Video games now an esport

The New E-sport

a column by

Harley L. Sachs

A recent episode of South Park satirized kids addicted to computer games. The little gang of squeaky animated figures were playing an addictive computer war game, sort of a third generation of Dungeons and Dragons, but with digital animated swords, spells, magic, etc. They were so addicted that they hardly slept or ate. But the kids’ avatars, their chosen action figures, were being wiped out by a mysterious super player somewhere out there in cyber space. Their opponent was so good, that he threatened to put the game makers out of business by discouraging all other players from buying their extra weapons, etc. This was meant to be a satire, but  video games, now called e-sport are a huge business that financially overshadows the music business and is almost equal to the movie industry in billions..

Computer games have become a bone fide e-sport. With tournaments played all over the world (recently in Poland) the State Department now issues sports visas for contestants to enter the country. Now teams playing on line computer games like Dota 2 (check out the free download) and League of Legends take part in tournaments for prize money in the millions. At a recent championship tournament before a crowd of 17000 people in Seattle, the  Newbees,  a Chinese team, won first place and over five million in prize money playing Dota 2.  The League of Legends finals drew 18,000 fans at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The tournaments are played by teams of five in sound proof booths while the game is shown on a huge screen everyone can watch.

Visit the Dota 2 web site for a glimpse into this strange world of e-sport. .

Imagine, a sport anyone can play for free, as 40% do, a sport requiring no physical contact, no uniforms, no special shoes or helmets, and  no sports injuries (except possibly carpal tunnel for the mouse clicks,), and played in your bedroom in your PJs or even naked up against other players from all over the entire world. You can play if you are a shut-in paraplegic. The playing field is level. All it takes is a fast computer and tremendous concentration and speed of thought.

Interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, one such e-gamer reported that one year it cost him $1000 for hotel, meals, and travel to attend a tournament where he collected only $800 in prizes, but this year he expects to take in $200,000.  His father, at first dismayed that his twenty-year old son was spending so much time playing computer games, begged him to finish college. He may yet, but first he wants to buy a condo and move out of his childhood bedroom.

Declaring video games a sport has reached colleges. A Chicago college, Robert Morris, has offered scholarships up to $50,000 for champion video gamers. E-sports have reached beyond the bedrooms of boys playing video games with their pals.

.What about the commercial aspects?  The participants are mainly males under age 30, a hard audience to reach for advertising until companies realized that the channel that streams the games, Twitch Video, is so popular with that age group that advertising placed there costs much more than on regular video channels. That’s why Amazon has bought Twitch video for millions. .

This e-sport phenomenon is a remarkable development not only in e-commerce,  but in international relations, for  when you log on you may be teamed up with anyone from around he world. And you can do it from your own room at home. Talk about revenge of the nerds!