Esports
Recently esport
has been growing and becoming more and more popular among many professional and
occasional gamers. This type of gaming activity
has become so famous that in 2015 the term ‘’esports’’ was officially added to the dictionary as ‘’competitive
tournaments of video games, especially among professional gamers’’.
The
beginning of esports reaches almost two decades back, when the first
multi-player PC games were
created and published:
- Doom – Id Software 1993
- Warcraft – Orcs&Humans – Blizzard 1994
- Command and Conquer – Westwood Studios 1995
- Quake – Id Software 1996
- Age of Empires – Ensemble Studios 1997
At first,
video games competitions were popular among
the local communities of players or groups of friends. The first official
league was founded in 1997 in Dallas by Angel Munoz and it was called CPL
(Cyberathlete Professional League). The reason for it to become so famous and
well known was its attractiveness
among various sponsors ; prizes
can reach a few million dollars.
Nowadays
there are many different tournaments and competitions which allow
professional players to develop. One of the most famous leagues is IEM (Intel Extreme Masters) which is a part of an enormous and
worldwide eSports company specializing in organizing tournaments and
international competitions. IEM was founded in 2007 and became a league which
includes many small gaming tournaments
organized in Europe, North America and Asia.
- Counterstrike 1.6 and Warcraft III,
- from the third season it was also World of Warcraft,
- from season four it was also Quake Live and DotA,
- from the fifth season StarCraft II as well as the League of Legends
- in the latest seasons they organized Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, StarCraft II, League of Legends and also Heroes of the Storm.
Nowadays
such an event is a
great opportunity to meet and enjoy these activities in a group full of totally
different people who represent various cultures, but have one thing in common –
they are interested in esport.
First of
all, esport event is attractive for many brands and sponsors, because they can
show their products or distribute samples during expo time.
Second of
all, the fans of esport look forward to visit this kind of event in order to
follow their idols and also meet other fans, so they can expand their network
and make new friends. The most important factor for them to take part in esport
championship is to watch all of the battles live and share all kinds of
emotions with thousands of spectators.
To sum up,
esport has become a very interesting but also profitable field of interest for
many people involved. Since each year more and more people follow the games and
championships as virtual followers and live spectators, this field becomes more
commercialized than ever before. This is why the prizes for winning the championship
in Katowice, reached over 2,5 million PLN, and may reach more in the future.
If you are
interested in detailed information about the history of this league, please
read the original article: http://www.spidersweb.pl/2016/02/historia-iem.html.
Do you play multiple player games?
Have you ever heard of such tournaments and
competitions?
Have you ever been to such an event or watched it? If so, what do you like
the most about it?
Do you think eSport is the future or an
alternative for regular sports?
Sources:
Comments
2. Yes, I was participating in some LANs not that long ago. It's really great.
3. As a watcher I'd probably be bored, since Twitch stream is much more "flexible" and doesn't really miss anything nowadays, but as a player - awesome feeling :).
4. Yes, video games will only grow in popularity, not decrease. More and more people are playing them, and it's no longer a rare thing to notice even entire families on tournaments and events.
Regarding watching the tournaments, as you said, some people watch football or basketball games instead of playing themselves and other people watch esport torunaments. I guess this is just the way it is, because people have different preferences. :-)
My question would be, don't you regret a bit that you dropped it? :-)
Yes, I have heard about this kind of event and I think that it's dump and completely waste of time.
I have never been or ever watch this kind of event because of reasons I've already mentioned.
I hope eSport won't be our future. Let's be honest - it isn't a sport at all. Sport is about movement and healthy life. ESport have nothing common with regular sport for me.
Nevertheless, sometimes it amazes me how much involved people are in this kind of entertainment (I mean not only playing, but also watching).
While I don't play video games and they are not my cup of tea, I can imagine it's really exciting to taste the atmosphere of some big tournament like IEM, feel the spirit of competition and share it with thousands of other fans.
Besides that it seems to be an excellent opportunity to explore some new gadgets and technologies often presented by beautiful hostesses as well as to admire impressive cosplays. Some people are really crazy about them, I truly admire those, who are creative and talented enough to make a costume all by themselves.
Regarding the future of esports, I hope it's only an alternative to traditional sports, so both of them can and will coexist.
Of course I've heard about various events like this one.
I have never been to such an event or even watch it. It's better to play on your own than watch others playing.
I don't think it might be a future alternative for regular sports. Maybe it will be more and more popular, but it won't replace regular sports.
To be honest, video games market will only such events. But I hope that people won't exchange regular sport for esport. In my opinion esport is a hobby not a alternative for regular sports.
I also think we should stick to the regular sports so that Esport will not be the only kind of ''sport'' in 20 years.
I was playing many multiple player games when I was younger, for example: World of Warcraft, Quake 3, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, Warhammer Online. Now, I don't have enough time to play many games so I play only Mortal Kombat X on PS4.
2) Have you ever heard of such tournaments and competitions?
Yes, I have. Such tournaments and competitions are very popular nowadays.
3) Have you ever been to such an event or watched it? If so, what do you like the most about it?
I participated in many Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat X tournaments. For example I was fighting in Vienna and Prague. I took the third place in Mortal Kombat X championship in Poland. The best things were meeting new people and visiting new countries.
4) Do you think eSport is the future or an alternative for regular sports?
It always makes me laugh if somebody compares video games to regular sports. Video games and real sports have nothing in common. For me, video games should stay at hobby level.
I think I spend too much time using computer, that's why I don't like playing. It's exhausting for me.
On the other hand, I think eSports could be a future. It may be interesting if it will go in the right way. Let's have a look on a pokemon. It's was very big boom and was very interesting for young and old people. Even girls (who general play much less)! It was a good way to make people to go out.
I think it would be very useful for society if games would use GPS, augumented reality or make people to move. Despite the fact that it's not always possible, it could evolve in this way.
I have heard before of these tournaments but to be honest I don’t find them amusing and I don’t consider them “sports” per se.
Real sport leads to healthy lifestyle and being more active, esports don’t require any movement or muscle work so I consider them as entertainment.
I don't think e-games are a good way to spend so much of your time. This sport is incredibly time consuming.
I've heard about those competitions because some of my friends are actually playing those games and watching those competitions.
I don't think e-sport could ever be an alternative to real sports.
I don't play any games now; I never was an avid player. I suppose it would be more fun to participate in the competition than to watch it idly.
I have heard about tournaments like IEM but I have never attended at one. Sometimes I watch them, but recently I don't have time for this. Mostly I'm watching lcs in LoL, for me LoL is most enjoyable game to watch, because it's much more complex game than CS or Starcraft and I don't like Dota :D.
I think that eSport have a great future in front, with rising interest and number of people watching it, but it will never be a substitution for normal sports. I can't even think about world without football or Olympic Games.
Few months ago I heard about Virtus Pro playing in finals in some tournament in Las Vegas. I've heard before about this team, but I've never watched professionals playing CS. I really loved this final, watching pros, their tactics etc . felt like watching some good football match. Therefore I would really like someday to watch such tournament live.
Answering to question about playing games,I have been playing in Warcraft III for 3 years, not as professional, but amateur. Sometimes I watched movies with Grubby's matches on youtube. It's one of the most famous professional gamer in esport world
Yes of course I think about them even heard of those people who are not very fond of cyber sports as prize amounts have become very serious , for example in comparison with what it was 10 years ago.
Unfortunately no one was not a major , I hope to fix it this year , but smaller was a couple of times it was quite not bad , we and my friends met the other team and some time practicing together, I think a visit to these events is not a waste of time.
I think not , I hope these 2 kinds of sport will develop in parallel, e.g. as is done in China , they have long been exposed cyber sport at the same level as conventional sports , even the open educational institutions , training camps and train people for this profession.
2) Yes I've heard about those kind of Tournaments - I was almost at every World Cyber Games organized in Warsaw (Expo or Blue City).
3) Watching is fun for a while to see tricks few players are using to gain advantage in the game which you can use later. As for me competing is way much fun but you have to have a lot of free time to practice enough.
4) Future - no. I do not think it will get so many fans as normal sports - except really hardcore players. Football, tennis, kickboxing will always keep our body in shape and do something good for you and your health - sitting for 10 hours in front of computers won't and that's the truth.
Esport is not a "competition" to other sports, I don't think you can even compare them. I don't understand people who say that playing computer games can't be a sport while other type activities like chess, fishing, and poker are already recognized as sports.
I don't understand fame of eSports, their salary, but I don't judge - some people like to play, some other like to watch and in this case this is just like regular sport. This is not healthy (sitting for so long on chair, screen), but none if the proffesional sport is.
I don't think we can compare eSport with activities like weightlifting, triathlon, swimming (well, for example all Olympic sports), but if we are talking about chess, poker and other games, well, why not? Someday probably original chess will be replaced by digital version of it, the same with poker. In that case we can talk about an alternative. But feature...? I think eSport should be treat like normal sport and we shouldn't replace normal sports with eSports.
I've heard about it but I'm not into any sport at all, I'm not watching any sports - sometimes WRC or Boxing but mostly live.
Nowadays there are so many people that prefers staying at home and playing games... I think esport will become really big project.