What Exactly are eSports?

This is our first blog post, and we’d want to inform the world why we’re doing what we’re doing!

Esports, as described by the Harvard International Review, are “video games performed in a highly structured competitive context.” These games can include everything from popular, team-oriented multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBAs) to single-player first-person shooters, survival battle royales, and virtual recreations of physical sports.”

Esports, short for electronic sports, is a type of video game competition. Esports are frequently planned, multiplayer video game events, especially involving professional players, either individually or as teams.

More precisely, by design and without exception, esports games rely far more on talent than luck. This is most likely the most appealing aspect of esports and any other sort of competition.

Skill is constantly dependent on various physical or strategic qualities. A skill may be learnt and improved. While you must work hard to improve your talents, a lucky break may happen to anybody, at any time, and in any situation. There are typically slight aspects of chance in esports titles, although these seldom affect the outcome of a tournament.

The most popular titles

Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), first-person shooter (FPS), combat, card, battle royale, and real-time strategy (RTS) games are the most prominent video game genres linked with esports.

Among the numerous popular esports franchises are League of Legends, PUBG, Dota, Counter-Strike, Valorant, Overwatch, EAsport FIFA, Street Fighter, Super Smash Bros, and StarCraft.

Esports tournaments

Although esports as we know it today is relatively young, competitive gaming has been around since the 1990s. Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat competitions and tournaments gained prominence in the early 1990s, followed by GoldenEye and other first-person shooters during that decade, paving the way for the Starcraft, Warcraft, Overwatch, Call of Duty, and Halo series. Flash forward to 1998, and the iconic Starcraft 2 PC tournament was a big success in terms of participation and popularity.

As the 2000s progressed, Esports gained traction. Tournament hosts such as the World Cyber Games and the Electronic Sports World Cup began, while Major League Gaming (MLG) launched in 2002. MLG is now regarded as one of the world’s most significant Esports hosts. League of Legends had its inaugural World Championship in 2011, and the tournament sold out the Staples Center in Los Angeles within minutes of going on sale in 2013.

Although the League of Legends World Championships show the expansion of esports as a spectator sport, the yearly Dota 2 tournament: “The International” shows how big the industry has gotten financially. On August 1, 2011, the inaugural International was held. The top 16 teams in the world were invited to the tournament, which was the first Dota event to be live webcast. The event was aired in four different commentary languages, with the main prize of $1 million awarded to the winner.

Every year since 2014, The International has smashed its own record for the largest prize pool in all of esports. The first-place award increased from $5,028,308 in 2014 to $6,616,014 in 2015, $9,139,002 in 2016 to $10,862,683 in 2017. Yet these are just the top awards; the whole prize pool has been more than double this amount.

The audience

Esports, like traditional/physical sports, draw a large audience that love watching competitive events for a variety of reasons such as enjoyment and learning.

Global Esports fanbase will continue to expand in 2022 and beyond, according to Newzoo. In 2022:

The worldwide esports audience will increase by +8.7% year on year to 532 million. Esports fans — those who consume esports material more than once a month — will account for little more than 261 million.The remaining 271 million will be occasional watchers (those who consume esports programming less than once a month).

The following are the primary drivers of esports viewership growth:

• Successful new esports brands like Valorant, which draw on Riot’s earlier League of Legends triumphs and experience
• The growth of mobile esports through regional competitions such as Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and League of Legends: Wild Rift
• The emergence of esports in emerging areas such as Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa

According to the estimate, the number of esports aficionados will reach 318 million by 2025, with a CAGR of +8.1%. (2020–2025). By 2025, the overall audience will have surpassed 640 million. Longer-term market growth is likely to be driven by growing markets in Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa.

Is this an establishment yet?

Esports now collect billions of dollars across the supply chain after more than 30 years of growth and evolution. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, went on to make a declaration about his government’s plan to collaborate with the IOC to include the Esports tournament as an official game in the forthcoming Paris Summer Olympics in 2024. This is, without a doubt, the sport of the future.