How Crazy Is the World of eSports?

When you think about professional sports, the image that comes into mind are players dressed in uniforms who either pass a ball around a field or try to shoot that ball into a hoop. But sports have come to encompass games that require players to sit in front of a computer and play a game.

While it may not be as physically taxing as trying to guard an opponent or tackle them to the ground, the world of eSports also involves a great deal of thinking. Just like their more physically active counterpart, eSports players also earn A LOT of money.

Earning huge amounts of money isn’t the only thing eSports players and other professional players share in common. Both also draw quite the crowd whenever a tournament comes around.

Not only that, viewers can also place bets on who wins a specific tournament or a specific map winner (the latter one requires a bit more technical knowledge, which actually suits those with video gaming experience). You can learn a lot more about this by reading the Allstargambling eSports Guide which also provides a list of video games where you can bet on the outcome.

Just like betting on who wins between the Patriots and whoever they come up against, right? The only difference being that, eSports watchers are not watching a bunch of people running around a field or court.

While eSports now occupies the same glamorous territory as traditional professional sports, things weren’t always this way.

Looking back at the roots of eSports

It all started in the late 90s with first-person shooter game called Quake. The game was responsible for the development of the competitive gaming scene.

In 1997, Dennis Fong, who used the nickname “Thresh” when gaming, won a car – a Ferrari 328 GTS – for winning a Quake tournament. After that, it didn’t take long for amateur leagues to show up. Other countries also started having their own local competitions. Soon after, professional leagues started to appear.

By 2000, those who played video games competitively could win as much as $40,000. Take note: this is still for games that focus on shooters.

It didn’t take long for other kinds of video games to catch up. Soon, there were people playing StarCraft and Warcraft competitively.

The eSports of today

The world of professional eSports is still in its infancy, especially when you compare it to games that are played by highly paid athletes. The 90s may be way in the past but it’s just a few decades old but it has already achieved quite a lot in a short span of time.

The eSports players of today aren’t just competing in tournaments for the sake of winning big money in the end; they are actually paid to do something they love and are quite good at. So yes, in just a few short years, players went from trying to secure prize money to being paid to win.

Not only are eSports players given a full salary to win tournaments, they are also treated like actual athletes. If you watch a bit of sports, you know that players can be traded and they can become free agents (they can sign with any team). The same things apply to those who play Overwatch or Dota 2 for a living. They even wear home and away jerseys during gameplay and some games are actually broadcast on TV, with the UK being one example. Others make use of services like Twitch.

The video games to bet on

There are several video games that feature competitive gaming. Here’s a few of them:

• Overwatch: This is a first-person shooter game that relies on teams. There are two teams with six players each who are known as “heroes” and each of them has their own style of play. Players need to work together to defend or control points on a map or to transport a payload across the map in a given time.

• Dota 2: Each team in this multiplayer online battle arena gets five players who control a specific character. The teams have their own base on the map and work towards destroying opponents by collecting experience points and items.
• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: The fourth title in the Counter-Strike series pits Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists against each other. They both have the same goal: eliminate the enemy. However, they have to do that while also trying to achieve other objectives.

The world of eSports is starting to look like the world of traditional professional sports. There is even a petition to include it in the Olympics. Whether or not that happens, one thing is for sure: it’s surely a crazy world and it is poised to keep getting bigger.