The history of Esports is a long one, but it’s actually relatively young. Its beginnings go back to 1972, when five students from Stanford University participated in the first video game competition, the Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics. The winner received a subscription to Rolling Stone and a year’s worth of video game magazines. Today, there are a number of high-profile Esports tournaments.
StarCraft 2
The first ever StarCraft 2 Esports tournament was held in Korea, and was held in July of 2010. The game was a sci-fi RTS, and it was developed by Blizzard Entertainment. It was first released for Microsoft Windows in July 2010, and has since gained huge popularity. Since then, the game has been a staple in South Korea, where players compete for national honors. It also served as cheap entertainment for young people, spawning PC Bang equivalents.
Netrek
Esports have been around for many years, but it only became popular around the turn of the century. In the late 1970s, video games such as Netrek and Virtual Racing were released worldwide, and soon a whole new world opened up for gamers. As these new games gained popularity, internet cafes began to pop up around the world. This allowed people to play multiplayer games on high-powered PCs. Soon, other Esports began to pop up as well, and many new companies jumped into the fray.
Overwatch League
The Overwatch League was founded in 2012 and has continued to grow since. It aims to make waves in the Esports industry by bringing competitive video games into the mainstream. The league has drawn investors from the sports industry and other sectors. The $20 million buy-in cost for a franchise is a significant amount. The Overwatch League has also attracted a large fan base, with games sold at stadiums and thousands of viewers tuning in to watch the games.
Overwatch League prize pool
In 2017, Blizzard introduced the Overwatch League and changed the structure of the competition to include permanent Homestands in its schedule. In addition, the competition eliminated stages and replaced them with the USD$1 million Midseason Tournament, which featured top teams competing for the prize pool. The Atlantic and Pacific Divisions were also renamed into Conferences, with each division divided into East and West Divisions. This season’s Hero Pools ban certain characters, including one tank, one support, and two DPS heroes.
Fortnite World Cup
The game Fortnite is one of the most popular video games around. Over 250 million people play it, and this year’s Fortnite World Cup featured a $30 million prize pool. It is becoming a global phenomenon, and video games are not the only ones with Esports. The video game industry is estimated to be worth a billion dollars this year, and Esports is only likely to continue growing.
Adapting esports to TV
Adapting esports to TV is a daunting task. Streaming platforms are already attracting a niche audience who follow complex games with extreme detail, but it’s important to adapt the format to be more TV-friendly. The games are long, complex, and violent, making it a challenge to produce a TV-friendly version. Could we ever see Fortnite or Overwatch Esports on TV? Time will tell.
