This is one of the articles that I produced for my site that I mentioned in the previous post. I figured that it might do some good here instead of just sitting on a dead and unpublished space of random internet memory.

"A Brief Look At E-Sports"

E-sports . . . what in the world are we to do with it. . . .or them. . . or however you classify it?

Over the past few years, e-sports have become a worldwide industry into themselves that produces a staggering amount of content through various game genres, tournaments, sponsors, professional teams and individuals, shout-casting, and much MUCH more. But what is/are e-sports? How does one define such an ambiguous concept? Well, it's really not that ambiguous, I believe. Electronic sports. That's it. Really.

The real issue comes in trying to determine what a sport is and the nature of valid competition therein. Not to sound too much like a college undergrad paper, but we're going to start by defining the concept and then go into a bit of background, which from there we'll mention just a bit about the current state of things. This shall be our brief look, though not actually that brief of a look, at e-sports.

Looking at the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of "sport" is: "An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment."

I personally find that definition acceptable, though you'll have to decide for yourself whether or not you do too. When looking at the exact wording, however, I see an emphasis on physical exertion or just physical activity at all. That emphasis is where I personally get caught up and where we're going to have to do some rethinking. If the claim that the electronic competition should be called, "sport," exists, then the logical conclusion to that line of question is asking whether or not the physicality of something like a traditional NBA player is something that can be compared to that of the mentality of an e-sports pro? Does the definition of, "sport," need to be broadened to include mental exertion? Some may say yes, obviously others would say no.

Sitting down and watching a good basketball game, football game, baseball game, or any other intense sport (though one could argue against the intensity of baseball, but that's just my opinion), I see a lot of guys constantly running, sweating, occasionally bleeding, and accomplishing their goals there in. At the same time, I'll watch the finals of a big League of Legends tournament and see people have to sit at a computer for almost 5 hours with no more than a twenty minute break, focusing on micro-economy, second-based timers, positioning that can change the tide of a team-fight if that player is mere inches in the wrong direction, item builds, and other such details. Both in themselves are incredibly difficult tasks that I would doubt each "side" could switch to the other's profession and have any kind of success in.

When I see that kind of mental struggle and profession, I have to tip my hat to the sporting aspect of gaming professionally. Put yourself in both positions. I'm willing to bet that 99%, nay 100% of people who read this would not be able to keep up with a pro basketball player. If you could, you'd probably be doing that instead of reading this. Obviously such a task would be an intensely exhausting one. Now put yourself in the place of a pro League or Dota player. You'd have to sit at a computer for 8 hours a day, playing the same map over and over, constantly working on such fine aspects about every single mouse click, day in and day out. Some might be able to do that for a day or two, but after that, the average person, even the more advanced enthusiast would start to wear thin.

With that said, I would not call e-sports a "sport" in the traditional sense if we're going with the OD definition, but instead, when looking to the energy it takes to power through day-after-day training and perfecting each motion and click, e-sports becomes a whole new breed of what, "sports," can be. By that I mean to say that e-sports are forming the groundwork for the, "mental sport." Perhaps you saw where this whole article was going, but in such an age as this we no longer need to be in top physical condition at all times to participate in professional sports when we have e-sports. One doesn't have to be even good at a traditional sport and yet they can join in on the mental sport and excel in it. One of my favorite things to do in the e-sports scene is, over time, watch up and coming pros grow in skill and rise up to gain a name for themselves, win tournaments, and get a genuine following just like a young D. Rose (look him up if you don't know him and care).

Some might make the claim that if a mental and physical definition of, "sport," does exist, then the two ideas couldn't be comparable. I would challenge that thinking and would say that indeed comparable is just how I would describe them as they can both claim to be a sport. Within that overarching title, though, I would say that the two are hard pressed to be talked about in the same shade of light. Comparable here means, "not exclusive," but does not mean, "the same."

Let me summarize what I'm saying here in some pretty basic terms. LoL, Dota 2, COD, Halo, World of Tanks, and a slew of other games = sport of mentality. Basketball, football, baseball, futbol/soccer = sport of physicality. Within that framework, Dyrus ≠ D. Rose, but both = "athlete" within their sport's requirements and strains, understood in the light of mentality and physicality respectively.

So, if you take that as it is, see the sporting aspect of e-sports as a legitimate claim, albeit a reshaping claim, to being a sport, where does that leave us all? E-sports are totally a thing; cool! But what now?! What do we do with that information? Well, as any good scholar would likely say, because you know what is, does not mean you understand what is. To gain a small insight into e-sports, let us look to the past.

Some history, then.

The history of e-sports is a rather interesting one. Anyone reading this should first take note that each region of the world has had a different history in its making of the e-sports scene. The U.S. is different than Korea, different still from Japan, and yet still different than Europe. Here, be aware that I am talking mostly about the American scene and how that formed.

I know when I personally think of e-sports, my mind goes to the big tournament scene of the current most popular games. I think of the LoL world championship, big MLG gatherings where many varied games are played, and Cons where large LAN parties are held for cash prizes and, "swag," (what a dirty word). The problem with this view of mine is that, while still valid, it holds to a modern lens by which to see the whole of e-sports. In reality, people playing games for sport has been around ostensibly since the early 1970's!

The first know institution of an e-sport (though they likely did not claim such a title then) is thought to be The First Annual Intergalactic Spacewar Olympic at Stanford University in 1972. Here, students gathered together to play the popular game, "Spacewar" for the prize of a year subscription to Rolling Stone. Within the next few years, Atari held the next notable gather of gamers. In 1981, the company held a Space Invader Tournament to which over 10,000 players competed.

With the rise of first person shooters such as Doom and Quake, the internet, and a more diverse pool of home consoles to play from, the 90's saw a greater swelling of gamers looking to come together and compete. The micro-tournament, as I am going to call it, also saw greater growth here. Unlike the large tournaments of the time such as Nintendo's Power-fest, the ability to bring in a few consoles and T.V.'s while hosting a bracketed tournament on a small level for smaller prizes boomed. As I said, the first person shooter was growing in popularity, however it was not the exclusive game played. Many home versions of classic arcade games were used, as well as many racing games, and even simple point valued scores to something like Mario could be played. It was as simple as having a game, a console, a T.V., a prize, and some buddies in your neighborhood.

Only within the past 15 or so years has the rise of the big tournament business come up. Intel Extreme, Dota 2 World Championship, MLG Anaheim, and so forth all see hundreds of thousands of people watching consistently. Prize pools have gone from the early magazine subscription of the Stanford U tourney to upwards of $10,000,000+. Much of this is thanks to the rise in computing power, internet capability to both run faster as well as connect people across the world, and the continuing acceptance of gaming as a mainstream hobby and even lifestyle. This current trend leads modern gamers to a point never before possible, acceptable, or plausible by those in the past. Here, we find the mindset and the ever growing vigor of modern e-sports.

Modern times, then.

So where does all that leave us today? The present time has seen rise to an incredible industry boom of constant access to professional gamers and tournaments. At any moment I want, I could go to a site like Twitch.tv and watch a pro stream a match of whatever game they are playing. I can learn core mechanics of the game that I might not have known before, I can better learn the specific map or section they play in, I can even learn insider information about how to get into the pro scene by both word of mouth and action. The result of earlier days of gaming for fun AND for sport have brought us the modern era of e-sports where, unlike the sport of physicality, the followers of individual games have an abundance of information from the pros about the game and even how to becoming a part of the larger scene.

This constant access is not always a positive, however. I might go to Twitch, want to watch my favorite pro stream, only to find out that they are not online, but instead I get bombarded by other amateur streamers looking to make a name for themselves without having the skill to back it up. Because of the popularity of the game or pro scene, potentially dozens, even 100+, random people can be streaming and clogging up the specific game I want to watch at any time. People can make legitimate money over live streaming their gameplay, but the idea of making money off playing games often causes such an abundance of people to flock after fast cash and fame that the scene itself becomes bloated and the true talent can be lost, never to rise above the chaff.

With all good comes the bad. When the sun sets and all is over, though, I can go online, watch an actual professional be with/play with/ talk to his/her fans like no other industry. I can observe, I can be taught, and I can be entertained all within seconds of desiring it. To me, that's one of the most incredible and legitimizing concepts of e-sports and what they stand as. I'm thoroughly interested to see where the e-sports scene will go even within the next 5 years time, as this is one of the fastest growing fields in gaming as a whole.

Hello to any and all readers!

I want to keep this short and sweet. Back in the Summer of 2014 I created a site (which shall remain nameless for now) that focused on all things e-sports. It was just a small summer project and was actually more of a test run to try and familiarize myself both with basic coding and with various website-template systems. I wanted to see how stuff like Squarespace, Weebly, Wix, and so on worked while teaching myself some incredibly entry level coding like changing site colors.

Anyway, I did this while I was in school, so once the summer came to an end, I really had to give it up. Just not enough people were interested in helping and I couldn't run a functional website that was dependent upon hosting, broadcasting, rebroadcasting, and writing about e-sports on my own. It was a passion hobby that I hope to get back to at some point, but for now, she rests.

As it is, I just got out of school so while I go on the job hunt, I figured I could start doing some writing on a GB blog about my passion: spreading awareness about and giving entertainment through e-sports.

That all being said, I hope to be doing some reporting about different e-sports events, personal blog entries like the one that will directly follow this, and maybe even make some videos that I can later link to. It just kind of depends on life happenings.

If you have any requests that you'd like me to talk about and actually care what I might have to say, hit me up and I'll see what I can do.

Cheers y'all.