The development of “esports”

Introduction to esports Also known as competitive gaming/ professional gaming. Electronic sports (esports) has grown tremendously over the years to the point that some individuals are able to make profitable careers out of it. It has been around since pretty much the dawn of home computing, one of the first tournaments was held in 1980 by Atari. In south Korea a lot of the big events are televised, however a lot of the events are mainly streamed online elsewhere in the world. One of the most recent tournaments in Sweden recorded 1.7 million unique viewers on a streaming website called twitch.tv.

Where it all began…Arcade games The very first tournament was held by Atari on the game space invaders in 1980 attracting more then 10,000 participants. Nintendo then hosted their own ‘world championship’ in 1990 which toured the united states, the finals were held at the universal studios of Hollywood. Silver cartridges were made especially for this event and given to the finalists. Games such as super Mario bros and Tetris were played.

Games master, a televised gaming show Game master was a television show held in the united kingdom from 1992-1998 and was one of the first television shows that was dedicated towards computer and video games. They would have people (mainly celebrities) playing different video games against each other.

The first online ‘sports’ games.. ‘Netrek’ was a game first played in 1988 and is a internet game for up to 16 players. It is a team based RTS where players control ships and have to capture all of the opposing teams planets. Wired called it the very first ‘online sports game’

The first online ‘sports’ games.. Doom, released in 1993 by id software has to be one of the most influential games in contributing to the creation of online competitive gaming, particularly for the FPS category. This game also introduced the concept of online death matches. Players started to use chat rooms and IRC (Internet relay chat) which are also heavily used today in order to find people to play and would then connect to each other, modem to modem. Id software then released Doom 2 and Quake which evolved the scene even further

The rise of tournaments and lan events Without the internet, esports may never have been invented or have such a big scene as it does today. The very early place to connect to was on a service called DWANGO (Dial up Wide Area Network Gaming Operations) Players would connect via dial up to the lobby and could talk to each other as well as play games through this service.

The rise of tournaments and lan events DWANGO, with partners such as id software and Microsoft then decided to host their own offline event which would be held in the Microsoft HQ in Redmond, Washington. However players would have to qualify through matches on DWANGO and if they did they were promised a all expenses paid trip to the HQ, even flying two players all the way from Europe where they would play the finals. This tournament was called “Judgement day death match 95” and consisted of games such as Doom, Heretic and the Ultimate Doom. It was also one of the first tournaments that had a worthy prize for winning, a supposedly gaming machine worth $10,000

The rise of tournaments and lan events Since the Judgement day tournament formal events have grown massively. At a offline quake tournament called “Red annihilation”, John Carmack (Quake co-creator), promised his own red Ferrari 328 GTS to the winner and went through with it.

Global tournaments/online events The next level for the esports scene was for it to become more global as well as online, so that people could watch it via streams. A entrepreneur called ‘Angel Munoz’ helped take it to this level by founding the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL). Ever since then every aspect of competitive gaming has grown such as the cash prize amount, attendances to the tournament and venue size. The CPL was just the beginning of many leagues that were later made. Events were now being streamed online as well as commentated on such as today sports.

Some facts and figures CPL In 2005 this became a world tour format (a bit like the tennis ATP world tour), with the league visiting different countries. The 2005 world tour total prize purse consisted of $1,000,000. The winner of the finals in 2005 took home the grand prize of $150,000

The earning of Esports

South Korea South Korea is known as the “Mecca of Esports”. Competitive gaming to them is more of a culture then anything else. Around 1999 they televised a tournament on a game called ‘Starcraft’ one of the most popular and influential RTS games in the competitive scene and have done ever since. Winners of these prestigious tournaments are seen as celebrities and are often on The Esports scene is also supported by the South Korean government. South Korea is known as the place to go for Esports to train and many players from other countries now live there purely for that.

Today's Esports scene The scene of Esports has grown massively, players are now being sponsored by different companies and being sent all over the word to take part in tournaments. In some cases the companies have gaming houses in which sponsored players will train together. Prize pools consistently reach five sum figures, with a lot of finals going up to six sum. There are consistent tournaments held annually, some even being held monthly/weekly which are always streamed online. At the most recent tournament called Dreamhack in Sweden, around 8 games were featured with five figure cash prizes, the most being $37,000 to a single contender. Players were flown in from all around the world, such as from South Korea and America. Last Years Dreamhack Winter event had 1.7 million unique viewers on a streaming website.

Is there a future for Esports? Or will it just Diminish? After researching and looking at the growth since the 1980’s, in my opinion there is a lot of potential for Esports, however certain actions would have to be taken: Currently only South Korea televise events, the rest of the world rely on internet streams to watch the tournaments. For it to become more popular, it needs to be televised. More money needs to be invested in the scene to attract more players. Events need to be advertised more.

Competitive gaming could be seen in the olympics.. “You’re probably already laughing at the notion of professional gaming as an Olympic Sport, but if you watched any of the 17 days of international competition, there’s quite a list of “sports” that make you wonder, “How exactly did that make it into the Games?” There are already machinations in play, including an online petition with over 1,500 signatures from 24 countries, which are pushing for eSports to become an Olympic event” “But eSports could become an Olympic Sport as early as the 2020 Summer Games.” “Almost anyone can participate, no matter their race, age, or gender. In fact, even people with a variety of disabilities can compete on an even playing field.” Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/08/15/league-of-legends-and-starcraft-ii-could-become-olympic-sports-as-early-as-2020-summer-games/