http://espn.go.com/esports/ Very surprising, I personally wouldn't consider competitive gaming a sport just like I don't consider Chess a sport either, but ESPN seems to think eSports is going to explode soon.
explode soon? I thought esports was already here. I have no Idea what League of Legends is, but it seems to be extremly popular and the prize money for the winners is ridiculous. The celebrity some of these players have is equally ridiculous. I just watched the documentary All Work All Play about esports and it's fascinating. They have free agents, teams, salaries, there are even colleges that have gamers on athletic scholarships Vice Sports even had a documentary about this stuff that was really good too.
depends if you differentiate between "sports" and "games". considering they themselves call this "gaming", i don't think it's any big slight to call it a game rather than sport.
They canned Grantland but put up an extremely niche section on eSports?!? I seriously loved Grantland; there was and still is no where else on the internet that aggregated different pop culture and sport topics like Grantland.
cue FTW rockets ftw talking about how these guys are unathletic losers and that competitive gaming is a fake tough guy sport
Explode? This is just content filler for ESPN ocho. They want it to explode because it's their programming content. The same way they tell us the Papa Johns Weed whacker Bowl game in Siberia is important and a big deal. Don't be fooled by ESPN's bull****.
I really don't understand the appeal of "eSport" or the numerous "Let's Play" videos. With the pace of great games being released, I don't have the time to keep playing the same game over and over again, even less time to watch someone else play a game.
yet they do it time and again in basketball, football, and every major sport. They play the same game, ad nausea every year. in basketball, there is a court, in esports there is a computer screen, but you are competing in both just the same. if you think you are as good as a professional gamer go play. Make a career out of it.
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I enjoy playing video games... But it's not a sport. Neither is chess. It's a game. I find it crazy people have found a way to monetize gaming. Watching others play video games is boring as hell.
Some of you people are so narrow sighted I'm surprised you can see past your own nose. The prize pots for League of Legends, DoTA, Halo, CoD, Smite, and other games are in the millions for some of these tournaments, and the viewer ratings rival a lot of sports events. Activision Blizzard just bought out Major League Gaming for almost $50m; they wouldn't dump that kind of money into it if they didn't feel a return was coming. You can argue semantics and claim they're not "sports" or whatever you like, but you might want to get over it quickly because it's only going to get bigger from here.
It feels like Poker is on ESPN 50 times a week. I find the idea of watching that even less compelling than watching people play games. If Poker can get this kind of coverage I see no reason video games can't get a section online.
