Electronic sports, better known as Esports, are slowly revolutionizing the international video gaming scene. What was once a neighborhood of children piling into a friends basement, sitting on bean bags, eating junk food and competing with each other has turned into teams, sponsorships, tournaments and even recruiting by colleges.
Esports spans multiple genres, but the focus is on multiplayer titles like Call of Duty, League of Legends, and Overwatch. The most important competitions in the world involve real-time strategy games, fighting games, FPS, MOBAs, and driving simulators.
What is Esports?
In recent years, Esports has managed to break out of its niche environment and attract the attention of investors, enthusiasts, and gamers alike. The ‘esports’ term is used to refer to high-level video game competitions that are attended by professionals in the industry, better known as pro gamers.
Pro players main duty is to practice as if it were their job. They follow a well-defined schedule, and stay in shape both physically and mentally. As a rule, the professional players who belong to a team live in a gaming house, i.e. a house that is dedicated to the team and is equipped with all the necessary tools for their training.
So there is no shortage of gaming computers that are equipped with the most powerful components, a fast internet connection, and rooms that are specially designed for gaming. In general, professional players play around 8 hours a day, but their training can take up to 12 hours a day in preparation for major tournaments.
When did Esports Gaming begin?
Electronic sports emerged in 1980 when Atari Development Studio organized a popular Space Invader tournament in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fort Worth, Chicago, and New York. The event drew over ten thousand people and officially ushered in the era of electronic sports games.
There were several sponsored competitions in the years that followed, some of which were also broadcast on US television networks. In 1997 the Cyberathlete Professional League was founded.
The Tournaments
This is by no means the entire selection of competitions. This is only a few of the more popular ones.
League of Legends: The competition, which is divided by continent (Europe and North America), is organized in two phases, spring and summer. The top ten teams from each region compete to win the tournament and secure a place in the LOL World Cup.
Overwatch League: Often abbreviated to OWL, is the official championship of Overwatch that was launched in 2021. The tournament is managed directly by Blizzard and features the twelve best teams in the world, with the teams consisting of six players plus reserves.
Clash Royale Crown Championship: It is the official tournament of the game of the same name which is organized and directed by the developer Supercell. In the final stages of the competition, the sixteen best players in the world compete, with prize money of one million dollars.
ELEAGUE Major: The most important tournament for CSGO. The best players compete against each other in an intense mouse and keyboard competition to try to take home the title.
Development and future of Esports
Esports is a growing phenomenon and will likely continue to grow in popularity in the years to come. The data speaks for itself: The interest in electronic sports is increasing steadily and more and more young people are entering every day.
In the future you can expect more and more professional eSports leagues, maybe with minor leagues of their own, and major TV coverage from the likes of ESPN.
We predict that one day we will witness eSports become an Olympic event.
