Video Games have become one of the most indulgent pieces of software in recent years. What began with Tetris and 8-bit games has evolved into titles that involve entire universes and mechanics that no one could have imagined before.
The game experience is becoming increasingly realistic. You’re given the opportunity to enter your own universe and govern it according to your own set of rules. Gaming has evolved significantly since then and it is evolving into something that is somewhat of a shared experience, in addition to having unique experiences. Multiplayer gaming has changed the way we think about gaming. On a virtual platform, you can hang out in multiplayer games with many options such as chat options and voice chat systems.
To put it another way, there is a reality of gaming that people and users like using. It is largely undermined, although it is now growing at an exponential rate. Competitive gaming is one of the trendiest subjects this year, with a huge increase.
What Exactly Are Esports?
ESports is one of the most talked-about subjects in the world right now. Did you know that eSports has a long history dating back to the early 1990s? With the development of the internet came online gaming, and it was only a matter of time before we saw organized tournaments.
Quake was the trendiest arena shooter game immediately after the cyber athlete professional league, commonly known as the CPL, was founded in 1997, with two thousand players participating in a quake event. They were the first to host a tournament.
While it grew quickly, it was nothing like the industry that exists today. There are international tournaments taking place all around the world.
There are college scholarships available, a high school league exists, and certain tournaments attract more viewers than the Super Bowl and the Final Four. As can be seen, eSports has become a worldwide phenomenon. So, what exactly are eSports and why are they so popular? Electronic sports are referred to as eSports. It’s a form of a competitive game that’s been organized.
It may happen at any age, including high school, college, and even professional levels. It entails players competing against one another in multiplayer games, which may take place in stadiums with tens of thousands of spectators.
Esports: Are They Real Sports?
Because gaming is regarded as such a worthless activity, the eSports industry has an uphill battle to be recognized as a legitimate sport.
We feel that eSports are a completely acceptable and natural kind of sport, as we’re sure you’ve already figured out. However, it’s reasonable that people would be less reluctant to embrace anything based on the new kid on the block.
Why should a relatively new game like Overwatch be treated with the same respect as a long-established conventional sport like rugby or football, for example, when video game contests have existed since the early 1970s?
Many people appear to be aware that the first ESports tournament took place at Stanford University in October 1972. Students participated in a game called spacewalk to see who could do the best. The winner received a year’s membership to Rolling Stone magazine, a prize that we’re sure we can all agree is fantastic.
However, the first gaming tournament in the shape of the Space Invaders Championships did not occur until 1980. Given that space invaders were the Wii Sports of their day, this event drew a remarkable 10,000 people and garnered a lot of media coverage.
Esports in the present day:
Gaming contests have only grown in size over the last almost four decades. The internet’s power aided in the process.
These tournaments have grown a lot more fascinating to watch as gaming has carved out a larger audience and developed grander, slicker, much more ambitious games than the likes of space war or space invaders.
eSports competitions have definitely spent the most of their history on the outside of the public, thanks to titles like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Smash Brothers, with their popularity just recently increasing.
Even if you don’t consider yourself a gamer, it’s simple to understand how eSports might have developed out of nothing.
The reality is that, like any other sport, the eSports sector has evolved over time. These events didn’t just appear out of nowhere one day and start selling out arenas, nor did they start attracting millions of spectators online or sponsorship from companies like Mountain Dew or Redbull.
Even ESPN now has an eSports news section on their website, just a year after the company’s president, John Skipper, questioned the credibility of eSports in the sphere of actual sports. In 2014, he stated that it is not a sport, but rather a competition, similar to how chess and checkers are both competitions.
ESPN’s Esports Coverage
The ESPN eSports department is a vibrant center that covers all aspects of the industry. The incredibly popular twitch streamer, an eSports star ninja, was just featured on the front cover of ESPN magazine, marking a significant step forward for the sport.
As if the endorsement of one of the world’s most recognized and well-known sports networks wasn’t enough to convince you to give it a go, eSports drew a total of 280 million dollars in advertising in 2016.
It is expected that by 2021, this amount would have increased to and above $1 billion. At the same time, Statista predicts that we will have watched over 6 billion hours of eSports coverage worldwide by the end of the year.
Thus, regardless of how you split it, this is an industry that has to be treated seriously in 2018.
