Free Essay

E-Sports

In:

Submitted By jaimevital707
Words 1440
Pages 6
E-Sports
Should Video gaming be considered a sport?
Jaime Vital
Mr. Bollman EN1420
ITT Tech, Concord
February 17, 2014

Should video gaming be considered a real sport? What does it take for a sport to be considered a real sport? How athletic they are? How much money they make or their fan base? In today’s society most people would not think twice about considering video gaming a real sport, but little do they know and huge wave of fans are proving them wrong. The scene is called E-Sports, the E standing for electronic. It is a term for organized video game competitions between professional gamers. The most popular game associated with E-Sports is League of Legends.
League of Legends is a free to play, multiplayer online battle arena video game (MOBA) developed and published by Riot Games in Santa Monica, California. It was first announced on October 7 2008, and released on October 27 2009. League of legends has grown to a staggering 65 million players since release from over 145 countries. According to a 2012 Forbes article League of Legends is the most played PC game in the world.
Players are formed into two teams of five champions; there are over 116 different champions to choose from at the start of a match. Each player begins at opposing sides of the map near a building called a Nexus. A match is won when either team’s Nexus is destroyed. To destroy a Nexus, each team must work together and battle through a series of turrets placed throughout the map covering each lane. Along the way, each player gains levels from killing opposing team’s champions and minions (non-player characters that regularly spawn and attack the other team). Completing objectives rewards players with gold which is used to purchase items, making their champions stronger.
With any great sport there is a preseason, regular season, playoffs, and finally the championships. Riot Games created a similar format called the LCS. The League Championship Series it was initially created because the League of Legends community wanted Riot to focus more on competitive gaming, or E-Sports. As a player driven company, they were motivated to bring their fans the best pro gaming production possible.
Currently, the LCS is made up of the best 14 League of Legends teams from the United States, Europe, and Asia. In order to make the league more accessible to viewers, Riot has set up its format like a traditional sports league, with a regular season, playoffs, an all-star game, and of course a championship.
Watching LCS is similar to watching any high end sports broadcast, with slick graphics, entertaining and informative shout casters commentating each match, and players that all have their own unique storylines. Riot even offers the players in the LCS a salary so that they can focus on the game and giving the viewers the best show possible.
Throughout the season, Riot broadcast consistent weekly matches between the teams to online streaming services like Twitch.tv, Azubu, and YouTube, with some matches bringing in over 400,000 + viewers. These broadcasts were created by a complete production crew that put an impressive amount of time and care into their work. Riot Games online broadcast are drawing in four times more viewers than the average NHL game being played on the TV. With the main goal to make gaming America’s next big sport.
Twitch.tv is a live streaming video platform focused on E-Sports and video gaming. You can tune in and watch a variety of games being played by people around the world, from professional gamers to ordinary people or to just watching League of Legend tournaments. It is just like watching TV in your living room, but instead of commercials playing and the channel getting the revenue, the commercials directly support the person you are watching. This is how a lot of gamers gain their income. A professional League of Legends player can easily earn up to 200,000 a year. From live streaming, sponsorships, LCS, and Prize money.
Fans Love watching good players perform well at any sport which is why basketball and football are famous. This is no exception for professional League of Legends players. Just recently the Staples Center in Los Angeles California which can seat up to 15,000 sold out in less than one hour to host the season 3 world championship for League of Legends. This is the super bowl of League of Legends, putting the two best teams in the world, SKT1 from Korea and Royal Club from China to face off for one million dollars. Over 32 million people tuned in online to watch this amazing match. To borrow Major League Baseball as a comparison, game one of the 2013 World Series drew a reported average 14.4 million television viewers.
Why shouldn’t gamer’s be considered athletes? To be a pro gamer, you have to possess tremendous manual dexterity, mental agility, and toughness. That is akin to certain characteristics that other professional athletes have. There is also a massive amount of team play which requires team leadership and team players. Many of the pro teams are living in game houses together, spending around 12 to 14 hours a day practicing.
Riot Games E-Sports manager Nick Allen speaks in a video interview regarding some ground breaking news between the developer and the US government.
“The United States government recognizes League of Legends pro players as professional athletes and award visas to essentially work in the United States under that title,” Allen said. “This is groundbreaking for E-Sports; now we can start looking for international players to come and compete without having to go through the trouble with getting them here.”
This visa is equivalent to what the US government gives Dominican baseball players or European soccer stars to come here and play.
Dustin Beck current CEO of Riot games also did an interview with Daniel Track from Forbes Articles. What are your plans to continue development of E-Sports as a career?
“That was one of our chief concerns this year, was making sure that people could legitimately focus their career on League of Legends. It’s been hard to do in the past. Intermittent, sporadic tournaments led to problems.”
“If you weren’t placed in the top three of those tournaments you were probably losing money overall on hotels, travel, etc. We don’t really think that’s fair and that’s why we have brought compensation into things. But in reality that’s not their major source of income in most cases. It’s sponsorships, prize money, and streaming. And more traditional sponsors are getting involved and that makes a big difference.”
Chess is a sport. It requires strategy, is played worldwide, and is a competitive game. Those same principals can, and are applied to video games. You have to learn how your opponents play, you have to practice, and you have to understand the rules of each game and how each game works. Gaming is now the most popular form of entertainment in the United States, going ahead of the movie and music industry. That's quite a feat to accomplish, and both the movie and music industry have been around for well over a decade while gaming has only been around for around half of that.
I truly believe that in a few more years E-Sports will have dedicated television channels for people to tune in and enjoy a variety of E-sports competitions. There is a lot of money in this industry and it is crazy to think what big companies are starting to invest in this. Companies like American Express, Coca cola, Nissan, Nike, and Samsung Galaxy. So should video gaming be considered a real sport in today’s society?

References 1. In cite text citation http://www.forbes.com/sites/danieltack/2013/09/04/riot-games-league-of-legends-and-the-future-of-esports/ 2. Viewership statistics http://www.gamespot.com/articles/32-million-people-watched-league-of-legends-season-3-world-championships/1100-6416259/ 3. Major Sponserhttp://www.gosugamers.net/lol/news/25087-american-express-sponsors-league-of-legends 4. Streaming websitehttp://www.twitch.tv/riotgames 5. LCS websitehttp://competitive.na.leagueoflegends.com/article/season-3-league-legends-championship-series 6. Season 3 worldshttp://www.polygon.com/2013/11/15/5070008/esports-super-bowl-league-of-legends-season-3-world-championship-good-and-bad 7. Forbes article http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/08/24/league-of-legends-finals-sells-out-las-staples-center-in-an-hour/ 8. HBO special on League of Legends http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_pfmYWpspY

Similar Documents

Free Essay

E-Sports

...of the E-Sports and the influence to our society Submit to: Robb.W.Hanson (Instructor of NAIT) Submitted by: Jeffery Ding August 15, 2015 Attention: Robb.W.Hanson NAIT Business Department 11762 106 Street Edmonton, AB T5G 2R1 Dear Mr. Robb: As a request to compose an elementary report I found huge interest on E-Sports. Please allow me to do the research about E-Sports. My report will mainly cover: 1. Explanation/meaning of the E-Sports 2. History of the E-Sports 3. Influence on society I hope you can approve me to do search on such area and help me with the problem may come up with. Thanks, Jeffery Ding Acknowledgement Thank Brendan McGee AKA “Mcscarg” pro player of Dawngate for providing some vital information and his personal experience Table of Context: The origin of the word E-Sports and explanation---Page.1 History of the E-Sports---Page.2-3 Forms and major activities of the E-Sports---Page.4-5 Influence of the E-Sports---Page. 5-6 Personal opinion& conclusion and the future prediction of the E-Sports---Page.7-8 List of the Figures Figure1 (The International, an annual Dota 2 tournament, n.d) --- Page.1 Figure2 (Attendees of the 1981 Space Invaders Championship attempt to set the highest score, n.d) --- Page.2 Figure3 (Esports tournament prize amounts, 1998–2014,n.d) … Abstract This report will show you the origin of the E-Sports and how...

Words: 1770 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Customer Engagement in E-Sport

...E-sport tournaments and customer engagements Name Course Title Instructor Date The role of the e-sport tournaments activities in increasing customer engagement in video game industry in China E-sport tournaments E-sport is basically, competitive gaming that involves computer games and other related forms of games that can be addictive. Many people who involve themselves in the sports can get addicted to them in the case where there are structures that enhance their engagement in the games and tournaments. The customer can easily be engaged when the sports have aspects of addiction that can come as a result of elements of reward. The Chinese video game industry is worth millions of dollars and needs to keep the customers in order to enhance the flow of profits and growth of the e-games through addictive tournaments. E-tournaments do engage customers and make the games addictive because of the continuous engagement in the same and the rewards that come from customer performance. Gaming is a popular TV sport in Korea with channels, leagues, teams, superstar players dedicated, adoring opportunities of multinationals and female fans have ignored. Ongagemenet, the first cable TV channel solely devoted to online gaming, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Star League, which was a testament to the popularity and longevity of a phenomenon of TV gaming that is popularly known as e-sports. The popularity of a single platform of a game, Starcraft has swept the Korean nation...

Words: 2617 - Pages: 11

Free Essay

Strategies for E-Sports Events

...Introduction When we think of the term sports, the first things that come to our mind are Football or Basketball, which happen to be the most common televised sports, but we rarely give thought about what these sports have in common. In a sport, players assemble to participate in a competitive game against each other, demonstrating their skill and understanding of the game. Players dedicate lots of time into practicing and honing their skills, in hopes of outmaneuvering the opponents and earning the victory. Just like in normal sports, E-Sports is when players gather to compete invideo games. This may sound a bit ridiculous, but I assure you that there are many video games out in today's market which require a lot of skills to play competitively. Take a shooter game, like Call of Duty or Counter-Strike, for example, where it is critical for players to have the ability to aim at their target quickly, precisely and accurately, in order to stay alive and defeat the opponents. To gain these skills, the the teams needs get together often and practice game after game after game to coordinate their teamwork and skills. There are a number of leagues (more and more are popping out as the E-Sports community to grow) which host these games. One of the biggest league in America at the moment is the Major League Gaming(MLG), which happens every 1 to 2 months, and hosts a variety of games. Players and viewers gather from all over the world to attend these events. Other examples include...

Words: 1512 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

The B Division

...Sports overall targets your child; approach to learn; ability to think, communicate; physical well-being; and social development. The social development aspect of adolescent development targets kids particular abilities to make, build, and sustain relationships with adults and peers. Through sporting activities your children will acknowledge and accept their feelings which will allow them to express their feelings a lot more successfully to you about situation they may go through, but in the process they will be able to grasp and answer the emotions of other kids. As parents you want to be involved in your child sporting activities but not too involved to the point you’re a pushy parent. Expectations should be put on their behavior in a sense of how they behave towards others. That kind of expectation is a good expectation because ultimately you want them to have fun but at the same time you want them to develop social skills that will instill positive interaction and respect for their peers. Give some decision-making responsibilities; let your child experience the luxury of sports and reinforce boundaries and rules when it’s necessary (Holt, N. L., & Black, D. E, 2007). Don’t force perfection or put your expectations on to their performance, especially in the team atmosphere because due to parent’s lack of encouragement, many times children lose confidence in themselves, then resent you because they’re uncertain of their identity and capabilities to compete; which would cause...

Words: 1058 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

It for Sports Management

...IT for Sports Management Introduction This article will address the topic of information technology for sports management and will attempt to provide an overview of how information technology (called IT) is changing the nature of management practices in sport. The discussion of IT applications in the profession can be done in a few broad areas: 1st How the tools of today's "technological revolution" can be applied to the administration of sport. 2nd How developments such as the Internet and world wide web help in specific management functions such as training and marketing 3rd How e-commerce can make participation in sports more available through lower priced equipment and lastly, 4th The digital divide: and underlying condition that keeps some from participating fully in the benefits in the IT revolution. The Technological Revolution We are living in the midst of one of those very unusual occurrences that come along once every few generations: a society wide paradigm shift. The close of the last millennium has seen a fundamental change that is moving society the age of industry to the age of information. The currency in this new society that is being formed is information and the medium of exchange is called IT (and sometimes computer technology - CT). IT is simply the tools and methods used for the identification, organization and manipulation of facts that we call data. IT has become the engine that is driving all sectors of today's economy be it industry, government...

Words: 2958 - Pages: 12

Free Essay

Facility Audit

...Sport Experience Audit The purpose of this assignment is to give students the opportunity to visit a sporting event/activity and evaluate the key elements comprising the sport experience based on information learned during class. Your task is to apply classroom material to a real-world sport/leisure setting. For this assignment, you are to visit/attend a sporting event or facility and perform a qualitative assessment of the spectator/participant experience. By analyzing the activity you should heighten your understanding of consumers' reactions to the activity or event and understand how to better meet customers’ needs as a facility/event manager. Written Assignment 1. Describe/Identify the following Event General Information: a. Name of event b. Women’s College Basketball: LSU vs. Indiana St. b. Day/date/time of event a. Tuesday, December 3, 2013 @ 11:30 a.m. c. Location/facility where event was held a. Baton Rouge, LA: Pete Maravich Center d. Description of the event a. Exhibition game played between two teams for the duration of two 20-minute halves. e. Number of participants and spectators a. Participants/Spectators: f. Associated events? a. Men’s College Basketball b. Women’s College Volleyball 2. Describe/Identify the arrangement of the following Facility and Support Services a. Communications ...

Words: 576 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Changing Cultures of Different Dances

...which benefits a person not only the physical but also a person’s well being. The “need to do something for recreation” seems to be an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure and are considered to be “fun” the term “recreation” implies participation to have a healthy and refreshing mind and body. It is also very entertaining. Active and healthy recreation is already practice before. One example is the era of Romans. The Romans had the coliseum, where they watched chariot races and other entertainment. The Greeks had amphitheaters where they viewed drama and comedy. Others invented the Olympics, one of the greatest entertainment sport spectacles in the world. Even the bible discusses singing, dancing, music, and other forms of acceptable recreation, so even the most ancient civilizations enjoyed entertainment and recreation of some sort. Aristotle said that happiness result from being the best we can be. The sort of happiness that Aristotle was thinking should not be equated with simple pleasure. Amusing ourselves can be pleasant, but he says it is childish. Amusement for sheer pleasure degrades rather than improves us. Aristotle admits that amusement is helpful because it refreshes us from work. But amusement is never as good as true leisure, which provides a life of deep fulfillment rather than fleeting bodily pleasures. Aristotle is not simply thinking...

Words: 960 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Overzealous Parents

...are becoming over involved in their children’s sporting activities. Parents today are demonstrating over involvement, over spending, and are over booking their children in youth sports and extracurricular activities. Sports are supposed to be fun and competitive but more fun and entertaining than anything. Parental over involvement is becoming a problem because they can take the fun out of sports for the kids. Parent’s voices can go along way. Yelling and cheering on players and teams is a good thing. Parents should be excited and giving the kids good complements. But when parents display bad sportsmanship it is a different story. As parents are yelling mean statements they are not thinking about how that might make that kid feel. The child’s parents are most likely around somewhere and may get upset as well. If kids are hearing insults and inappropriate words yelled at them the game would also become less fun and hard to focus on. Some kid’s use it to their advantage, and play better because they want to prove themselves. But that’s not always the case. College and professional sports are seen everywhere in current society. Sports are on TV, in newspapers, on signs and bulletins, and most big cities have an arena or stadium for teams to play in. The majorities of families have seen or follow sports. With that being said, a lot of little kids growing up dream to be a professional or...

Words: 2329 - Pages: 10

Free Essay

Research England

...representing Sports England. The objectives are to be achieved through various strategies depending on each place and the through the market research. The following methods are to be used to develop the above objectives(McLeish, 2011, pg44-65) 1. Event management 2. Opinion pieces 3. Feature articles 4. Journalist briefing 5. Email newsletters 6. Press release 7. Press conference 8. Interviews and editorial contributions Project Deliverables Its mandatory for a company to follow basic rules and techniques of supplier as a way of evaluating better plans for holding an event in a recommended place. The project is to deliver services according to the required specifications in the tender as required by the company(Mcginn, 2008, pp. 110-115). a) Inspired Facilities This involves the availability and the ease of individual as being part of the local community activities and being part of the volunteer groups as a way of improving and developing of clubs, and at the same time modify the non supporting events int o modern sporting facilities(Matthews, 1996, pp. 35-50). b) Iconic Facilities This was developed dependimg on the basis of the London 2012 inspiratioal extract extract as a way of improving the local upcoming teams from the grassroot sports(Masterman, 2004, pp. 45-50). c) d) K e) K f) Hhhbaahdvhd 1. Protecting Playing Field 2. The most common Place people Play Olympic legacy mass are the Sports England’s...

Words: 5699 - Pages: 23

Free Essay

Heart Attacks in Youth

...each year among high school athletes” (para. 3). Most individuals are required by state law to pass a sport physical before him or her can even begin the first day of practice. Many individuals have different opinions as to why children are collapsing with heart issues. Health professionals locally, on state level and nationally are monitoring the findings and are trying to come up with a solution to minimize loss of life. Because so many children participate each year in physical sports, it is important to find out why children are coming up with heart issues and determine how to lower the amount of children from collapsing and prevent premature death. Functions at Various Government Levels Because children collapsing at sporting events has only recently started to become more common, the three levels of government; National, State, and Local levels have not began working to diligently on a solution. At least if they have, they are not disclosing available resources or much information at this current time. Therefore, locating information is extremely difficult. However, heath foundations such as the Mayo Clinic and the American Heart Association as well as many grassroots groups are conducting surveys among the doctors in an effort to find out what each sports physical consist of and what, if any, family history questions the doctors are asking during the sports physicals. Of the pediatricians and family practice doctors...

Words: 962 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Bradford Fire

...Contents. Introduction. 3 Literature review. 4-6 Impacts on the industry. 7-8 Conclusion. 8 Bibliography and Appendices. 9 Introduction Ayn Rand (1995) a Russian-born writer understood and wrote that "You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality." One reality that Event Managers must understand is there are certain risks when organising and operating an event that event managers are required to consider in order to successfully reduce risks and ensure safety at events. There are a large list of set laws and regulations of which event managers by law need to satisfy when staging an event, Bowdin et.al (2006 :342) teaches that depending on the stature or scales of event the larger the amount of regulations. These set of laws or rules are named Legislations which Worthington & Britton, (2000) state occupy a substantial proportion of current law including those that govern the operations of business such as sporting events. A vast majority of legislations emanates from previous event disasters such as the Bradford city fire. When a event disaster occurs and live are lost in the cases of the Ibrox, Hillsborough, Heysel...

Words: 2050 - Pages: 9

Free Essay

Developing Analytical Skills

...Student details | Name | Kristy-Anne Rix | Student Number | S2839420 | Course | Communication Media | Unit details | Unit code | Com16 | Unit name | Developing research and analytical skills | Unit tutor | Guy | Assessment Item details | | Due date | | Word count | 2162 | Extension granted | □ No □ Yes | Extension date | | Is this a resubmission? | □ No □ Yes | Resubmission date | | ACADEMIC INTEGRITY DECLARATION Breaches of academic integrity (cheating, plagiarism, falsification of data, collusion) seriously compromise student learning, as well as the University’s assessment of the effectiveness of that learning and the academic quality of the University’s awards. All breaches of academic integrity are taken seriously and could result in penalties including failure in the course and exclusion from the University. Students should be aware that the University uses text-matching software to safeguard the quality of student learning and that your assignment will be checked using this software. I acknowledge and agree that the examiner of this assessment item may, for the purpose of marking this assessment item: 1 reproduce this assessment item and provide a copy to another Griffith staff member; and/ 2 submit this assessment item to a text-matching service. This web-based service will retain a copy of this assessment item for checking the work of other students, but will not reproduce it in any form. Examiners will only award...

Words: 2881 - Pages: 12

Free Essay

Sports Events Industry

...Sport Events Industry Individual Report Words: 2822 Special events have always been part of human history. Anthropologists have traced human civilization for tens of thousands of years, and at the heart of their observations are the ‘special events’ that typify and explain tribal behavior of that time and place. At this point, there is no question that special events have taken on all aspects of an “industry” in that their organization and management are the underlying support for marking the local and domestic details of our lives. Events are not restricted to festive celebrations but can include a variety of gatherings, serious or happy, and religious or cultural, including meetings and conferences, expositions and trade shows, private and public special events, art entertainment and sport events, media or corporate events, and events of various sizes. Events are given a lot of definitions but the most general one that characterizes events is “Temporary occurrence with a predetermined beginning and end. It is unique stemming from the blend of management, programme setting and people.” (Getz, 2005). On the following report there is a wide overview of the sport events sector, that will examine the history and development, the factors that support this sector, the impacts of these events, career opportunities that will arise through this sector and future trends. History and Development Sport reflects the country in which it is played, so inevitably the history of sport...

Words: 3276 - Pages: 14

Free Essay

Marketing Plan: Burlington Sporting Goods

...Company Background This report is a comprehensive marketing plan for Burlington Sporting Goods, located in Alamance County, NC. Burlington Sporting Goods (BSG) is Alamance County’s oldest sporting goods store. Since the store opened in October 1947, BSG has offered a wide variety of sport related products and services to the people of Burlington and Graham. Along with retail sporting goods and apparel, BSG offers corporate screen-printing for team uniforms, a basketball facility and an indoor batting facility. The batting facility features a completely enclosed 70' x 70' batting cage with nine token operated pitching machines. Additionally, BSG offers Nike SPARQ training and hosts birthday parties and summer camps for basketball, cheerleading and baseball. Mission Burlington Sporting Goods strives to foster mutually beneficial ties in Alamance County. Since we opened our doors in October 1947, Burlington Sporting Goods has provided the towns of Graham and Burlington with a wealth of services for all their athletic and sport needs. We're the oldest sporting goods store in Alamance County, and we take pride in providing Alamance County with our team-oriented and friendly staff (BSG, 2013). The following plan is designed to boost the financial success and brand equity of Burlington Sporting Goods in order to help the organization achieve and maintain its stated mission. It features an analysis of BSG’s current position within its market, an analysis of the organization’s target...

Words: 7890 - Pages: 32

Free Essay

Research on Challenges Facing Sport in the Country Still Doing Litereature Review.

...Richard Attias Become a fan Email The Development Factor: The Challenge of Sport in the 21st Century Posted: 10/21/2014 8:39 am EDT Updated: 10/29/2014 9:59 Sport occupies a peculiar place in world dynamics in that it surpasses the limitations of geographical boundaries and social classes. Still, a gap remains between developed and developing nations when it comes to sport. In the industrialized world, sport as an economic sector represents approximately 2% of GDP. For developing economies, though, the challenge remains making sport a factor of economic development, and a driver for social change, so it benefits all citizens in the long term. UNESCO's 1978 International Charter of Physical Education and Sport classified sport as "a fundamental right for all." But the low place sport occupies in the developing world's priorities shows that its importance as an educational and social tool is not yet universal. Everyone agrees that sport contributes to economic development by creating jobs and stimulating business activity. The organization of a major sporting event, for example, is a great opportunity for the local economy. The thousands of people who attend will spend money on food, lodging, transportation and other, related tourist activities. However, in recent years, we see these economic benefits are obvious only the short term. If we take the example of South Africa in 2010, the positive impact of the World Cup was, in terms of job creation and reduced crime...

Words: 17283 - Pages: 70