April 26th, 2015 at 10:08 PM ^
Weird thing to me is that this game isn't one of the bigger ones. Free tuition for the winning team is kinda cool though.
April 26th, 2015 at 10:30 PM ^
Wouldn't shock me if Blizzard is paying them to air the thing. God knows they have the money.
April 27th, 2015 at 10:36 AM ^
I thought they were playing LoL which is a Riot game.
April 27th, 2015 at 12:26 PM ^
They wern't playing LoL, they were playing Heroes of the Storm.
Both are MOBAs, but they're pretty different games.
Did TSM wonnered?
April 26th, 2015 at 10:19 PM ^
robert morris actually gives scholarships for this crap.
April 26th, 2015 at 10:25 PM ^
That shit was wild lol. They go all out
April 26th, 2015 at 10:26 PM ^
oh god they have a panel of analysts, too................. why
April 27th, 2015 at 10:37 AM ^
I wonder if they are already spouting the same empty platitudes as the regular guys. "he's a real team player" "you can't coach that" etc etc
April 27th, 2015 at 12:58 PM ^
Now I can't speak to the ESPN2 broadcast from this thread. As an avid watcher of DOTA 2, LoL, and Starcraft 2, each broadcaster gives interesting, relevant information about potential strategies, build order, positioning, available resources, etc that enhance the viewing and understanding of the action. There's also no commercials that stop a broadcast mid-game, an advantage over every mainstream sport except soccer, with fewer dull periods typical of many soccer games. The commentating is not designed for the casual watcher to understand without some familiarity with the game, but then again most casual viewers don't understand mainstream sports either.
I haven't watched a lot of e-sports. But when I have the commentators were even slightly more annoying and useless than the typical sports commentator.
April 26th, 2015 at 10:37 PM ^
e-gamer here; this is the future gentelmen.
one day these nerds will be "controlling" the football players that play our favorite "real" sport.
it's only a matter of time.
April 26th, 2015 at 10:39 PM ^
It might be another option as a sport but it will never replace actual athletic sports.
April 26th, 2015 at 10:59 PM ^
I think you missed the sarcasm.
April 26th, 2015 at 11:30 PM ^
There was sarcasm?
I mean, I don't think esports will replace real sports, but they will be - already are - another viable option on the viewing/fan menu. The grognards here who don't think esports are big business are quite obviously wrong.
As for whether or not they're enjoyable, to each his own. Not everybody needs to be a fan. I'd rather watch my cat sleep than watch a WNBA game, but somehow that stuff's been on for years.
April 26th, 2015 at 11:43 PM ^
What the fuck is a grognard?
If you think that MLG is big business, you are sorrily mistaken. This comes from a guy who played ladder matches on top clans for every shooter game circa 2005-2010. Online gaming is cool, but if you think it has "arrived," then you and I have much different interpretations of the word arrived.
April 26th, 2015 at 11:57 PM ^
MLG is still a laughing stock. EVO, Dreamhack and ESL are all far better run than MLG.
The largest/profitable leagues now are hosted by the developers themselves cutting the middle men like MLG out.
April 27th, 2015 at 12:58 AM ^
Look out guys, he played ladder matches 5-10 years ago. He totally knows what he's talking about. </sarcasm> ;)
What games and what clans? Honestly curious, if it actually was some legit top teams that actually competed in some eSports events I'd give more credit to your argument.
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There are number of people in the US who play eSports professionally, especially in League of Legends, dota, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. They play for teams, have contracts with salaries (probably ~40-50k), make additional money from prize pools in tournaments (top CS:GO tournaments have a prize pool of $250k, LoL and dota have prize pools in the millions), and then more money from streaming on twitch (top ones for CS:GO make probably $5k per month or more from that, top LoL and dota likely make more).
I mean,
http://www.esportsearnings.com/players
-- and that's just from reported amounts from prize pools. There are 12 Americans who have made over 100k just from prizes from tournaments in 2015.
April 27th, 2015 at 10:50 AM ^
There are SC2 pros all over the world, not just South Korea. The scene in south korea is certainly different from the rest of the world though, and the best 8-12 players in the game today are all from south korea (and i'm being friendly when I say that, in reality it's really the top 16-24 players are all korean. There are no stephano's around anymore.)
You also get awesomeness like this in Proleague in Korea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv-KLL-Dkdk
I love me some MC. Shame he's fallen off over the last year and a half.
April 27th, 2015 at 10:58 AM ^
I'd pick Jaedong over MC anyday
April 27th, 2015 at 12:28 PM ^
Jaedong is in my top 5. Shame how he has fallen off over the last year too.
April 27th, 2015 at 12:44 PM ^
Boxer will forever be GOAT
April 27th, 2015 at 12:50 PM ^
BoxeR is literally the player that got me into eSports 10 years ago. Use to download and study his replays. Greatest ever.
One can argue that eSports wouldn't exist without his crazy Starcraft antics in the late 90s early 00s
Does it hurt?
April 26th, 2015 at 10:35 PM ^
Shouldn't it be a sports game? If not, maybe something that's actually mildly entertaining to watch like COD or something? I'm sure it's fun to play but it's painful to watch. Also I would've expected a little later at night.
April 26th, 2015 at 10:38 PM ^
Grand Theft Auto?
April 26th, 2015 at 11:09 PM ^
There are a crap ton of Esports games nowadays.
Just go to twitch.tv and you'll see
Games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, League, Dota, etc every game has its own championship where the winners/teams make millions in prize money with thousands watching via streaming.
A lot of the gamers/commentators make a living via streaming their games as they play through ad money provided by Twitch/Amazon and Youtube these days. (talking potential high six figures if they're that popular)
I think the last League championship was hosted at a sold out Staples Center and Dota's was at Seattle's Key Arena.
April 26th, 2015 at 11:32 PM ^
the teams that win some of these big championships can make millions, but most of these teams are sponsored and a lot of the winnings teams have to pay out their sponors and others a lot of the money they win.
The majority of their money is made like you said thru streaming and youtube pages..
Most twitch people make most of their money thru donations.. Even some of the people who are horrible at games in general or even some girls who just get creep guys to donate..
This one girl was on their and the top donator for the month was like 2500$ to her paypal..
April 26th, 2015 at 11:33 PM ^
the teams that win some of these big championships can make millions, but most of these teams are sponsored and a lot of the winnings teams have to pay out their sponors and others a lot of the money they win.
The majority of their money is made like you said thru streaming and youtube pages..
Most twitch people make most of their money thru donations.. Even some of the people who are horrible at games in general or even some girls who just get creep guys to donate..
This one girl was on their and the top donator for the month was like 2500$ to her paypal..
$2500 is nothing. I've seen 40k. People are crazy.
April 26th, 2015 at 10:41 PM ^
Also IIRC they aired the Magic the Gathering World Championship sometime in the late 90s. And that took off as a televised event, obviously.
April 26th, 2015 at 10:44 PM ^
April 26th, 2015 at 10:48 PM ^
Can't really complain...i watch grown men and women fit, bitch and moan about catching tuna....TUNA for heaven's sake that my grocer sells for like 100 cans for a quarter [ok, 5 for a dollar or such nonsense]. Whatever floats your skirt...or something. Bet i would win the submarine game~
April 26th, 2015 at 10:53 PM ^
Cracks me up that so many sports fans think it is weird that some people like watching competitive video games. How is it any more useless of an activity than watching other people play real games? The validity of watching esports is exactly the same as watching real sports. It is just a matter of preference or what you enjoy.
April 26th, 2015 at 10:57 PM ^
It's not any different. There's just a stigma associated with video gamers being nerds even though everyone in my generation plays games nowadays.
It'll wear off.
April 26th, 2015 at 11:02 PM ^
Indeed.
It is also odd to me that being a nerd is still seen as a bad thing by some people. Is not Game of Thrones, an epic fantasy, not essentially the most popular show on television right now? And isn't every other major blockbuster a superhero movie these days (not that I support that trend).
It seems so mainstream. Odd to me that video gaming still has that stigma attached while it is now relatively "normal" to enjoy nerd content that was once seen in the same light.
April 26th, 2015 at 11:11 PM ^
Not to mention everyone and their mother plays some kind of stupid free 2 play cell phone video game (clash of clans etc) which most end up paying real money for in the game haha.
It's fine as viewed through a nerd culture lense. But viewing videos games through a competitive sports lense can be problematic. What would Harbaugh think about a competitive video game tournament? He might not say it cause he's a classy guy but I would bet he views professional videos gamers not athletes but as soft, nerds. though he might respect their dedication to their craft and competitive spirit, he knows they aren't the type to go to war on a football field.
It's fine as viewed through an athletics culture lense. But viewing athletics through an academic lense can be problematic. What would Dr. Sanjay Gupta think about athletes that play for a living? He might not say it cause he's a classy guy but I would bet he views professional athletes as dumb jocks. Though he might respect their acumen in their particular sport, he knows they wouldn't have lasted throughout college without tutors or even hope to ever getting into medical school.
See how dumb your statement sounds? It applies to everything. Of course perspective matters.
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The poster I'm responding to randomly brought in Harbaugh hence why I brought in another significant Michigan alum to point out how stupid his original statement was. Read the posts again.
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Congratulations.