WHAT IS ESPORTS, AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

Esports basically stands for electronic sports. It is a form of competitive gaming using video games played particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. It can be viewed or heard live online and is available to stream on different platforms including social media and internet interface devices.

It works in such a way that competitions are organized by several local or international organizations involved in the video gaming industry. Each player uses his or her own gaming system, often a headset is used for communication between gamers. It requires teamwork, communication, critical and strategic thinking, creativity, sportsmanship, and leadership. The most known tournaments in the world of competitive gaming are The International(Dota2), The League of Legends World Championship and LCS (League System), The battlenet world championship series(Hearthstone). Most of the famous events provide live broadcasts and big prize pools to the winner teams ranging from $10.000 to $20.000.000.

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF ESPORTS

Today’s gaming industry is very different from how it was 10 years ago. Esports marks its origins back to 1972 when the first-ever video game competition took place at Stanford University. Five students competed in an “Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics”, and the winner received a year’s subscription for rolling stone. Yes, unlike today, there was no prize money. Even though this was not an official sports event but people were so much fascinated and it wasn’t until 1980 whereby the first video game competition was held. This championship had a great attendance of 10,000 participants and received extensive media attention since ‘space invaders’ (the game of the tournament) was a popular game at that point of time.

As 1980s came around so many companies like Twin Galaxies started promoting video games and published high scores and records on publications such as the Guinness Book of World Records. Then in 1990s, the rise of internet and world wide web boosted gaming industry. It connected gamers through the web so that now online competitive gaming was made possible. Internet connectivity also gave rise to the growth in popularity of PC games and companies such as Nintendo and Blockbuster began sponsoring championships. Now, coming to year 2017, the statistical data of this year shows that the total eSports prize money awarded was up to $110.6 million from a total of 3765 tournaments. Clearly, eSports industry has shown fine growth and there’s still a long way to go.

Is eSport an actual sport?

When you hear the word sports, what comes to your mind? It could be football, basketball or cricket. For some, it might be chess or archery, both of which are recognised as sports by the largest sports organization. According to the traditional definition of sports, playing a sport requires a lot of time, energy, memorization, repetition, and learning- skillsets that are completely relevant to eSports. Just like normal sports, eSports also teaches teamwork and problem solving and goal-setting skills. So, clearly, it should be a sport. But due to the ‘physical movement’ factor which is not much required in eSports, people don’t consider it as a real sport but the hype is still huge. Well, as mentioned earlier the answer to this question is still debatable.

But according to me, eSports is the new future and it has now been started to be accepted as a sport. Nowadays eSports has even been introduced in some colleges within the sort of an intercollegiate athletic sport.

Brief description of eSports games and tournaments:

There are numerous games in the industry. But only a few games are suitable for the tournament format. Below mentioned are some of the most popular tournament games:

1. CS:GO is one of the most famous games. It stands for counter strike: global offensive which belongs to the genre of the online tactical shooters.
2. League of legends belongs to the free playable genre of Multiplayer Online Battle Arena(MOBA). It is a real time strategy game. LoL tournaments are usually played on 5v5 maps. The objective of the game is to conquer the opponent’s main structure.
3. Dota 2 is the foremost popular eSports game worldwide , also together of the games with the foremost money up for stake within the championship games.

TOURNAMENT ORGANIZERS

1. ESL gaming (formally known as electronic sports league) is an eSports organization who stage competitions across the world and has quickly become the world’s largest eSports company. ESL launched back in 2000 and is also the oldest sports organization still in operation today.
   
   
2. DreamHack is a Swedish production company specializing in eSports tournaments and other gaming conventions. It is a part of digital entertainment company modern times group since 2015 and is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as being the world’s largest LAN party and computer festival.

Just like these, there are a lot of creative games and tournament organizers which are playing a major role in growth of the eSports world.

ESPORTS IN INDIA

India was previously absent from the eSports scene but at the moment it has sparked broad attention and focus in our country. The particular reason for the circumstance being eSports sectors has grown exponentially over the last decade and now boasts enormous audience and participation figures.

The Esports industry in India was growing at a fine rate but then COVID-19 acted as a catalyser and boosted user engagement with video games and eSports. Since gaming is typically an at-home activity, and a steady stream of headlines shows that it is flourishing over time.

India has hosted some of the significant tournaments in eSports, such as PUBG mobile series 2019 (although soon it got banned by the Indian government and a new variation called BGMI or battleground mobile is released) and the Electronic Sports League, participated by Dota2 players from different parts of the world. Moreover, online gaming is one of the few reasons why the Indian economy is still surviving despite the global pandemic. So, the Indian government is also showing its support. But the bright future of gamers in India is still doubtful because there is nothing much for them as the country’s ecosystem and infrastructure are not ready to support such type of livelihood. More tournaments can make online gaming a good career option.

Esports has come a long way and will continue to grow to serve the booming gaming market be it India or any other country.

.    .    .