eSports - Not gaining comparitive traction / Too corporate?

The only tournaments I have ever watched are Starcraft 2 tournaments. I used to watch them regularly but haven't in about a year now. It's by far the most interesting, well paced and arguably the most skillful eSport I have seen.
 
In the east e-sports are very popular, with televised tournaments and big name sponsors (Samsung, Jin Airlines are 2 off the top of my head). That area of the world has had a huge amount of money thrown at e-sports, something that is now starting to happen in the west with companies like Valve organising big production value tournaments with a final prize pool of $18 million in 2015! The craziest thing? According to ESPN 16$ mil of that was generated by the community.
There is a generational shift at play here. Just like we've seen sports like boxing and F1 decline from their peaks in the 70s and 90s respectively, so we will see e-sports rise. Again, i don't see it ever becoming as mainstream as those 2 sports were (in the West at least), but it will be there and making money for people competing in it and sponsoring it.

As for the original comments from OP. I do think that it is already becoming too corporate and the sport will suffer from that, but that is what's necessary for it to appeal to more people. The Tokyo olympics will be the first to feature sports climbing, something that i am very worried will mean the corporitisation of what was a wonderful sport to watch and take part in that managed to fly under the radar of the majority of big brands.
 
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I agree esports has become too corporate :(

This is sort of a cross post as I think this thread has some examples of how people in esports view it (eg: careers in esports, hardware is crucial ... ? :rolleyes:)
I know hardware is possibly dependant on the game but spending £100+ on a mouse/keyboard or £300+ on a gpu isn't going to win you games without dedication or experience. (much like buying a signature guitar isn't going to make you play like the artist)
5UB said:
Here is the full video explaining who ESL are, and the future of esports!

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I like this video

Pretty torn at different aspects of esports as it stands.
On one hand people actually see it as a valid career path before even playing games competitively & get drawn in, become elitist, failing while spending money on HW to make themselves better.
On the other hand there are real communities who support the players & teams.

If esports can change the focus from money & being a career back to playing with friends & having fun (while also being competitive) then it could have a future.
I would think most esports teams start out as friends having fun, not a group of people looking to make a career & get sponsorship.

At the moment it just seems like a money grab for businesses & clans who often make players sign contracts which are not beneficial to the players.
The whole epeen elitist section of pc gaming is not helping esports image.
 
I would be surprised if many were in esports for the money. Outside of the top 0.1% the money is poor. And for the casters/commentators, hosts etc the money is not particularly good either. They're in it for love of the game.
 
It's down to the unbareable kids for me. Screaming at each other, getting overly excited and looking incredibly awkward.

Just doesn't do it for me.

It's just too focused in on it's own 'crowd'. Take FPV quad racing, recently a race was hosted in Dubai with a 1mil prize for first place... DOTA 2 did the same recently. But that's after over a decade of DOTA being a thing... FPV quads has been around 2, maybe 3 years? And already it's getting a 'sports like' following.

It's easy to watch, looks cool and the rules are basic. Mind you, they are bringing in this whole F1 pit strategy... Which could ruin it in my opinion.
 
billysielu said:
Most gaming is casual.
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So are most real sports. The vast majority who play them do so for fun. Even a lot of organized sports leagues are basically very casualized and not meant for ultra serious competition, just an excuse to get together with some like-minded folks and have some fun.

Anyways, personally, I find the whole eSports 'scene' a little off-putting. Seems strongly targeted towards kids and young adults with that sort of cringy 'bro' style in terms of personalities and looks and all.

I do like watching people play games, though. I've spent quite a bit of time watching competitive iRacing races, for instance.

Though I'm not into fighting games or MOBA/RTS's much, so that already rules out a huge chunk of eSports competitions right there. As was mentioned early on, these competitions are nearly impossible to follow unless you understand what's going on. I suppose you could argue the same for many real sports too, but it's especially true for most competitive video games. I think that means there's an inherently limited audience for any given competition.
 
agnes said:
Take FPV quad racing, recently a race was hosted in Dubai with a 1mil prize for first place... DOTA 2 did the same recently. But that's after over a decade of DOTA being a thing... FPV quads has been around 2, maybe 3 years? And already it's getting a 'sports like' following.
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That was 5 years ago... when Dota 2 hadn't even been released yet. Sure Dota 1 existed but it wasn't a full mod and was hardly widespread. I was a gamer and I'd never even heard of it until Valve bought the rights.

I know nothing about quad racing but I'm sure I could watch it and understand it. It's nothing to do with it's own crowd, Dota 2 is just immensely complicated and thus will never have wide appeal.
 
The problem with E-Sports is that games have many ways that they can be played, even something shallow like Counter Strike offers quite a few play styles.

In general sport there is a strict set of rules the athletes adhere to that the audience understands and enjoy. This IMO effects MOBAs the most as the professionals stick to the meta like glue which get's very boring in a 'sport' or 'game' with so much flexibility.

That's something I can't get into anyway. The LCS is a prime example, whenever a professional flies outside of the meta with their pick or playstyle, the crowd goes wild etc. but that rarely happens. General E-Sports are just a bunch of talented players going through the motions. Gaming can be repetitive enough without watching the same thing 1,000 times in a row during championships, although this is a developers fault for very poor balancing (MOBA) or restrictive gameplay (CS).

MOBA have the potential where no game you have is the same as the others, and that's quite true when you yourself play in the casual/lower ranks, but every professional game IS the damn same and it's boring.
 
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But then the meta changes. Or someone finds a new counter to something. I'm not sure how you could call that a negative as it's constantly changing and fresh for the viewer. There is no dota equivalent of one team sticking 11 men behind the ball and trying to bore the fans to death.

That is the greatest thing about esports, their flexibility. A few years back dota went through a period where a lot of teams were playing 4 protect 1 farm for 50 mins before fighting. It was dull to watch. So they changed it! They nerfed that style of gameplay to make it more appealing for the viewer, you don't get this in most sports.
 
Shamikebab said:
But then the meta changes. Or someone finds a new counter to something. I'm not sure how you could call that a negative as it's constantly changing and fresh for the viewer. There is no dota equivalent of one team sticking 11 men behind the ball and trying to bore the fans to death.

That is the greatest thing about esports, their flexibility. A few years back dota went through a period where a lot of teams were playing 4 protect 1 farm for 50 mins before fighting. It was dull to watch. So they changed it! They nerfed that style of gameplay to make it more appealing for the viewer, you don't get this in most sports.
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It can change yes, and occasionally a new champion is created that is overpowered enough to make it into the professional meta, but (I don't know about DOTA, I've wanted to watch it but every tournament I've seen is in Russian on Twitch :confused: ) in League it is literally the same 10 champions every game and even banning doesn't freshen things up as both teams just ban the other team's off-meta picks they are known for and are hard to deal with outside of conventional means and then the players are stuck to a meta pick.

Plus E-sports are young, every sport when first conceived is going to go through changes at the beginning. For all you know the way DOTA is played now at the professional level will be the same in 10 years, and all MOBA are now is farm for 20 minutes, rotate objectives better and then have one teamfight and win/lose.
 
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I believe 105 of the 110 heroes in DOTA were picked at the international and while this meta is one of the most interesting I've seen in DOTA its always been a lot more interesting picks and strategy wise than LoL from a spectator point of view imo. Although I do prefer to play LoL atm I just can't watch LCS its so boring.

Also Dota has a lot more comeback mechanics than LoL, there is a lot more early game rotations and fighting. There is never a game where its 0-0 20 minutes in and then one fight decides the game like in LoL.
 
Murray said:
I believe 105 of the 110 heroes in DOTA were picked at the international and while this meta is one of the most interesting I've seen in DOTA its always been a lot more interesting picks and strategy wise than LoL from a spectator point of view imo. Although I do prefer to play LoL atm I just can't watch LCS its so boring.

Also Dota has a lot more comeback mechanics than LoL, there is a lot more early game rotations and fighting. There is never a game where its 0-0 20 minutes in and then one fight decides the game like in LoL.
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You know of a good channel for DOTA on Twitch? Don't think I've ever caught an interesting english stream. :(
 
Yeah that sounds boring as hell, why would you watch that over dota :p

I mean just go to dota 2 on twitch. Valve events are on their own stream other events are cast by people like JoinDota, BeyondTheSummit and Moonduck Studios
 
I don't follow any esports and don't really play any games at the moment. Certainly not competitively but I can completely see how esports despite always having the fanboys who insisted it was a proper career 10 years ago is progressing towards that being very possible for a lot of people. The fact there are multiple games with a higher viewership a lot of which are team based shows that there are plenty of places for 'career players', its already very active in some asian countries and has definitely grown a lot in Western and doesn't seem to be slowing down but it is slow going. The biggest issue being...

Can people actually consider esports players 'athletes' which depends on your definition. Plenty of people have made careers playing chess which isn't defined as a sport but has plenty of viewers and no-one denies the skill involved. I see esports as the same, the dedication and skill required to make it a career isn't something that should really be shunned as a lot of new careers are emerging in the last 10 years, YouTubers, twitch streamers being a massive example as well as general social media positions where all people do is post updates on different platforms all day.

For me personally I would rather watch 90 minutes of lets play videos than a football match because I find it ridiculously boring (not to say i'd particularly enjoy the lets play videos but I know what I would choose), I know there's skill involved but people are paid way too much money to kick a ball with their feet :p against the majority I know but it is a view easily reversed to people dismissing esports so easily. It does take skill and if someone grows up training for it and is able to do what they love whats wrong with that?

The big issue as mentioned though is perception, they need to become a lot stricter about behaviour and improve the commentary to make it more accessible. The thing that will push it into true mainstream are big sponsors which are already making there way. It is inevitable but how quick it happens depends on how quickly they can tighten the reigns.
 
Richeh said:
It does take skill and if someone grows up training for it and is able to do what they love whats wrong with that?
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I remember someone once telling me that CounterStrike takes no training, all you have to do is click on the other dude's head.:D
 
I don't like the games and genres that are part of the e-sports thing. That makes for a rather large obstacle to my entry in to becoming a rabid fan.

I've tried to watch StarCraft. It's soooo boring.
 
Will E-sports ever drop the stupid nick/handles of players?

Surely at some point, the use of real names will only help with credibility?

The use of numbers and letters in handles along with variations of upper and lower case does not do anything other than look stupid.

Maybe I am getting old.
 
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