As this journey comes to an end, and after we have discussed what eSports is, the history of eSports, the rise of eSports, and one of the most important countries to make eSports a global culture phenomenon (South Korea), it is natural for the last discussion to talk about the future of eSports

As we have talked about before, after almost twenty years of hard work, eSports has finally become part of the mainstream culture with massive viewership worldwide. But for eSports to be more acceptable to common audiences, it must move away from this online phenomenon to a more traditional sports role.

The first goal of eSports in the future will be to make sure that the major eSports events have the same amount of viewership as an NBA or NFL playoff. The second goal will be to make sure that there is a healthy professional environment for pro players to make a living out of eSports. Even though eSports events in today’s world already have substantial viewership worldwide, it is not even close to the viewership that traditional sports leagues have. One way to help increase the viewership is by aligning eSports with a traditional sports model.

Blizzard, a video game company that created the first modern competitive video game—StarCraft—that started the rise of eSports, is the same company that holds the key to the future of competitive gaming. Overwatch, a game that Blizzard released in 2016, holds the future of eSports. An outsider watching Overwatch eSports may not even think he or she is watching people play a video game. Everything in an Overwatch league is run like a traditional sports league, from the league’s organizational structure to the design of the league’s logo; from how teams play with each other to the league’s normal season and playoff season; from away games to home games. All those things are similar to how the NBA or NFL run their leagues.

It makes sense that what the Overwatch Leagues are trying to do (merging eSports with traditional sports) can help Overwatch leagues expand their viewership to people who are not gamers. Those efforts have been changing the eSports landscape. With the success of Overwatch, many other eSports—such as League of Legends and DOTA 2—have been trying to re-create their own league that matches traditional sports leagues. Also, by choosing to merge with more traditional sports leagues, an Overwatch league is the first eSports league that gives the players a basic salary, unlike other eSports events in which the players’ salaries are all based on winning tournaments.

One other positive thing that comes out of merging eSports with traditional sports leagues is that now people have someone to root for. Just like an NBA team, an Overwatch league’s team is based in a city. For example, Dallas Fuel is the Overwatch league team based in Dallas. The creation of a home city allows the fans to feel more connected with the players on the team, and it makes fans feel more connected to eSports itself.

In previous eSports events, all pro players needed to do was assemble a team, create a team name and logo, and attend tournaments. That caused fans to feel disconnected from the team, and that disconnection could lead fans to eventually feel disconnected from eSports as well. By creating the concept of a home team, the Overwatch league is likely to be successful because fans can root for the team they feel connected to.

Besides creating the concept of a home team, an Overwatch league also combines the concept of a home team with a localized eSports stadium. Besides having a home team to root for, now people can just go to the eSports stadium to watch their favorite teams play, just as football fans go to a football stadium to watch traditional sports events.

Not long ago, Dallas finished one of the biggest eSports stadiums in the United States; this past weekend, it held the first home game for an Overwatch league. Over 3,000 seats were sold out weeks before the game. Overall, Overwatch leagues were created to test the future of eSports, and as of right now, we all can agree that the Overwatch leagues are the future of eSports.

In summary, the future of eSports is its merger with traditional sports, becoming more like traditional sports and not just increasing the viewership outside of gamers but also increasing the longevity of eSports events. One way to make sure eSports does not die out is to make watching eSports events a part of people’s pastime entertainment. I hope that one day eSports is no longer considered a global cultural phenomenon and has just become part of our daily lives.

Sources:

https://blog.prototypr.io/how-overwatch-leagues-ui-is-an-esports-game-changer-9db218c0d466

https://www.heroesneverdie.com/2018/12/18/18146063/overwatch-league-season-2-2019

https://www.thelines.com/overwatch-league-blizzard-impact-esports-industry/

https://www.dexerto.com/overwatch/new-overwatch-league-twitch-feature-could-change-esports-forever-320613

http://fortune.com/2018/09/05/overwatch-league/

https://www.invenglobal.com/articles/6998/dallas-fuel-to-host-first-home-games-in-overwatch-league-history

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/sports/Largest-E-Sports-Stadium-in-US-Opening-in-Arlington-476853393.html

https://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/the-arlington-esports-stadium-is-open-11377309

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How Overwatch Shaped the Esports Landscape

When looking at global eSports culture, it is easy to note the role South Korea has played in helping eSports become a worldwide phenomenon. As we discuss in a previous blog post, South Korea’s Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Information and Communications and Tourism were the first to announced their sponsorship of World Cyber Games Challenge, also known as the eSports Olympics. While video gaming was still gaining popularity in other counties, eSports had already cemented itself in the mainstream culture of South Korea. There, eSports superstars are not just admired among video games enthusiasts. They are lauded by common people too. And because South Korea was one of the first countries to see the potential of competitive gaming, South Koreans also have access to the world’s best developed competitive formats for both leagues and the pro players.

In South Korea, competitive video gaming is a viable career for pro players for two reasons. First, because South Korea has a booming eSports industry, the top pro players can earn a good salary. Second, South Korea’s population, among other East Asia countries like China and Japan, makes up the majority of global eSports viewership. According to a NewZoo report, Asia–Pacific will account for 57 percent of total eSports enthusiasts in 2019. More viewership means a bigger market for eSports, and this has led to Asia–Pacific countries like South Korea becoming the Home of eSports.

Another reason South Korea has become a leader in the world of eSports is that, for the past 18 years, eSports events have been broadcast on TV. From StarCraft League to Overwatch League, South Korea media companies like OnGameNet and MBCGame are dedicated to broadcasting eSports to an ever-growing audience. This has pushed eSports into the eyes of mainstream audiences and made eSports a staple of South Korean culture. To the South Korean people, eSports is more than just an industry. According to eSportsBet, because the sport itself is so popular and widely viewed in South Korea, eSports players are celebrities in much the same way someone in the NBA is consider a celebrity. Overall, the popularity of eSports events in South Korea has made Seoul, the capital of South Korea, also the capital of global eSports.

In addition to Seoul, South Korea is also home to a well-established eSports association known as the Korean e-Sports Association (KeSPA). This organization’s goal is “increasing professionalization of [the] sport” and creating “the corresponding framework conditions that encouraged this development” (Larch 2019). South Korea has even tried to make eSports a part of the Olympic games by allowing eSports players to be members of the South Korean Olympic Committee. Overall, thanks to the popularity and widespread viewership of eSports events in South Korea, eSports is not just a cultural phenomenon within the country but is quickly becoming a global cultural phenomenon.

Sources:

Esport is a Viable Career Path in South Korea and Beyond

https://www.ispo.com/en/markets/seoul-how-city-addicted-esports

eSports in South Korea: Why is it so popular?

When did the rise of eSports begin? The first eSports tournament was held in 1972, but the rise of eSports did not happen until the late ’90s. The first boom of the eSports world began when Blizzard developed a game call StarCraft. At first, the StarCraft community was not noted to be competitive, but after its first expansion, StarCraft: Brood War was released in 1999, and it became a massive international hit. Following that, media companies in South Korea, such as OnMedia and MBC Plus, launched their own StarCraft eSports tournaments—the OnGameNet Starleague and the MBCGame StarCraft League. Those tournaments had sponsorships from companies like Samsung and SK Telecom, which are giants in the telecommunications industry. Reports show that tens of thousands of viewers watched the finals of the tournament. Thanks to StarCraft, eSports has a massive viewership. It is no surprise that this game also created one of the earliest eSports superstars, Lim “BoxeR” Yo-Hwan.

As StarCraft was booming, South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Information and Communications and Tourism, and Samsung announced their sponsorship of an event called the World Cyber Games (WCG) Challenge in 2000, also known as the eSports Olympics. The WCG operates like the Olympic Games, which means it also has an opening ceremony and gold, silver, and bronze medals for winners from various countries.

The second boom of eSports was a result of the game developed by Riot called League of Legends (LoL), in 2009. At first, no one knew how much of phenomenon LoL was going to be, but soon it seemed like everyone started to play. In 2012, Riot announced LoL now had 11 million monthly users worldwide. Four years after that, Riot announced this number had risen to over 100 million. With these massive user bases, LoL eSports have become one of the most successful eSport categories in history. LoL eSports also have record-breaking prizes, with over 5 million U.S. dollars awarded to the winner of the 2016 world championship. With LoL becoming a global phenomenon, many countries started their own tournaments. For example, many Western counties have their own LoL championship series like North America League of Legends Championship Series and League of Legends European Championship, also China has their own championship series call Tencent League of Legends Pro League. Because of how successful LoL pro-tournaments have become, in 2013, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced the U.S.’ recognition of LoL pro-players as professional athletes.

The third and most present boom of eSports was when Overwatch created a professional league (OWL). The organizational structure of this league is similar to traditional sports leagues such as the NBA or NFL. With this effort to merge eSports with traditional sports, OWL has successfully created a professional environment in which the salaries of pro-players no longer depend solely on their ability to win tournaments or not; every professional player in the leagues now has a base salary with which they can support their family, just like traditional pro-players. Also, OWL makes the effort to work with traditional media companies like ESPN and ABC and has successfully brought eSports events to a more traditional sports audience.

All these booms of eSports have successfully brought competitive gaming to the attention of the International Olympic Committee. At the 2017 Olympic Summit, the committee agreed that eSports could be considered an Olympic sport if the video game does not violate any “Olympic values.”

Sources:

How Blizzard’s StarCraft Became South Korea’s National Pastime

https://www.thescoreesports.com/lol/news/14525-infographic-the-history-of-league-of-legends

International Olympic Committee to Talk Esports with Industry Stakeholders and Players

As eSports has become a global cultural phenomenon, it is interesting to go back and see how it has evolved from the past. When was the birth of eSports? Two factors need to be considered to determine the answer to that question. If the meaning of eSports is about more than one person playing a video game competitively, then the birth of eSports is 1958 with the game “Tennis for Two.” In this game, two people used joysticks to play the game until one person won. But if the meaning of eSports is about having a tournament in which more than two players play video games competitively with a reward for the winner, then the birth of eSports was not until October 1972. In that year the students at Stamford University formed the first eSports tournament in history. During the tournament, students competed on the video game “SpaceWar,” and the winner of this tournament won a year’s subscription to Rolling Stone magazine.

The birth of eSports can date all the way back to 1972, but eSports did not fully emerge until the late 1990s to early 2000s because before then technology did not support mass video game players or even spectators. Back in the 1990s, the only way to watch eSports was to physically go to the tournament events. Two things needed to support the future of competitive gaming are powerful PCs and fast internet networks. Those two things became more affordable to mass households in the late 1990s to early 2000s, which created a mass player base and audience base for eSports and began the global cultural phenomenon.

eSports have grown since more people can afford to buy strong PCs and have access to fast internet. The first World Cyber Games (WCG) was held in Seoul, South Korea, and the first Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) was held in Poitiers, France, in the early 2000s. The first eSports event with a prize of over one million US dollars was the Cyberathlete Professional League tournament, which took place in ten cities around the world with the finale in New York City.

A few years after the 2000s, the Overwatch League formed the first eSports league and created an organizational structure similar to traditional sports leagues such as the NBA or NFL. With this effort to merge eSports with traditional sports, the total viewership of eSports rose to another level. Blizzard reported the total viewers for the Overwatch League season one finale was close to 11 million people worldwide (Twitch, ESPN, MLG and Chinese partners ZhanQi TV, NetEase CC and Panda TV, South Korea’s MBC network and ABC)

Sources:

https://www.heroesneverdie.com/2018/8/8/17665076/overwatch-league-finals-10-8-million-viewers

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https://www.ispo.com/en/markets/history-origin-esports

Like many my age, I grew up playing video games, so it is natural for me to watch other people play video games competitively. But for those who have never heard the word eSports, it refers to the world of competitive, organized video gaming. Just like traditional sports, eSports is also focused on testing the ability of its players. Unlike most traditional sports, however, eSports also focuses on showcasing mental ability. And for its viewers, eSports also provides the same excitement as traditional sports. As an eSports enthusiast, I cried when I saw my team win the 2018 League of Legends World Championship. The emotion, excitement, and connection to the team are the reasons why eSports is becoming a global cultural phenomenon.

Let us begin with what makes eSports an international phenomenon. Who watches eSports? According to a report from Newzoo, as of 2018 there were 380 million people worldwide watching eSports. Reports also show that the 2017 League of Legends World Championship drew more than 80 million viewers. This audience size is one of the major reasons why eSports is becoming an international phenomenon.

Another reason is support from major mainstream media companies. Unlike the old days when the only way to watch eSports events was through streaming services or on location, with the support of major media companies, now we can choose to watch eSports on mainstream television programs like ESPN and Disney XD. In 2017, ESPN and Disney XD announced they secured a multiyear deal to broadcast the Overwatch League. This announcement further shows that with the growth of eSports viewership, mainstream media companies are starting to accept eSports into popular culture by choosing to broadcast events.

Last, we must look at the financial side of eSports. According to the Newzoo report, by 2019, eSports revenue is expected to surpass $1 billion, with brands investing $694 million in eSports ventures. This amount of money further shows that eSports is no longer a subculture; it has moved into popular culture and become an industry.

As this semester goes on, we will take a deeper look into the history and origin of eSports, the reasons why eSports has become an international phenomenon, and the different types of eSports.

Sources:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/27/us/esports-what-is-video-game-professional-league-madden-trnd/index.html

Newzoo 2016, 2017 and 2018 Global eSports market report

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Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton