I like e-sports. Yeah, I said it. I like all of it too, and I'm not partial to just one game. I love watching fighting games, League of Legends, StarCraft II, or whatever it may be. But as I was watching NorCal Regionals this past weekend (which was an amazing tournament), I had a revelation. The fighting game community is analogous to the WWE, while the League of Legends/StarCraft II community is analogous to professional sports.

This epiphany hit me during Chris G's UMvC3 matches with Apology Man. ChrisG has been consistently dominating UMvC3 since last EVO 2012, almost winning every single tournament he has entered. As a result, he's always being singled out and gunned for by other players. It also helps that his PR skills aren't really the best, and has developed a “heel” persona.

Whenever ChrisG would be in the middle of a combo against Apology Man, the crowd would start chanting "PS3!", referencing the fact that ChrisG actually blamed the slight lag on the PS3 console for losing an earlier match against a relatively unknown player from SoCal named Senor Ass Taxi. And as soon as ChrisG fumbled up the combo, the crowd went into a roaring frenzy.

As crowd was going nuts, I was just laughing my ass off. I mean, how can you not get excited for something like that? And that was the moment when I realized the FGC is in the same vein of WWE. I’m not saying that fighting games are scripted or fake (although there have been some recent controversies), I’m saying that the personalities of the fighting game community are sometimes the best parts of any fighting game tournament. The tournament simply wouldn’t have been as hype if ChrisG was just some average guy devoid of any personality.

When you compare fighting game tournaments to something like the LCS, the differences are immediately apparent. Riot Games has taken a much more traditional approach in their broadcasting. The LCS is treated just like sports you can watch on ESPN, with post game interviews and analysts slowing down and replaying team fights. Of course, this is part and parcel with the incredible amount of money that Riot Games has put into the LCS, but I have the strange feeling that even if the FGC had access to those kinds of funds, it still would be similar to the way it is now.

Just like any person can enjoy both professional sports and the WWE, I too enjoy both the FGC and League of Legends. Both offer different kinds of entertainment, and both are totally viable. I know there’s a subset of people trying to get the FGC to be more “professional” like the LoL scene, but I think that’s just as ridiculous as trying to make the WWE more like the UFC or boxing. They’re two different entities that both carved out their own niches.