piece of the $470,000 prize. This is a great indicator that e-sports grows and each year has shown improvement from the last. This has gone a long way since the first e-sports tournament was the hosted by the co-creator of the game and the winner won a Ferrari. I believe that with time and future monetary investments we will be seeing a lot more of e-sports considering it has already infiltrated our television and or youth. I doubt that in my life time I will see e-sports being as popular as any physical sport but I believe that its cult-like following will continue to grow. There are more tournaments each year with more and more prizes offered so the likelihood of being a professional video game player, as well as more and more complex games brings a breeding ground for a new, younger generation of professional gamers. I hope that in my lifetime it will have some respect and not just seen as a nerd activity but would actually be acceptable by many as a true possibility for a job and a real sport.