Surely, specifically the question “What kind of animal is this, this e-sport?” was asked by most of the correspondents of the television channel Tournament TV. When it was decided to demonstrate an eSports competition on this authoritative TV site.
And what was the amazement of these correspondents when it was discovered that esports is a big industry, followed by a huge number of fans around the world, when it was discovered that esports was valorous attention.
Public
As with most conventional sports, a large part of the audience for computer video game matches are people who understand what a video game is supposed to be even in its small qualities. They were interested in the video game in the past, or devote some time to it at the moment.
Each of the eSports disciplines, like any computer game, has its own army of fans. Yes, nothing prevents these people from immediately following competitions in several video games, but in e-sports, the competition for the viewer is much higher than in conventional football or basketball. The commodity market for computer games in the competitive direction is relatively young, and for publishers, any new player is worth its weight in gold. Games compete for the consumer, societies of every discipline are created, and quite often these societies are poorly disposed towards each other. This is especially true for eSports games of the 1st genre. League of Legends fans are at war with DOTA 2 fans, Fortnite fans dislike PUBG gamers, and Gwent gamers are rapidly trying to lure connoisseurs of leaving cards in Hearthstone into their ranks.
Yes, this does not affect all people, but the precedent remains a fact: the competition between video games in the economic market gives rise to competition between societies. If we add to this the fact that more than half of esports fans are people of school and student age, who are most often considered maximalists, eager to prove to everyone that their favorite video game is the best, we can conclude that the esports audience is developing in a rather conflicted environment. This leads to the fact that at esports events the support of fans is often stronger than even at the best fights in football or, for example, hockey.
The public number of esports fans is probably lower than the fans of regular sports, but the interest and passion of esports fans is not to hold.
Disciplines
Highly profitable esports disciplines
Now there are a certain number of esports disciplines in different game genres:
militants
Fighting games
RTS
MOBA
KKI
Sports sandboxes.
It is their publishers who promote the eSports component of their own games. They invest in prize pools and a company of tournaments with the best gamers from around the world, and in return earn income from sponsors interested in promoting their own products.
In any of the available genres of computer games, there is a certain number of eSports favorites - disciplines that gather the largest audience at the monitor screens. These games are more beautiful for sponsors, competitions have huge prize pools, and are advertised in all media. It's hard enough for newcomers to match these favorites, but if a video game wants to grow to the level of the flagship of the esports genre, it needs to match the monetary and high-quality benchmarks of matches.
In the style of action movies, the most common disciplines are CS:GO, CoD: Infinity Warfare and Overwatch.
Of the fights, Mortal Kombat X stands out.
The flagship of the RTS for many years has been considered indescribably widespread in Korea, StarCraft II.
In the MOBA style, the real "monsters" of the market will remain League of Legends and DOTA2.
Of the CCGs, it is worth highlighting Hearthstone and GWENT.
Of sports sandboxes, eSports fans prefer the FIFA series of games.
Similarly, one can recall about races and various combined genres, but in terms of demand, both from the public and from sponsors, they are rather poorly implemented as eSports disciplines.
Commercial appeal
Based on the beliefs of trading profit, esports is considered one of the most promising destinations for both advertisers and investors specifically. Already at the moment, esports clubs are being bought up by NBA stars, billionaires and huge holdings. According to the norm, a team performing on an international stage is not required to find sponsors. Even such giants as Red Bull and Mercedes have long been supporting both separate teams in various disciplines, and the manufacturing industry itself in general.
Surely, not a single kind of ordinary sport has previously developed with such turnovers. In just the last 10 years, esports has grown to such a global size that with a prize fund of ten million dollars and a Mercedes car, the best gamer of the esports championship will not surprise anyone. Even the day before, people gathered in the basements of computer entertainment centers to compete for system units and mice of average quality to the main winner, and today the team that won the world tournament receives 10 million dollars in prize money. What will tomorrow be anyway?
Of the negative episodes, it is noteworthy that from time to time the rapid growth of e-sports is attributed to the “soap bubble” effect, which is artificially inflated due to real prize funds, but similarly can burst with indescribable force, turning a promising manufacturing area into a pile of fragments. And such skepticism is not unfounded. Almost all experts agree in the worldview that e-sports must improve as smoothly as possible. And here is the result to the question about the following, what will still be tomorrow: “No one knows what tomorrow will be!”. Everything is in the hands of esports institutions, game publishers and tournament initiators. They have to act with the utmost precision. So far, despite the frequent misfires, the overall vector of industry promotion remains more quickly correct. There is progress, and its fruits are being used, and this is the most important thing!
Development in the CIS region and the success of our teams
Even despite the fact that esports began to use government accompaniment in the CIS states only in the last couple of years, this did not prevent our region from constantly owning good gamers and teams that performed with dignity in international competitions. At one time, people used their own strength to get to the venues of huge tournaments, create teams and entire Internet resources for this, so that eSports could live in the CIS. The enthusiasm of these people can only be envied, since it is precisely on the roots of this indescribable preference to compete in computer games that the industry has increased, which in Russia at the moment at the municipal level is recognized as an official sport.
At the moment, esports in the CIS is stylish, attractive. Even those who do not particularly play computer games are engaged in e-sports. Team battles in DOTA 2 or CS:GO (where our teams are especially successful) gather entire stadiums. More and more esports fans are being made every day.
On the international stage, our teams shine especially often. If in traditional sports you can only expect severe success from the Russian national hockey team, then in computer video game competitions, teams from the CIS become World Champions with enviable regularity. Yes, this does not affect all disciplines.LoL and StarCraft, for example, are dominated by Korean gamers, but even in these video games, fans actually always had a worthy representative of the CIS, who, because of his freedom to win, really wanted to root for.
Virtus Pro, Natus Vincere, M19, Team Spirit, Gambit Esports, Team Empire… It would be stupid to list all the esports companies from the CIS, because there are a lot of them. And for any of these teams, I want to frankly root for it, because although they let them down from time to time, they very rarely force them to doubt their own intention to play, practice and win.
Result: "Esports and Life"
As a result, it is desirable to notice the most important superiority of eSports. Here the main continuing faces are real people! Not pretentious stars, whose life "mere mortals" watch through debauchery and news headlines, but ordinary people! You can chat with them on social networks, they will actually always agree to give an autograph and answer a question during a live broadcast of their own game on Twitch. They speak to the public, they are considered an intense part of the whole esports society and are felt not separately, but together with any of the fans.
How can a fan of Lionel Messi play a football tournament with him? How can a fan of Cristiano Ronaldo not lose hope that when he comes to the football field itself erected in his own yard, an idol will be waiting for him to play there? Not! But a Dendi fan can get caught in a video game with a DOTA 2 legend, a Simple fan can find himself as his companion in a CS:GO party, and a Shroud fan can rely on what he will perform with his own idol in PUBG or Fortnite.
Esports is one big ecosystem where everyone can truly feel equal. And, unlike real sport, this is not verbal, but in fact. There is no political bias here. We are all CIS. A fan from Ukraine falls ill for a team from Kazakhstan or Russia as furiously as for his own family. This also works in reverse examples. Esports is great, it's spectacular, it's global. Esports is a must to enjoy. As much as possible and as often as possible...
But what about Tournament TV? Did they really demonstrate an esports event live on TV? Exactly yes! The TV channel was broadcasting a huge DOTA2 match. The end is live, a company of professional specialists. The skill was strange, the broadcast did not cause indescribable excitement (painfully, all eSports fans got used to the Twitch TV platform). But in any case, it was the first step. It seems that eSports has not developed, this particular step will become an epic. Specifically, in any case, he will be able to help promote the competition in computer video games to the vast masses. And the precedent of this very thoroughly warms the soul, that from an unnecessary event for dreamers, eSports has managed to grow into an objectively successful and constantly progressing idea.
