Esports is defined in the Webster dictionary as a multiplayer video game played competitively for spectators, typically by professional gamers. Esports are the future of competition and has the potential to be just as popular as physical sports. Esports is already growing in popularity and financial opportunities for viewers, players, and sponsors. Through a mix of exciting gameplay and user generated content the sphere of Esports has grown and increased its influence beyond what people thought it ever could. This has led me to believe that Esports can one day be a viable replacement for physical sports. I believe that to adapt all of the jobs related to sports including Journalism, announcing, management, sponsorship, and promotion should include Esports because it is the future. It could be possible that Esports will become the pinnacle of competition.
Peter Guber, co-owner of the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Dodgers, has said that” [Esports] has all the tools to really go the distance and become something powerful.” Guber explains that because of the accessibility of the games and because the people who watch also play the game it makes the audience more than just an audience; he describes them as “passengers”. This aspect of Esports causes the entertainment value of it to skyrocket. Guber, who owns one of the more popular and successful Esports teams in the world, has said that the audience is just as “effervescent” as normal sports fans if not more so. I believe the reason for this is because of the medium. These events are not pay per view and do not require cable subscriptions to watch. They become extremely accessible to watch with computers and even mobile phones. What makes things even more interesting is that through streaming platforms like Twitch, Mixer, and YouTube the audience can directly participate and communicate with announcers and even some of the participants, for free. This added element of using a medium to gain an advantage, in a competitive entertainment field, is a futuristic quality and can show that esports has a place in the future.
Esports also has a future financially because it has been succeeding in making money. Last year the global Esport market was estimated at 892 million dollars and by the year 2019 that number is expected to grow well beyond 1 billion dollars. Again this also provided opportunities for the medium. Because of the growth in Esports Amazon bought Twitch for almost a billion dollars. The amount of money going into Esports is growing to that of established sports leagues. This year Esports is expected to see over a 239 percent increase in global revenue. Furthermore, there are dozens of colleges who offer full scholarships and have complete varsity programs for those who participate in Esports. As quoted by CNN “Players are making seven figure salaries and are celebrated like rock stars.” And “Anyone who might have sneered at gamers playing in their parents’ basement with the curtains drawn is now being forced into a major rethink.” What makes this even more interesting is one does not have to play professionally to get paid in the seven figures. Because Esports is a mix of entertainment and competition one can solely focus on the entertainment part of it and forget about the competition. What that means is that through user generated content one could begin streaming a popular Esports title and if he or she has a big enough following they can begin getting paid for it. Furthermore, the producers and developers of the games are getting their pockets lined and having more secure jobs due to the fact that Esports lengthen the shelf life of many games. As explained by CNN.com “the gaming industry had to be turned upside down. The old-school business model was a simple one-off transaction between consumer and developer; for about $50 you’d purchase a new title, master it within a few months and move on to something else.” But because of Esports and the competitive aspect of it people are forced to give more time to the game which keeps it popular for longer. Developers now can be working on the same game for over 10 years while people still play it. The financial implications of Esports show that this is something that is here to stay.
Something else that makes Esports so intriguing is its history. Esports is not something that was thought up by the corporations but instead was created by the fans. Many of the fans, some of whom are major figures in the Esports community today, had to foresight to see the value in the competitive and entertainment nature of Esports. However the early days of Esports could be seen as a failure. As one prominent member of the Esports community explains “We’d travel 1200 miles to play in a tournament, it would cost us $1500 to get there, and we’d win $800. Even when we were winning, we were losing money.” But even though they were losing financially it was the passion of the community that kept this business thriving. Many people would show up LAN (Local Area Network) parties and there would be days and days of competition and betting and pot winning. Some people even compare this to Woodstock the legendary music festival. Furthermore here in NYC the Street Fighter community started what would become esports at the Chinatown fair. They began making unofficial rules that would become the staple of professional Fighting Game tournaments to this day they also started putting up money and having prize pools for those who placed top three in tournaments. This enthusiasm is what turned this failure into a success. The community’s perseverance defines what esports is today despite the many corporations involvement in the sport the beginning in history of it all will always be inherent in the culture of it.
Years later there are more official sports leagues like Major League Gaming and the Overwatch League. Overwatch is a game that has been released on almost all modern gaming platforms. It is a first person shooter but combines with elements from a MOBA which is another popular Esports genre. What makes the Overwatch league different from other esports leagues is its ability to adapt and also to model itself after long standing traditional sports leagues. The first thing that separates them and makes them more official is that the players in the league sign contracts where at least minimum salary must be given. The minimum is 50,000 dollars a year with health and retirement benefits. This is not including the user generated content that some of the players may produce and get payed for. Furthermore the league has a global presence with teams spanning across the globe: These cities includes New York, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Seoul, and London. The players must adhere to strict conduct guidelines so as not to do anything that can harm the branding of the league which is something that all other major sports leagues have as well. I think that the Overwatch league is just the beginning and that many leagues for many different genres will begin appearing in the esports atmosphere.
Another example of Esports staying power is ESPN’s new focus on covering esports. ESPN created a new logo in an initiative to heavily incorporate esports into their TV program. They have begun covering games like DOTA 2, League of Legends, Street Fighter, and Overwatch. Time Magazine reports “ESPN, which is owned by Disney, has looked for new growth areas as subscribers and ratings growth has stalled,” which shows that esports has a growing audience and Disney wants to get in on it. By being featured on ESPN Esports will get more exposure and become even more popular than it already is. However, the plan to do that has become polarizing. Some reporters feel that esports is not real sports therefore they should not be forced to report on it. While some feel that esports is competitive, does have skill tiers, and most of all provides an entertainment factor just as much as regular sports does. Espn.com editor in chief said about esports that Wow, this is really cool and we’ve got to get involved, and also people who were just mad gamers and preaching the quality of the competition and that this was an audience we wanted to get to.”
Overall I think that esports will become a more accepted form of competition. The money is there, the backers are there, and most importantly there is an audience for it. I believe that in the future there will be multiple sports leagues and that it will become more privatized. As it becomes more privatized I think it will become a little less accessible and more premiere but it will endure nonetheless.
Sources
https://www.cnn.com/2016/05/29/sport/esports-revolution-revenue-audience-growth/index.html
