1. E-Sports Points covered by my lecture: What are e-sports?
Brief summary of the history of competitive gaming.
E-Sports today.
An analysis of the growth of e-sports, and the debate of their validity
as an entertainment medium; mainly, do they generate enough revenue from spectators and events?
What type of games are most commonly played on a competitive stage and why.

2. The Competitive play of video games
General Definition:
The Competitive play of video games
however, the term is usually used to describe games that are by nature set up with clear and decisive rules that determine a winner and loser, and have a professional 'scene'
Today, games -MUST- be playable over a network connection
Often highly 'skill' based
These games might seem somewhat straight-forward or simple at first glance, but almost always have incredible depth to their game-play.
Few random factors to determine outcome

3. 'Skill' based game-play
The use of skill in this case isn't exactly how we would use the word with other sports/competitions
Most games that are successful in attracting a large spectator crowd are complex in how they are played by the user, but 'simple' to watch.
Game knowledge is just as, if not more, important!
Example: League of Legends, Starcraft 2, Street Fighter
Games reward/punish high-risk / high-reward plays
adds entertainment value for spectators

4. Competitive games played by amateurs
Amateur audiences watch pro-games to learn
Commentators/Shout-Casters often spend time explaining in detail why players do certain things.
A 'reason' to watch
Success of most communities depends on the casual player's willingness to watch!
Most games advertise through their game client.
Some games 'draft' top tier amateurs.

5. A History of Nerd Rage
Early Arcade Tournaments : Atari: 1980, Nintendo;1990, Blockbuster/GamePro; 1990s
Billy Mitchell
Netrek – 1986; cross platform open-source. Unix.
first online team competitive game
still played today
Early PC FPS era: doom,quake, later-CounterStrike **irc organization
Rts era: Age of Empires 2, Starcraft, Warcraft3
World Cyber Games – 2000, MLG – 2002
South Korea and Europe

6. Nerd Rage Today
Most games organize their player-base themselves rather than relying on third parties, such as IRC – more advertisement
Company sponsored/organized tournaments
CSL
Professional Gamer Teams and Houses
Sponsors
Popular competitive games today
Starcraft2, League of Legends, Dota2, Street Figher4, Halo4, Call of Duty, ect

7. The pro-gaming scene of today
Streaming : twitch-tv / justin-tv
tv broadcasts (not successful thus far in America D: )
Barcrafts
E-Sports 'Celebrities' : DJ wheat, day[9], totalbiscuit
~10k viewers daily

8. Recent events and growth
League of Legends world championships
8.2 million unique viewers
1.1 million viewers at peak
8k spectators in-house
2 million$ prize pool

9. MLG Dallas League of legends, Starcraft2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.
~300k viewers
Engagement : ~150 minutes **more than the super bowl**
95% completion rate on ads
170k total prize pool

10. What makes a game a good candidate for competitive play
Give players a sense of 'advancement'
Replay / Spectator modes 'lol-replay, sc2-replay'
A means for regulating game length. Can't be too short or too long.
Home-screen designed to allow information and ads to be delivered from the community managers to the player base (not product ads!)
Usually follow the rule of 'easy to play, difficult to master'
Minimal RNG factor
Perfect server-structure -lag is bad-
Periodic updates / balancing
Clear and definitive win/lose conditions
Visual/Audio ques for audience
Hiring the right commentators

11. steel series http://steelseries.com/us/gaming/esports
razer esport
twitch-tv/justin-tv streaming services
in-e-sports-history
*****
GW2-a-viable-eSport-/