In recent years, the e-Sports industry has been growing hotly under the leadership of the number of viewers. However, no matter how hot the e-Sports events are, for many people, e-Sports is still just a glorified term for video games and electric games with the addition of the word "competition", and this negative impression not only comes from the stereotypical image of video game venues in the ancient times, but also partly due to the unfamiliarity with e-Sports, what exactly is e-Sports? What is e-sports?
Many people think that gaming can't be called a sport because, unlike traditional tournaments, all a gaming player has to do is sit in a chair and bang on a mouse and keyboard, which may seem to have nothing to do with physical activity, but is that really all there is to the definition of 'sport' itself?
E-Sports and Sports
In fact, the exact definition of "sport" varies slightly depending on the source. In the classification of member sports published by the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) in 2012, a sport can be predominantly physical (track and field), motorized (Formula 1, rowing), assisted by animals (equestrian), coordinated (billiards), or even mentally based (chess, Go, etc.). , Go).
In one of the earliest foreign papers on eSports in 2006, eSports was considered to be an extension of the definition of traditional sports as 'activities for the development and cultivation of mental and physical abilities' with the addition of 'information and communication technology' (ICT) applications, but under such an interpretation, it seems that even training in office software could be considered as a sport, while many traditional sports also use computer aids, and thus Michael Wagner, head of the Digital Media Department at Drexel University, tried to give a more precise explanation of e-sports in his 2016 paper.
▲ Opinions are still divided around the globe as to whether or not e-sports can be considered a sport. (Source:Flickr/dronepicr CC BY 2.0)
Wagner argues that in order to define E-sports, it is necessary to focus on the 'E' content and work out which parts of the activity must be electronically/computer-mediated in order to draw clear boundaries between 'e-sports' and 'e-activities', and between 'e-sports' and 'traditional sports'.
The biggest difference between e-sports and traditional sports is "where the content that determines the outcome of the game takes place". Although e-sports players operate in the real world, and traditional sports use electronic systems to assist in the process, the process of traditional sports does take place in the real world, and there is a decisive difference between the two in this sport.
So Wagner tries to explain it this way: when the main content of a sport is formed by an electronic system, where players and teams operate through an interactive human-computer interface, it can be considered a form of sport called "e-sports".
Of course, these definitions of "e-sports" are not conclusive, as there is still no common interpretation of the definition of "e-sports" among countries around the world. Although the National and Asian Games Committees have embraced the idea of e-sports as a sport and have chosen to include it in their demonstration events, there are still many controversies in many countries, such as the Japanese Olympic Committee's recent statement that it is not convinced by the idea of e-sports being included in sports. Before the global industry comes to a tacit agreement on the definition of e-sports, these papers can only be said to give us a glimpse of one side of the explanation, and there are still many details to be discussed.
▲This is not some traditional sports ball game, but rather a spectator is enjoying an electric game live. (Source:shutterstock)
If you're still skeptical about treating "e-sports" as a sport, try to think of it this way: e-sports is not exactly an electronic version of traditional sports, but aside from the very different forms of the sport, the two are strikingly similar in many ways.
Whether it's traditional sports or e-sports, players have to face repetitive and high-intensity training content, both of which will cause mental and physical challenges; in addition to the reflexes and operating skills of the general game, e-sports programs also test the content of cooperation between the players and the logistics and tactical use, not simply a good operation, talent, and get all the top players to win the championship.
At the same time, just like common sports events, watching matches, social interactions, supporting neighborhoods, and even the endorsement effects of players, gaming has formed many potential subcultures in society. Under such development, no matter what the arguments about the definition are, at least we can say this: just like sports events, gaming has a vast market for future development that is indisputable.
How eSports are played
As mentioned in the previous definition, the electronic system is the main foundation of e-sports, so the hardware (PC / cell phone / host), peripherals (keyboard / mouse / headset) and the network environment are indispensable, these components can be regarded as the traditional sports of the "field" and "equipment", must have these devices e-sports events can be carried out, and as for the software (game) symbolizes the "event", that is, the traditional sports of sports: football, tennis, basketball, etc. As for the software (game), it symbolizes the "events", which are the traditional sports: soccer, tennis, basketball, etc.
Although the variety of games in the world can be said to be boundless, due to the competitive and spectator nature of the tournaments, e-sports programs can be broadly categorized into several categories, including first-person shooters (FPS), fighting, multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), real-time strategy (RTS), card battles, sports and leisure ... and so on, and under these different categories there are many popular games. Under these different categories, there are many popular games, not that there is only one game that stands out in a category.
▲ On an overall level, MOBAs are arguably the most popular type of e-competition at the moment.
For example, in the MOBA genre, League of Legends, Dota 2, Legends Duel, and Blizzard Premier have their own large-scale e-sports leagues held around the world, and the first-person shooter genre has a variety of programs such as CS:GO, Jedi Survival, Battlefield Attack, and Heroes of the Fortress (which started a league this year), and each of these programs has its own supporters, creating a very impressive output value. Each program has its own supporters and creates an amazing amount of production value.
Just is it so much to say that gaming's tournament program is limitless?
Theoretically, the answer to this question should be yes. As long as you have the basic equipment and standalone gaming software, and you can find content that is suitable for competitive play, all gaming programs should be able to be extended to "e-sports" - this is probably why e-sports events have become "blooming", after all, competitive activities always attract people to watch, which in turn generates added value for the game itself.
However, even if a gaming event can be considered as e-sports, it is still important to realize that the essence of the event must be people. Once the project itself is not complete, skillful and complex enough to attract people to participate or watch, it would be meaningless to label the game project as an e-sports event, just like the "Nemi" or "Smart OO" that can be seen everywhere in the food market in those years, which can only be regarded as a kind of gimmick.
Pulling back to the tournament level, although there are so many types of tournaments in e-sports, all of them are roughly the same because of the small differences in basic equipment requirements. It is important to mention that although everything in an e-sports event takes place in the electronic world, except for small tournaments or preliminaries that are held online (remote online battles), most tournaments are still held offline (to the same location), which is not only for the sake of fairness, but also attracts more fans and gamers to the venue to support the event, which creates more peripheral economy.
The number of players and the rules of the tournament will also vary depending on the game, which is usually similar to the daily gameplay of the game, but may be very different from traditional sports. For example, Jedi Survival, nicknamed "Chicken", allows up to 100 players to participate in each game, so instead of the traditional 2-team match, the design of the e-competition event will consist of 16 to 24 teams (4 players per team) participating in each game, with various numerical scores used to rank the teams.
Gaming Production Value and Market Status
Video game tournaments have actually been around for quite some time, but it wasn't until recent years that MOBA games brought overall attention to the industry and esports began to step into the limelight and draw attention. For most countries, the overall e-sports industry is still in the development stage, the market is still growing rapidly, and opportunities surrounding the development of e-sports continue to emerge. This meeting of video games and sporting events attracts millions of viewers from all over the world, and also provides brand new branding opportunities for related manufacturers.
According to market research organization SuperData, the global e-sports market was worth about $1.5 billion (about NT$45 billion) in 2017, and the growth trend hasn't shown any signs of slowing down in the past few years, and with the growth of the viewing community, it is estimated that the market will grow by 26% by 2020 to reach $2.3 billion (about NT$69 billion).
▲CS:GO EPICENTER 2017, CS:GO 2017's total prize pool lost only slightly to Dota 2. (Source:shutterstock)
As the e-sports industry has only begun to receive a lot of attention in recent years, the start of this output value is considered to have a fairly good performance, not to mention the potential business opportunities in hardware, peripherals and game industry that can be driven by e-sports, and the potential of the overall market is still very noteworthy.
This alone seems to have some touting implications, let's look at it from another angle! In terms of tournament prize money, when the Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau teams of League of Legends S2 won the championship in 2012, the total prize pool for that year's World Tournament was US$2 million, and by the time of the S7 World Tournament in 2017, the total prize pool had risen to nearly US$5 million (about 150 million NTD), with about US$2.69 million (about 80.7 million NTD) of that amount being contributed by players purchasing designated peripherals.
And these prizes are still relatively small numbers, "Dota 2" 2017 T1 tournament total prize pool of about 23 million U.S. dollars (about 690 million Taiwan dollars), this year will begin to host the league "Fortnite" (Fortnite) even recently announced that it will be invested in the 2018-19 year 100 million U.S. dollars (about 3 billion Taiwan dollars) into the prize pool.
It's not without reason that game developers would be willing to invest so much in prize money. In the case of League of Legends, one of the most popular games today, the S2 Worlds saw nearly 8 million viewers around the world, with the finals attracting nearly 1.1 million viewers online, and the S7 Worlds saw record-breaking standalone viewer numbers for both the semi-finals and finals, reaching an unprecedented 80 million (for the South Korean team versus the Chinese) and 57.6 million (for the South Korean team in a civil war). Korea vs China) and 57.6 million (Korea vs China).
Riot Games, the game developer of League of Legends, also recently announced that their official channel on the live-streaming platform Twitch, which was established in 2013, has officially surpassed 1 billion total views (and that's just on a single live-streaming platform, which only includes English-language broadcasts of European and American tournaments and major tournaments), a long way ahead of the second-to-fourth place, which has a total of 300-400 million views.
National development gaps
In fact, Taiwan is not short of talent in the field of e-sports, from the ancient era of StarCraft and League of Legends (S2) to the more recent Fighting Kings, Hearthstone Battle, and Legends vs. Legends, Taiwan's individual or team players have won world championships, and with the exception of sports games (e.g., World Soccer Competition 2018) which are less popular, there are players who have made their presence known on the world stage in almost every category of e-sports. Almost every gaming category has players who have made a name for themselves on the world stage.
▲The top photo is of Taipei Assassination Star, the Taiwanese team that won the League of Legends S2 World Championship in 2012, and the bottom photo is of Tom60229, an individual player who won the Hearthstone Battles World Championship earlier this year.(Source:Flickr/artubr CC BY 2.0 (top) / Hearthstone Esports Twitter (bottom))
However, in terms of the overall development of the e-sports environment, although the relevant organizations have made a lot of efforts in recent years, such as promoting industry-academia cooperation, fostering talents through e-sports courses, or including e-sports as an official event in the National Universiade, the overall development of the league and the salary level of players are still inferior to those in other countries due to the lack of willingness of enterprises to sponsor e-sports teams.
But just how far has the e-sports industry developed in other countries? Why don't we take a look at the example of South Korea.
It's what basketball is to America and soccer is to Brazil.
Like billiards for China, anyone who has ever watched any gaming league will have noticed the power of South Korea, which seems to always have a way of getting ahead of the game no matter what the gaming event is, and this has been going on for a long, long time.
Such a leading edge is not from the "natural" we do not know, but we can be sure that South Korea is really in the "acquired" this piece of very great efforts, almost can be said to be the first to focus on the development of the e-sports industry in the country, and even said that South Korea to help e-sports into the international mainstream market is not too much to say.
As early as the late 1990s, the South Korean government was actively building a national network environment, and this effort contributed to the increase in the popularity of video games, and in 2000, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism approved the establishment of the Korea e-Sports Association (KeSPA), which has the main goal of "promoting e-sports as an official sports event," and assists in the promotion of e-sports, the organization of tournaments, and even the establishment of working conditions for professional gamers. It also encourages the general public to play video games, thus consolidating the commercial status of e-sports in various fields.
▲KeSPA regularly organizes the "Gaming Literacy Education Conference" every year, inviting professional lecturers in law and finance to assist players with career questions. (Source:KeSPA Twitter)
With the assistance of KeSPA, millions of people now watch videos every month on three live streaming platforms dedicated to e-sports, e-sports leagues have a regular audience of nearly 10 million people, and many league organizations take it upon themselves to fund and train gamers to participate in tournaments. In Korea, professional gamers are respected and treated like celebrities and sports stars, and most of the population is proud of the country's leadership in e-sports.
As a result, many Korean companies have seen the potential of investing in e-sports teams, including the three largest corporations, Samsung, Korea Telecom (KT) and SK Telecom (SKT), which have many e-sports teams underneath their programs, as well as others such as live-streaming platforms like AfreecaTV, Jin Air and even fried chicken brand bb.q CHICKEN, all of which have title-sponsored teams. The team is also sponsored by bb.q CHICKEN, a fried chicken brand.
This is not only from the social image of the examination, in the whole country to the e-sports industry to devote attention to the enterprise both from the economic and social aspects are very favorable, and in turn, for the country, these teams in the global e-sports competitions in the outstanding performance of the overall economy is also very helpful.
