I personally don't think it's a sport in the classic sense, but I think ESPN is making a good decision in terms of covering this. I had the same opinion of MMA when ESPN first started covering that as well. Video games are very important for the post-millennial crowd and I think many older generations don't realize that. Some of the biggest Youtube stars content is solely regarding video games. ESPN is making a somewhat easy and smart decision to gain some of this non-traditional sports crowd audience. That being said, I'm not a gamer and haven't touched a video game in over 10 years.
Will people watch: Even in the 90's, I had friends who would watch me play Phantasy Star for hours. I offered to let them play. They refused. We just wanted to watch. So I get it. I see the market. And Twitch proves it's viable. I personally watch to learn, but not so much for entertainment. Can it become a big sport on ESPN: I don't know that it needs ESPN. It's doing fine on it's own. They make a lot of money. All that said, they need a machine that can take it mainstream. Everyone wants to be recognized. Gamers too. I play a lot of games and I don't know the name of one gamer. ESPN can give the industry that. They can bring it to people. Which I don't think the twitch universe has been able to accomplish on it's own yet. And I'm not sure that it can pull it off. The Challenge: How do they connect to the general sporting public. I have no idea. But this is the attempt. The key for poker was to generate rooting interest. They let you get to know the players. You're not so much watching poker as you are rooting for a player. Since we don't know any of the players, we need to know them. Madden tried this a bit, but failed. So it may not happen. Is it Sport: I would qualify it as sport. There is skill. There is competition. There is stamina. But I'll let you'all debate that on your own. How does it evolve: I think the real question is how does the gaming industry evolve as a sport. Does it stay the same at it's core and deflect ESPN. Or does it begin to organize into something the sporting industry is accustomed to, where the gamers represent cities, drafts, and franchises. Right now at first glance it seems they represent countries and general free agency, and it has more of an Olympic type feel to it. Which I think appropriate and works. And I think aligns to most gamers intuitive organization where I want to battle those Euro or Chinese guys at War. Will ESPN make money: No. There online industry will rule here. They are doing this on their own. That said, ESPN will make a celebrity and will make this bigger than it already is. But the money will be made by those already invested.
There better be some good editing, cause I don't watch dudes playing counterstrike over and over again.
Isn't a sport nothing more than a game? As for things like twitch. It's crazy, the guys out there with a big following like Lirik, have 25,000 -40,000 viewers every time he's on. That's like filling the Toyota center....crazy.
I keep up with competitive Dota crowd and less so Counterstrike. That Thorin guy is a bit of a tool. He posts a lot of cringeworthy stuff on his twitter that makes you wonder how he has a professional gig.
Espn also puts Skip Bayless on television for many hours a week, I'm not sure I'd use the "well, espn says so" defense.
