The jocks are getting their just desserts – sports has only recently climbed up a notch from the traditional showdown of physical or mental prowess, and has bled out into a category which is all but indescribable – video games. Suppress your urge to scoff at it either, as thousands of esports fans will drown out any derisive remarks you make about how video games can create sports stars. It may be a budding phenomenon in the United States and Europe, but in South Korea, esports vies for popularity with the country’s Major League Baseball, and its superstars are considered demigods.
The frenzy is well-expected. Multiplayer broadband games are the apex of video game competition; when once you were hailed as the best Street Fighter player in your neighborhood, now you get to gain celebrity status for your admirable strategic moves in Starcraft, or your quick-as-lightning reflexes in Counterstrike. You gain a cult following and a hefty paycheck, not to mention sweat deals on product sponsorships. In Britain, esports is in its infant stages, and competition is mostly confined within online or LAN tournaments where competitors take turns in fragging each other in elimination rounds. At present, the perks don’t count for much; players can only hope to become semi-professional, and if they join a team, their travel and boarding needs are covered – and that’s about it.
In the U.S., professional gaming is big and snowballing. It’s hard to deny the sport’s popularity when even Fox Sports has caught on into the fever, throwing in a cash prize of half a million dollars for the last man standing; the game is engaging even for the spectator, especially if you consider that most of the players in the competition are veterans, enjoying privileged contracts just to participate. Much like skateboarding and in-line skates have been accepted as full-fledged competitive sports in themselves, pro-gaming is slowly catching up, and the prospects are looking real good, especially if you consider the one place where esports dominate – South Korea.
Esports is to South Korea is the same as anime is to Japan; baseball, a national favorite, is eschewed by most youths in favor of an esport event, so it is safe to say that it’s considered to be the newest form of mainstream entertainment. The recent craze is with Starcraft, a strategy game where players build alien fortresses and fend off or attack other armies in a bet for supremacy. As simple as it sounds, it can get quite thrilling once you watch a competition in the midst of thousands of screaming fans, most of which are female. The playing field is dominated by male competitors, and its champions are considered heartthrobs – they have their own fan clubs, their own lines of branded merchandise, and they have million-dollar paychecks. But the fame doesn’t come easily though; players spend more than twelve hours every day fine-tuning strategies so as to be in perfect condition for the match. Esports is as competitive as it gets, with your prestige relying on mental alertness and great reflexes – and with its popularity gaining ever-increasing momentum, it’s only a matter of time before the corporations pay attention and turn it into the next big thing in sports.
Thanks, good article
Comment by Sergey — July 4, 2008 @ 1:48 pm