Welcome to the World of ESports

ESports have prevailing, especially over the last decade, when Internet access has become almost a norm everywhere. ESports are referring to competitive video games, where real people form teams and clash in the game, trying their best to take over the other and win the match. Although these events used to be filled with amateur players in the past, the participation of professional players was what spurred their popularity and made eSports so popular.

The video game industry reached a new high by the 2010s, when electronic sports have become more popular and more people were joining the industry with more gaming demands. Whether it’s a card game, real-time strategy one, MOBA, battle royale, first-person shooter or fighting game, an eSport can be very popular and gain a dedicated fan base. This is pretty obvious if you also look at some of the most popular games, such as CS: GO, League of Legends, StarCraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, Dota 2 and many others.

The History of eSports

It all began for eSports back in the 70s, with the game Spacewar. Basically, Stanford University held a game competition, where students would be fighting each other to win a year’s subscription for Rolling Stone. Out of all competitors, the winning one was Bruce Baumgart, who won the five-man-free-for-all tournament. As for the team competition, it was won by Tovar and Robert E. Maas.

But when it comes to a large scale, professional eSport competition, the first one to take place was held in 1980 by Atari, being known as the Space Invaders Championship. That is where the rise of eSports began, as the competition managed to attract over 10,000 participants.

To support the growth of eSports, a high score record-keeping organization has been founded in 1980 by Walter Day, and it’s been known as Twin Galaxies. This eSport organization was amazing as it would always publicize records through Guinness Book of World Records.

The eSports industry saw another growth when tournaments and popular players were featured on television and in newspapers and magazines. One of the television shows that promoted eSports was Starcade, an American show that had 133 episodes and ran for two years, from 1982 to 1984.

Later on, in the 90s, things were getting even better for the game industry. Popular games would come out, such as Street Fighter II. This is the game that made the competition between two players a thing for many. It was something innovative, as the best player used to be determined through high score beforehand. Now, it would be determined by who won the fight.

After that, there were a series of professional eSports tournaments being held, such as the Evolution Championship Series and Nintendo World Championships. ESports kept being featured in television shows over the years, and then, in the 1990s, the improvement of internet connectivity would give the eSports industry another boost. PC games were the ones benefiting the most from it.

Then, starting with the year 2000, more people were getting access to games and discovered the pleasure of competing against others in video games. It was especially during the 2010s that professional eSports saw a lot of growth, and more and more eSports fans would join the industry.

Problems with Pro Gamers

All professional gamers who are into electronic sports should have ethical behavior. This means that, whenever they participate in a tournament, they need to make sure to follow the rules and respect everyone around them. Toxic behavior is not accepted, and cheating is not accepted either. There are always rules set out by every eSport association, team or tournament.

Over the years, many of the professionals who play eSports in a certain league have been failing to have good, exemplary behavior. For instance, Christian “IWillDominate” Riviera has had a verbal abuse history, which led to him being banned from competing for a while. Other players, such as Greg “Idra” Fields from Evil Geniuses, was fired from the team. This happened because of his rude behavior towards fans of Team Liquid online.

Players need to behave exemplary and show respect for every other professional player. It’s usually a good thing to say “gg” (“good game) when you’re defeated, as it shows the appreciation you have for your opponents.

There have also been cases when rules have been broken. One such example is Aleksey “Solo” Berezin, who wanted to intentionally throw a game in order to collect cash from online betting. Another case was when Azubu Frost, an LoL team, cheated during a match and was fined US$30,000.

Popular eSports Games

There are a lot of eSports games, but as expected, a few stand above the others. Every type of eSport has one or two games that the genre is known for. There are first-person shooters and fighting games, which were some of the first genres to gain a lot of traction in the 90s. It was only in the 2000s when eSports also became known to have real-time strategy games.

Some of the most famous eSports played nowadays are Hearthstone, Call of Duty, CS: GO, League of Legends, StarCraft II, Dota 2, Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm.

Final Thoughts

Sports e-Sports are no longer strangers to humanity – they are actually some of the most popular forms of entertainment nowadays. It is even possible to gamble on them, being a favorite hobby for many people into gaming and not only. If you want to get into e-Sports, you should know there are numerous eSports to choose from and there are also a lot of tournaments to watch.