Stewart 1

Joshua Stewart

Ms. Plemmons

English IV

March 9, 2017

ESports, You Might Want To Sit Down For This

Sports can be defined as: an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and

often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing,

hunting, fishing, etc.("Sport") but this might change. Since ancient times, sports have been

known as a sort of physical activity, often calling for teamwork and strategy, but a new form of

sports has made its comeuppance. Known as ESports, it is the art of competitive electronic

gaming, and its popularity has made it a huge topic. But what is ESports defined as exactly,

where it came from, and whether or not it's a sport, is still under debate.

ESports hasnt been around too long; in fact, the first tournament was in 1979

(illustration 1). But it has made its impact in the time its been here. Just this year, global ESports

revenue has grown by 102 million since 2016-2017. Although organized online and offline

competitions have long been a part of videogame culture, participation and spectatorship of such

events have seen a large surge in popularity from the late 2000s and early 2010s. While

competitions around 2000 were largely between amateurs, the proliferation of professional

competitions and growing viewership now supports a significant number of professional players

and teams, and many video game developers now build features into their games designed to

facilitate such competition.

When it comes to financial opportunity, ESports continues to be promising: whether its played
 Stewart 2

in live tournaments for a big payoff, intended to start a streaming career, or facilitate the games

or the players who play them, ESports is an a industry thats growing and shows no signs of

stopping.

ESports have become increasingly popular over the last ten to fifteen years. Many

companies seeking to take advantage of the growing industry have emerged that sponsor ESports

tournaments such as Major League Gaming. This company is one of the biggest ESports

sponsors. It was founded twelve years ago and its logo would be right at home alongside the

MLBs and NBAs (Johnson). In 2015, Major League Gaming began broadcasting the ESports

Report, which is an online program that closely resembles ESPNs SportsCenter. The show

features the latest pro-gaming news (Johnson).

Whiles broadcasting networks enjoy this surge of interest, it also brings to bear the issue

of its swift footed pace which makes it hard to keep track of whats going on. MLG co-founder

Mike Sepso describes this as That challenge of, how do you get more people interested in

understanding whats going on on the screen, its not something unique to ESports. All sports

have the same challenge.. In that sense, traditional sports have a leg up on ESports with its

longstanding existence (Johnson). Basketball, for example, has been around for 123 years, while

most ESports games haven't Been around more than a decade (Johnson). Not only that, but while

traditional sports have remained largely unchanged, with the same specifications and rules, every

iteration of ESports is a literal game changer(Johnson).

On the subject of tournaments, even MLGs Championship Anaheim has not reached a

scale that it could be compared to something like the World Cup. Not at the moment, at least

(Johnson). The devotees of of the gaming world remain largely undecided who owns ESports.
 Stewart 3

Some would say its the highly recognized MLG in America, others say it's the Electronic Sports

League (ESL), it's prevalent European equivalent that's taking center stage (Johnson). Some

would even say it's Twitch, a hugely popular streaming platform that allows for anyone to

broadcast gameplay easily, and is a pivotal place for games to show what theyre made of

(Johnson).

But most likely, it's that no one really dominates the market of it, as many huge

tournaments are hosted by those who own the games. Valve, a large game producer and

marketer, host a tournament known as The International, solely for their own game, Dota 2 (one

of the most popular ESports to date); This year's was interesting in that the $10 million prize

pool was entirely crowdfunded by fans (Johnson). Not only that but another producer, Riot

Games, the finals for the League of Legends championships managed to sell out 15000 seat in a

single hour (Johnson).

When it comes to understanding ESports, MLG agrees it's key to understand the in's and

outs of teams. It's sales pitch, therefore, focuses mainly on catering that (Johnson). Sepso stated

this on the subject: As an advertising sales organization, we spend a lot of time talking about

personalities, he said. Are you a Yankees fan or a Red Sox fan? Are you an Optic fan or an EG

[Evil Geniuses] fan? Those are the storylines that connect for people. Such as it relates to

traditional sports in that gamer fans relate quite closely with their favorite team just as normal

sports fans relate to theirs(Johnson).

But dedicated teams aren't all that makes up ESports. Its often time a complicated web

of freelancers on their own or joining teams, or dedicated groups who always play together.

Qualifying players who compete are often times free agents, and even more often, players
 Stewart 4

participate who didn't qualify initially. Those who were ineligible for a main tournament can try

out in open brackets where any players can pay a small amount in a ladder match for a chance to

compete against the pros(Johnson).

Conclusion?

This is what every traditional sports league is desperate to become: young, global, digital and

increasingly diverse. So can it ever be a sport? Does it matter? ESports are here. They're real.

They're growing. One only needs to look at the numbers prove it.

Works Cited

"Dota 2 Prize Pools & Top Players - ESports Profile :: E-Sports Earnings." Esportsearnings.

E-Sports Earnings, 05 Mar. 2014. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.

Hamari, Juho, and Max Sjblom. "What Is ESports and Why Do People Watch It?" What Is

ESports and Why Do People Watch It? by Juho Hamari, Max Sjblom :: SSRN. RELX Group, 6

Nov. 2015. Web. 17 Feb. 2017.

"Sport." [Link]. [Link], n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2017."Sport." [Link].

[Link], n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2017.

Casselman, [Link] Ben. "Resistance Is Futile: ESports Is Massive ... and

Growing." ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, 22 May 2015. Web. 08 Mar. 2017.

Johnson, Eric. "What Are ESports? A Pro Videogaming Guide for the Rest of Us." Recode.

Recode, 22 June 2014. Web. 08 Mar. 2017.