Have you heard of e-sports? That’s a silly question, of course you have. E-Sports are quickly becoming one of the largest gaming institutions around the world with millions of spectators and prize money that would make the toes curl of any gaming critic. But how did we get here?

Video gaming is no longer considered something for the passionate few, rather it has integrated into the day to day lives of many young people. The internet has elevated video gaming to a whole new level due to online multiplayer gaming and E-Sports are considered to be a signature mark of this development.

Basically, e-sports are competitive, professional video game matches where players have the key motivations of earning fame and fortune in multiplayer tournaments against other players (Taylor, 2012). Today, there are famous e-sports leagues and championships around the world, with an overwhelming fan base which includes millions of people. Essentially, it’s these dedicated followers who are the key catalysts behind the current popularity of e-sports as they have contributed to annually growing prize pools for e-sports tournaments. As the money has grown so has the flamboyance and at this stage, e-sports appear set to rival other traditional sports.

This has been encouraged by global business and corporate giants finding great opportunity for promotional exposure at these events and they have started to sponsor e-sports tournaments extensively. Among these tournaments, some of the most popular are: The International Dota 2 Championship, the League of Legends World Championship, Intel Extreme Masters and the Global Starcraft II League (Esportsearnings.com, 2015).

Though the basic concept of e-sports originated with the inception of the internet way back in the 70s, the modern practice of e-sports saw its emergence throughout the 90s. The extensive advancement in the personal computer coupled with the internet boom sped up the development of e-sports further. Tournaments like the Nintendo World Championships and Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) are some of the most noteworthy e-sports tournaments during this era and included games like Counterstrike, Warcraft and Quake (Christophers and Scholz, 2013).

It wasn’t until the beginning of the new millennium that e-sports really began to fly. The number of tournaments grew exponentially, along with the number of players, fans and spectators. In fact, these games had become so popular in countries like South Korea that they have created separate authorities (Korea e-Sports Association – KeSPA) to control, promote and monitor e-sports tournaments and leagues within the country (Jin, 2010). Countries like the United Kingdom, USA and Australia have also observed massive surges of popularity for e-sports. On the surface this has resulted in an increased number of leagues such as Major League Gaming and the Evolution Championship Series in the USA and the Australian Cyber League and Australian E-sports League in Australia. But beyond this, e-sports looks to be making an even deeper foothold… In the USA, e-sports are rapidly becoming a more professional venture with some US colleges now offering scholarships for successful e-sports professionals (WINGFIELD, 2014). And the UK is building their first ever e-sports arena, thus reflecting their quickly expanding enthusiasm for professional gaming (Wired UK, 2015).  Not to mention more extravagant prize pools for the competitions themselves such as The Dota 2 International 2018 – $25.53 million, DAC 2015- $3.06 million and the Call of Duty Championship 2016 – $2 million (Esportsearnings.com). So, with developing infrastructure and huge prize pools, is it any surprise that e-sports are attracting more and more people to the industry?

A few years ago, playing video games for a living was a laughable concept and the notion it could make you rich was unfathomable. Today the landscape has changed and although professional gaming is still a distant dream for most, it is now a dream akin to becoming a professional football player as opposed to something completely devoid from reality.

What do you think? Will e-sports continue to grow or do you think this bubble will burst? Let us know in the comments.

Disclaimer: This article was written for Project EduGaming. It’s republished here as the project website is not accessible these days.

 

 

References:

Christophers, J. and Scholz, T. (2013). eSports Yearbook 2011/12. Norderstedt: Books on Demand.

Esportsearnings.com, (2015). Largest Overall Prize Pools in eSports – Competitive Tournament Rankings :: e-Sports Earnings. [online] Available at: http://www.esportsearnings.com/tournaments [Accessed 21 Aug. 2015].

Esportsearnings.com, (2015). Top 50 Games Awarding Prize Money – Competitive Game Rankings :: e-Sports Earnings. [online] Available at: http://www.esportsearnings.com/games [Accessed 21 Aug. 2015].

Jin, D. (2010). Korea’s online gaming empire. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Taylor, T. (2012). Raising the stakes. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

WINGFIELD, N. (2014). E-Sports at College, With Stars and Scholarships. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/technology/esports-colleges-breeding-grounds-professional-gaming.html?_r=0 [Accessed 21 Aug. 2015].

Wired UK, (2015). UK’s first eSports arena planned for 2015 (Wired UK). [online] Available at: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-12/1/uk-first-esports-arena [Accessed 21 Aug. 2015].