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'''Electronic sports'''THis is not a fucking sport at all.... (eSports) comprises the competitive play of [[video games]]. Other terms include '''competitive gaming''', '''professional gaming''', '''eSport''', and '''cybersport'''. The most common [[video game genre]]s associated with electronic sports are [[real-time strategy]] (RTS), [[fighting game|fighting]], [[first-person shooter]] (FPS), [[Massively-multiplayer online game|massively-multiplayer online]] (MMOG), and [[Racing game|racing]]. Games are played competitively at amateur, semi-professional and professional levels, and some games have organized competition in the form of leagues and tournaments. Events such as [[Major League Gaming]] (MLG), [[GOMTV Global Starcraft II League|Global Starcraft II League]] (GSL), [[World Cyber Games]] (WCG), [[Dreamhack]], and [[Intel Extreme Masters]] provide both real-time casting of streamed games, and cash prizes to the winners.
'''Electronic sports''' (eSports) comprises the competitive play of [[video games]]. Other terms include '''competitive gaming''', '''professional gaming''', '''eSport''', and '''cybersport'''. The most common [[video game genre]]s associated with electronic sports are [[real-time strategy]] (RTS), [[fighting game|fighting]], [[first-person shooter]] (FPS), [[Massively-multiplayer online game|massively-multiplayer online]] (MMOG), and [[Racing game|racing]]. Games are played competitively at amateur, semi-professional and professional levels, and some games have organized competition in the form of leagues and tournaments. Events such as [[Major League Gaming]] (MLG), [[GOMTV Global Starcraft II League|Global Starcraft II League]] (GSL), [[World Cyber Games]] (WCG), [[Dreamhack]], and [[Intel Extreme Masters]] provide both real-time casting of streamed games, and cash prizes to the winners.


==Connection type==
==Connection type==

Revision as of 11:35, 6 March 2013

Video games
Platforms
Genres
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Development

Electronic sports (eSports) comprises the competitive play of video games. Other terms include competitive gaming, professional gaming, eSport, and cybersport. The most common video game genres associated with electronic sports are real-time strategy (RTS), fighting, first-person shooter (FPS), massively-multiplayer online (MMOG), and racing. Games are played competitively at amateur, semi-professional and professional levels, and some games have organized competition in the form of leagues and tournaments. Events such as Major League Gaming (MLG), Global Starcraft II League (GSL), World Cyber Games (WCG), Dreamhack, and Intel Extreme Masters provide both real-time casting of streamed games, and cash prizes to the winners.

Connection type

Internet

The easiest way to play an electronic sports match is over the Internet. Detecting cheating in general online play may be more difficult than at physical events, and network latency may negatively impact players' performance, especially at high levels of competition. However, due to its convenience, even players who are used to LAN games use Internet games for fun and exhibition games.

Usually teams (or "clans" as they are sometimes called) contact each other prior to matches. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is very popular for doing this, due to the ability of each clan, league, or other gaming-related organisation to set up its own chat channel on the network, making them easy to find. (IRC has become so popular among gamers that the largest IRC network is QuakeNet, a network originally created for players of the first-person shooter Quake and now used by players of many different games.) The matches are then carried out on the server according to the rules of the leagues the teams are familiar with.

Popular online leagues include the Canada-based Pro Gaming League, along with Cyberathlete Amateur League, Cyber Evolution (CEVO), FraggedNation, eCompete-Online (ECO), Major League Gaming, ClanBase, and the Electronic Sports League. Video game competitions have referees or officials to monitor for cheating.[clarification needed][1] These video gaming tournaments also bring in fans, that either show up at the tournament or view it online[2] Video game tournaments are often supported by corporate sponsorship; for example, the CPL is sponsored by Sierra Entertainment, Razer, Cyber Shots Energy Drink, and Gamerail,[3] and some teams even have sponsorship from big companies such as Intel, Western Digital or SteelSeries.

One of the larger online gaming networks on the PC is Blizzard's Battle.net, used to play Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft online. This network has over 12 million active users with an average of 1,000,000 online at any given moment with peaks up to 1,500,000 [citation needed]. Battle.net is especially important for "StarCraft II", in which a real-time laddering system is used to rank every one of 6.2 million players[citation needed] in 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 match types, respectively.

Even though the PlayStation Network currently has the most individual profiles (around 28 million), its chief competitor Xbox Live is currently the most popular and the most subscribed to console online gaming service, with over 17 million subscribers.

Local area network

Playing over a Local area network (LAN) has a number of advantages: the network has less lag and higher quality, and the competitors can be directly scrutinized for cheating. At professional events administrators will normally be present to ensure fair play. Because there is still a possibility of gamers using Modding to alter their hardware to unfairly modify certain aspects of the game or controller inputs to their advantage, some competitions prevent this by supplying all competitors with identical hardware for the event. LAN events also create a more social atmosphere as a result of all competitors being physically present. Due to the advantages of LAN, many gamers organize LAN parties or visit LAN centres, and most major tournaments are conducted over LANs.

History

Arcade games

Video games have been played competitively since their inception. The Space Invaders Tournament held by Atari in 1980 was the first video game competition, and attracted more than 10,000 participants, establishing competitive gaming as a mainstream hobby.[4] Twin Galaxies is known for keeping track of high scores on many classic arcade games, and they created the U.S. National Video Game Team in 1983. The team ran a number of competitions, including the 1987 Video Game Masters Tournament for Guinness World Records. One of the most well known classic arcade game players is Billy Mitchell, for his top scores in Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.

Nintendo held their World Championships in 1990, touring across the United States, with the finals at Universal Studios Hollywood in California. There were 90 finalists, and the champions were Jeff Hanson (11 & under), Thor Aackerlund (12–17), and Paul White (18 & over). The Nintendo championships are notable for the silver cartridges distributed to all of the finalists, which now fetch high prices on eBay.[5] Gold cartridges were distributed as a prize in a Nintendo Power magazine contest.

Nintendo held a 2nd World Championships in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) called the Nintendo PowerFest '94. There were 132 finalists that played in the finals in San Diego, CA. Mike Iarossi took home 1st prize.

Blockbuster Video ran their own World Game Championships in the early 1990s, co-hosted by GamePro magazine. Citizens from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Chile were eligible to compete. Games from the 1994 championships included NBA Jam and Virtua Racing.[6]

Some of the early televised eSports events included the American show Starcade, the British show GamesMaster, and the Australian gameshow A*mazing, which would show two children competing in various Nintendo games in order to win points.

Since the 1990s, the arcade gaming scene has been mostly focused on fighting games, as well as bullet hell shooter games and rhythm music video games in more recent years. One of the most well known arcade fighting game players is Daigo Umehara.

Unix era

Developed as a successor to 1986's Xtrek, Netrek was first played in 1988. It is an Internet game for up to 16 players, written almost entirely in cross-platform open source software. It combines features of multi-directional shooters and team-based real-time strategy games. Players attempt to disable or destroy their opponents' ships in real-time combat, while taking over enemy planets by bombing them and dropping off armies they pick up on friendly planets. The goal of the game is to capture all the opposing team's planets.

Netrek was the third Internet game, the first Internet team game,[7] the first Internet game to use metaservers to locate open game servers, and the first to have persistent user information. In 1993 it was credited by Wired Magazine as "the first online sports game".[8]

As of 2010 it is the oldest internet game still actively played.

Early PC

Doom

The release of Doom on December 10, 1993 introduced multi-player death match games. Doom spawned newsgroups, chat rooms and among the first known users of IRC for gaming. Players connected to each other modem-to-modem and online competitive gaming was born. A handful of Doom fan sites report the favored maps of the time being e1m4 and e1m5.

Doom was swept aside by the release of its successor Doom II on October 10, 1994. Shortly thereafter the DWANGO (Dial up Wide Area Network Gaming Operations) firm launched their services. DWANGO, charged users the cost of a local telephone call to connect to their dial-up bulletin board services. With 20+ servers scattered throughout urban locations in North America DWANGO became the early hub of competitive gaming.

Initially, online gaming was available only to those with superior internet connections. These included ISP employees, university/college students and large businesses. Early client side software includes iDoom, Kali and iFrag.

Doom II

To accompany the launch of Doom II, Microsoft held the first offline tournament for PC players, Deathmatch '95. Deathmatch '95 (aka Judgment Day Deathmatch 95 & Dwango’s Deathmatch 95) was aimed to be a competitive offline gaming tournament featuring the most popular title of the year, Doom II. This format, with gamers attending a single location and using standardized hardware, has defined eSports competitions since.

Quake

Formal events have grown dramatically since the release of Quake in 1996. At the earliest offline Quake tournament, "Red Annihilation" in May '97 of that year, Quake co-creator John Carmack promised his own red Ferrari 328 GTS convertible to the winner, Dennis Fong aka "Thresh".

Rise of global tournaments

Cyberathlete Professional League

In June 1997 Angel Munoz launched a league for computer video gamers, known as the Cyberathlete Professional League or CPL. Since then, the attendance and size of the venues for these events has grown and thousands of spectators typically connect over the internet to watch the final matches.[9]

In 2005 the CPL moved to a World Tour format. The 2005 CPL World Tour focused on the one-on-one deathmatch game Painkiller and had a total prize purse of $1,000,000. The winner of the CPL Grand Finals event, Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, went home with the grand prize of $150,000, while Sander "Vo0" Kaasjager took home the MVP trophy for having the most tournament wins.

The Cyberathlete Amateur League (CAL) is the "minor league" of the CPL. It is based mainly on online game play. It hosts more than 600,000 online gamers.[10] A 2003 competition hosted by CAL was played in a Hyatt Regency Ballroom. Several tables were placed together where 10 computers were set up for the professional gamers. The game was Half-Life: Counterstrike.[2]

In 2010, the former parent of the CPL, announced that a two-year acquisition process of the CPL was finalized, and that the owner of the CPL (and its subsidiaries) was now WoLong Ventures PTE of Singapore.[11]

World Cyber Games

In the year 2000, the first World Cyber Games event was held in Seoul, Korea. There were competitions for Quake III Arena, StarCraft, FIFA 2000, and Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. The competition initially had 174 competitors from 17 different countries with a total prize purse of $20,000. In 2006, the prize purse had risen to $462,000, and the event had grown to 9 different competitions and 700 qualified participants from 70 different countries.

Electronic Sports World Cup

Electronic Sports World Cup is an international championship held annually in France. Representatives must win their respective national qualifier to represent their country in the tournament.[12] The first Electronic Sports World Cup event was held in 2000, with a total of 358 participants from 37 countries, and a prize purse of € 150.000. By 2006, the event had grown to 547 qualified participants from 53 countries and a prize purse of $400,000. The event also featured the first competition with a game specifically made for it; TrackMania Nations.

Major League Gaming

2002 saw the launch of Major League Gaming, a North American professional videogame league, the largest organized professional gaming league. Competitors from 28 different countries have participated in their tournaments, while over one million participants have competed online.[13] In 2006, Major League Gaming was the first televised console gaming league in the United States, with their Halo 2 Pro Series being broadcast by USA Network.[14] Now Major League Gaming has put Halo 3, Halo: Reach, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, League of Legends, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and StarCraft II into their circuit.[15] Events are now broadcast on their homepage.

World eSports Games

The first time the World e-Sports Games took place, was January 30 through March 20, 2005 and featured Counter-Strike and Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos as main titles. Players resided in Seoul, South Korea throughout most of the tournament and matches were broadcast on Korean television. The finals took place in Beijing, China. Attendees were all invited based on past performances and included the likes of Jang "Moon" Jae Ho, Team NoA and Li "Sky" Xiaofeng.

World Series of Video Games

2006 saw the first season of the World Series of Video Games event, a spin off of the CPL World Tour format. The WSVG held world championships for Counter-Strike, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and Quake 4. The WSVG also held American championships for Halo 2, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, and Project Gotham Racing 3.

Prize money and sponsorship in professional electronic sports

There are a number of titles that support a professional gaming scene. Sometimes game developers will use e-sports as a marketing outlet for their games, providing prize money for competition directly.[16] In other cases, sponsorship extends well beyond the developers of the game in question. This commonly includes tech companies and companies selling computer hardware or energy drinks. For some games, total prize money can amount to millions of dollars a year.[16][17] Popular tournaments include those run by the World Cyber Games, the World e-Sports Games, and the Electronic Sports World Cup.

Besides direct prize money earnings, players may also receive money through direct sponsorship of themselves or their team. A team sponsorship usually includes travel expenses and sometimes free hardware specific to that company. Although sponsorships have evolved over the years,[how?] the first all inclusive team sponsorship was given to Team Abuse in June 2000.[citation needed] Team Abuse was a well-respected Quake II team led by Doug 'Citizen' Suttles and a gamut of talented players [Toxic, Method, Lord Vader]. Upon their hosting of a grass roots event called Lansanity in Portland, OR, Team Abuse was offered a complete sponsorship, setting precedents for many gamers to come. The Speakeasy sponsorship included a fully leased gaming studio in Lake Oswego, OR, with a Speakeasy.net T1 connection. Additionally Team Abuse was sent to many CPL events, Quake Invitational League events, hosted Lansanity 2, and also found itself sending Marc 'pureluck' Naujock to the XSI Invitational in London as part of the Top 10 USA players vs the Top 10 European players tournament. Speakeasy paved the way for fully immersive corporate marketing sponsorship for professional gaming by applying merchandising, PR, grass root events, and a serious interest in the gaming community.

Notable electronic sports games

Fighting games

See also: Evolution Championship Series and Tougeki - Super Battle Opera

Fighting games were some of the earliest games to be played in professional tournaments. The Street Fighter series, The King of Fighters series, Mortal Kombat series, Marvel vs. Capcom series (also known as crossover or versus series), Tekken series, and most recently Blazblue, are amongst those fighting games played at a professional level. Popular tournaments have taken place in the whole world, primarily the Evolution Championship Series in the USA and Tougeki - Super Battle Opera in Japan.

Fighting game enthusiasts generally prefer the moniker "competitive gaming", and often eschew the term "e-sports", citing cultural differences between the predominately PC-gaming esports communities and the older arcade-gaming community.[18][19] That said, a few traditional e-sports leagues have added fighting games to their roster such as Major League Gaming and, more recently the IGN Pro League.

Street Fighter series

The Street Fighter series has one of the earliest, and still one of the most competitive, gaming scenes. The greatest Street Fighter player is considered to be Daigo Umehara. In 2011, two of Daigo's matches have been included in Kotaku's list of "The 10 Best Moments in Pro-Gaming History", with his early 1998 match against Alex Valle in Street Fighter Alpha 3 ranked sixth and his 2004 comeback against Justin Wong in Street Fighter III: Third Strike ranked first, while his 2009 match against Justin Wong in Street Fighter IV was listed as having "[j]ust missed the cut."[20]

Real-time strategy

StarCraft

Main article: StarCraft professional competition

Since the competitive success of the original StarCraft in South Korea, the StarCraft scene has remained centered there, where many play it professionally or as a spectator sport, and the best pro-gamers are seen as celebrities. In the west, StarCraft enjoys less, but still significant competitive popularity. Due to its immense popularity in South Korea, it is the among the most popular e-sports titles. StarCraft is the very first game to have been accepted into the World Cyber Games tournament, and had a tournament at their events every year until it was replaced by StarCraft II in 2011.

In Korea, the most important StarCraft competitions take place in leagues such as the Ongamenet Starleague, the MBCGame StarCraft League, and Proleague. Finals for these league attract tens of thousands of fans, and are very popular on Korean cable TV.

Broadcasts of the original Starcraft are generally declining in favor of StarCraft II. The MBCGame television channel known for StarCraft broadcasts has ceased broadcasting. Proleague now broadcasts a tournament that mixes StarCraft I and II. StarCraft II has replaced the original game in the WGC.

StarCraft II is played internationally. There have since been many leagues and e-sports organizations outside of Korea and across the world hosting StarCraft II tournaments, including the Team Liquid StarLeague (TSL), Major League Gaming (MLG), North American Star League (NASL), IGN Pro League (IPL), DreamHack, and the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM). The Korean GOMTV Global Starcraft II League (GSL), however, is generally acknowledged as the most prestigious StarCraft II tournament by the game's community and players.[citation needed]

Warcraft III

See also: Warcraft III World Championships

Played professionally all around the world with hot spots in South Korea, China, France, and Germany, and with a few dozen professional teams in existence. The game lacks a uniting body, however, and has no definable world championship.

Some of the biggest Warcraft III tournaments include the six "Major tournaments" listed below as well as events organised by Blizzard Entertainment, televised Korean leagues and several large tournaments held in China.

Warcraft III is seen as the competitive RTS-game with the second biggest playerbase, with the number players online at Battle.net ranging between 70,000 and 100,000 at any given moment. It must also be noted that the Chinese scene, which has over three million players, uses their own clients for online competition due to a poor connection to the outside world. In Korea, Warcraft III has significantly less popularity than StarCraft, which is the most popular.

Some notable Warcraft III players include: Xiaofeng "Sky" Li, Dae Hui "FoV" Cho, Jang "Moon" Jae Ho, Fredrik "MaDFroG" Johansson and Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen.

Multiplayer Online Battle Arena

Dota

File:TheInternational.jpg
A crowd watching a Dota 2 match during The International at Gamescom 2011.

The Dota franchise, which includes the Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients and its stand-alone sequel Dota 2 are amongst the most popular electronic sports games played professionally. These titles have been featured at major international tournaments, including DreamHack,[21] as well as the World Cyber Games and the ESWC.[22] Dota 2 made its public debut at The International, hosted by Valve Corporation in 2011, in which the grand prize of one million dollars, the largest to date, was awarded to the champions.[23]

League of Legends

League of Legends (LoL) is an action RTS video game developed and published by Riot Games for Microsoft Windows, primarily inspired by the abovementioned DOTA, the popular Defense of the Ancients map for Warcraft III. It was first announced on October 7, 2008, and released on October 27, 2009.

League of Legends has experienced some success in the competitive video game field. The 2010 World Cyber Games Grand Finals at Los Angeles hosted a competitive tournament for League of Legends. The victors were the Counter Logic Gaming team from North America, winning a mere $7,000 prize. LoL was added to the Intel Extreme Masters lineup for the 2011 Electronic Sports League season.[24] Competitive play for League of Legends reached a new level during the Season 1 World Championships at Dreamhack held in Sweden during June 2011. The European team Fnatic defeated teams from Europe and the USA to win the tournament which featured US$100,000 in prizes and won a US$50,000 prize.[25] Nearly 1.6 million viewers watched the streaming broadcast over the course of the event with a peak of over 210,000 viewers watching a single semi-final match, second to Dota 2's The International 2. The competitive play has also been stated as the reason of the removal of the Dodge stat in Season 2.

The success of League of Legends after Season 1 led Riot to announce a total of 5,000,000 USD to be paid out over Season 2. Of this 5 million, 2 million went to Riot's partners including the IPL and other major eSports associations. Another 2 million went to Riot's Season 2 qualifiers and the world championship. The final one million went to small organizers who applied to Riot to host League of Legends tournaments. The Season 2 World Championship included teams from all over the world and featured a prize pool of 2 million US dollars. The Grand Finals were ultimately between 2 Asian powerhouses, Taipei Assassins (Taiwan) and Azubu Frost (South Korea). Despite a loss in the first game of the series, Taipei Assassins rallied back and won the next 3 games, beating Azubu Frost 3 to 1 to win the 1 million dollar grand prize. During the quarterfinal match against Team Solomid, Azubu Frost player Woong looked at the spectator minimap, resulting in a fine that reduced their winnings by US$30,000.[26] The League of Legends Season 2 World Finals match was the most watched e-sport event of all time, with 8.2 million unique viewers and a peak of 1.1 million concurrent viewers on internet streaming and Korean and Chinese television.[27]

First-person shooters

Counter-Strike

A Counter-Strike match in Electronic Sports World Cup 2007, Paris

Played all around the world with hot spots in North America and Europe, there are a few dozen professional teams that gather at just as many tournaments all around the world every year. Without a uniting body in competitive gaming many of these claim to be the game's "World Championship" tournament.

While none of them stand out enough to justify this claim, six tournament finals are generally identified as being the "biggest". The six "Major tournaments" are listed below and are led by WCG (World Cyber Games).

Teams can be observed playing professionally in leagues such as, CEVO, ESEA League, ESL, and others.

The defunct league Championship Gaming Series franchised teams with contracted players who played Counter-Strike: Source

Halo

  • Halo – Tactical Team FPS (Xbox)

The Halo series has a large impact on the national professional scene in the United States of America. See Major League Gaming for more information. This has also been picked up in Europe, with the European Gaming League hosting their first event at the end of July 2010 in Liverpool attracting 41 of Europe's biggest teams. Australia have also started their own leagues with the Australian Cyber League hosting their Pro Circuit with tournaments in several major cities in Australia.

Quake Live

Quake Live was released in 2010 by ID Software and has since then only grown. The game is based upon its "predecessor" Quake III Arena. There are many competitive players, although mostly in the game type 'Duel', which essentially is a 1v1 game.

Quake Live is played in many yearly tournaments, including Dreamhack (Summer & Winter), QuakeCon, FaceIt etc.

Quake 4

  • Quake 4 – DeathMatch FPS (1vs1, PC)

Played professionally in western society, there are a dozen professional players signed to a few professional teams and a number of players marketing themselves through other means. As of 2008, Quake 4 has fallen out of favor in competition for the previous game in the series, Quake III Arena.

Four "world championships" took place using Quake 4 in the 2006 season. Most notable are those of the Electronic Sports World Cup and the World Series of Video Games as the game had a top tier status with these organizations, the game had the smallest status of all games played at the World Cyber Games and KODE5.

So far only the Electronic Sports World Cup has announced that they will be using Quake 4 again. It is generally expected that the World series of Video Games will do the same and it is also seen as a potential candidate for a top status game at the World Cyber Games.

Sports games

FIFA

File:ESBL Match.JPG
World League eSport Bundesliga Kick-Off Event

FIFA Football is a part of the World Cyber Games since its beginning in 2000 and also at every regional WCG Tourney like the SEC or the Pan-American WCG. In 2003 a FIFA tournament was also held at the CPL Europe and is therefore the only sports game that has ever been part of a Cyberathlete Professional League competition.

Germany has the biggest FIFA Football community with two professional leagues (Electronic Sports League EPS and the World League eSport Bundesliga which is aired on the national TV-broadcaster Deutsches Sportfernsehen). Besides Germany, South Korea is a strong FIFA Football nation with 3 World Cyber Games titles. There are also leagues in South Korea like the Ongamenet FifaLeague that are televised. In 2006 prizes with a value of over a quarter million US-Dollar were handed out to professional FIFA gamers.

TrackMania Nations

TrackMania Nations ESWC released in January 2006, and was the first game to be conceived for a competition (Electronic Sports World Cup). The game permits players to create their own tracks. Except ESWC, the Electronic Sports League, Electronic Tournaments and the FuturTech Gaming League organize competitions on this game. In April 2008, a new version of the game, called TrackMania Nations Forever, released and added new features to the original game. The ESWC committee decided to use this new version for ESWC 2008. This game is downloadable free of charge and counts around 8,000 players at least on any moment. On esports, the game is most popular in Europe, especially in France, where the game was created.

Other games

Dance Dance Revolution is a competitive music rhythm game series that began in 1998. It is the first game to be registered as an official sport, as 'Machine Dance' in Norway.[28]

In September 2006 FUN Technologies held the first WorldWide Web Games for a $1 million prize. The competition had 71 contestants and featured the casual games Bejeweled 2, Solitaire, and Zuma. The champion was 21-year-old Kavitha Yalavarthi of Odessa, Texas.[29] Some online games can be played using a variety of peripheral input devices that require physical activity. These include game cycles, bicycles both upright and recumbent, steppers like the Gamercize peripheral and treadmills. In March 2009 a new sort of computer video game (exergaming) peripheral was launched, the FootPOWR peripheral. Until this time the majority of electronic game competitions consisted of players using the mouse and select keyboard input for game play. The FootPOWR peripheral is quite versatile since each of the nine area of the item can be mapped to specific keys or mouse functions.[30] Like other online game competitions it is difficult for those using activity-driven (exergaming) input devices to be certain they are playing in a similar fashion as others who may be using conventional mouse or keyboard input.[31]

Media coverage

StarCraft match televised on MBCGame in Seoul, South Korea

The main medium for electronic sports coverage is the Internet. Electronic sports websites generally focus on professional tournaments and the top level amateur games, leaving the other games to be covered by the leagues themselves or smaller game-specific community websites if at all.

In recent years, mainstream coverage in North America and Europe has increased, and more mainstream news websites are starting to regularly provide some coverage of the major events with occasional television coverage. One of the biggest contributors to the video game media coverage are professional video gamers such as Lil Poison and Fatal1ty.[how?]

In South Korea, electronic sports and events are regularly televised by dedicated 24-hour cable TV game channel Ongamenet, and formerly MBCGame, which has since converted to a music channel. The most frequent games in South Korean electronic sports are the real-time strategy games StarCraft and Warcraft III. The South Korean scene is often cited as an model of popularised electronic sports by those who would like to see a similar level of popularity in the west.[32]

In Germany, GIGA Television's majority of shows are covering e-sports. ESL TV was transformed into GIGA II in June 2006 but the concept failed and ESL TV was reintroduced in autumn 2007. ESL TV features e-sports only.

In the UK, XLEAGUE.TV broadcasts on SKY channel 208, showing both features on eSports and broadcasting matches from its online leagues and tournaments, which for the purpose of television shows, are shot from its studio rather than played online. This channel has ceased broadcasting as of 1 March 2009.

In France, Game One propose some e-sport matches in a show called "Arena Online" and is a partner of the Xfire Trophy, an invitational tournament. They broadcasted matches on games like Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Source, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, and recently Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

In the United States, gaming is seen on a variety of channels. ESPN has a show called Madden Nation, which shows gamers playing the Madden NFL game for Xbox 360. These players are competing for a cash prize.[33] DirecTV shows live video game matches for the Championship Gaming Series.[32] CBS aired footage of the 2007 World Series of Video Games tournament that was held in Louisville, Kentucky.[34] G4 (TV channel) is dedicated to keeping viewers up to date on video games.[35]

Many e-sports events are streamed online to viewers over the internet. Dreamhack Winter 2011, for example, reached 1.7 million unique viewers.[36] A popular website for this is TwitchTV.

Professional leagues

League name Abbreviation Current game(s) Location From
Ongamenet Starleague OSL StarCraft, StarCraft II Korea 2000
MBCgame Starleague MSL StarCraft Korea 2003-2012
Major League Gaming MLG StarCraft II, League of Legends, Call of Duty: Black Ops II North America 2002
ESEA League ESEA Counter-Strike 1.6, Counter-Strike: Source, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Team Fortress 2, StarCraft II, League of Legends North America 2004
European Team Fortress 2 League ETF2L Team Fortress 2 Europe 2007
Pro Gaming League PGL Disbanded as of 2009 North America 2007
European Gaming League EGL Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Halo 4, Gears of War 3 Europe 2007
Asian Gaming League[37] AGL COD4, DotA, Starcraft II Asia 2010
ESL Master Series ESL Starcraft II, League of Legends, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, FIFA 13 International 2007
NGL One[38] NGL One Counter-Strike, Warcraft III, Starcraft II Europe
[ClanBase] CB League of Legends, Battlefield 3, Unreal Tournament, Quake Live, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Enemy Territory, Call of Duty 2, Haxball, Shooting Games (Multiple changes per year) Europe 2000
Evolution Championship Series Evo Fighting games (Multiple changes per year) North America 2003
World Cyber Games WCG Multiple. Changes per year International 2000
Cyber Evolution[39] CEVO Battlefield 3, Counter-Strike: Source, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Team Fortress 2, DotA 2 International
Electronic Sports World Cup ESWC CS Global Offensive, Trackmania, DotA 2, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, League of Legends, Tekken Tag Tournament 2. International 2000
World e-Sports Games WEG International 2005
GOMTV Global StarCraft II League GSL StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Korea/International 2010
North American Star League NASL StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Heroes of Newerth North America/International 2011
iRacing.com NVIDIA Series[40] iRacing.com International 2009
NASCAR iRacing.com World Championship Series NiSWC iRacing.com International 2009
Formula SimRacing[41] rFactor International
Australian Cyber League[42] ACL Starcraft 2, Halo 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops II Australia/New Zealand 2009
The International Dota 2 International 2011
Electronic Sports Tournament EST PES, FIFA Nigeria/Africa 2011
IGN Pro League IPL StarCraft 2, League of Legends, Shootmania, Dead or Alive 5, Super Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter X Tekken North America 2010
Star Ladder SLTV Point Blank, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, World of Tanks, Shadow Company Europe

See also

Associations and governing bodies

International

Asia

Africa

  • Namibia Electronic Sports Association (Namibia)
  • Mind Sports South Africa (South Africa)

Europe

  • eSport Verband Österreich (Austria)
  • Belgian Electronic Sport Federation (Belgium)
  • E-sport Denmark (Denmark)
  • Finnish eSports Federation (Finland)
  • France Esport Console(France)
  • Deutscher eSport Bund (Germany)
  • Nederlandse Electronic Sport Bond (Netherlands)
  • Swiss E-sport Federation (Switzerland)
  • United Kingdom eSports Association (United Kingdom)

North America

References

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  2. ^ a b "Are video games a sport?". csmonitor.com. 2003-08-08. Retrieved 2012-06-04.
  3. ^ Cyberathlete Professional League » Sponsors[dead link]
  4. ^ "Players Guide To Electronic Science Fiction Games". Electronic Games. 1 (2): 35–45 [36]. 1982. Retrieved 1 February 2012. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  5. ^ NES Player ([1])
  6. ^ GamePro Magazine, June 1994 ([2])
  7. ^ "GameSpotting 20XX, Page 7". GameSpot.com. Retrieved 2012-05-25.
  8. ^ Erik Hietbrink. "Netrek Nexus - Wired Article: The First Online Sports Game". Netrek.org. Retrieved 2012-05-25.
  9. ^ CPL: Game Informer
  10. ^ Cyberathlete Professional League » About Us[dead link]
  11. ^ "and WoLong Ventures Announce Completion of CPL and CAL Acquisition". NewWorld. 2010-08-23. Retrieved 2012-05-25.
  12. ^ "Electronic Sports World Cup". Eswc.Com. Retrieved 2012-06-04.
  13. ^ "About Major League Gaming | Major League Gaming". Mlgpro.com. 2012-03-25. Retrieved 2012-06-04.
  14. ^ "Major League Gaming -Boost Mobile Major League Gaming Pro Circuit". Usanetwork.com. 2009-08-10. Retrieved 2012-05-25.
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  16. ^ a b Andrew Goldfarb (May 1, 2012). "League of Legends Season 2 Championship Announced". IGN. Retrieved Aug 22, 2012.
  17. ^ David Schmidt (July 16, 2012). "NASL S3 Finals push SC2 earnings over $5m". ESFI World. Retrieved Aug 22, 2012. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  18. ^ "Where eSports Leagues Go Wrong With Fighters". Shoryuken.com. December 4, 2011.
  19. ^ Graham, David Philip (December 12, 2011). "Guest Editorial – Momentum Matters: A Historical Perspective on the FGC and Esports". Shoryuken.com.
  20. ^ Breslau, Rod (July 13, 2011). "The 10 Best Moments in Pro-Gaming History". Kotaku. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
  21. ^ Horton, Samuel (2011-11-02). "DreamHack Winter to feature Dota 2". SK Gaming.
  22. ^ "Electronic Sports World Cup - ESWC 2011". Eswc.com. Retrieved 2012-05-25.
  23. ^ Reilly, Jim (2011-08-01). "Valve Goes Big with Dota 2 Tournament". IGN.
  24. ^ "IEM Season VI announced, LoL added". SK Gaming. 2011-06-27. Retrieved 2012-05-25.
  25. ^ hxd Harry Wiggett (2011-07-13). "FnaticMSI.LoL jet off to LA!". FNATIC.com. Retrieved 2012-05-25.
  26. ^ "World Playoffs - Rule Violations". leageuoflegends.com. 2012-12-12. Retrieved 2012-11-16.
  27. ^ "League of Legends Season 2 Championships most watched eSports event of all time". gamespot.com. 2012-10-22. Retrieved 2012-11-21.
  28. ^ "Positive Gaming: Machine Dance as Fitness and Sport". Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2007-09-22.
  29. ^ GameSpot, September 11, 2006 ([4])
  30. ^ FootGaming, June 2009 ([5])
  31. ^ FootGaming World of Warcraft, June 2009 ([6])
  32. ^ a b Kim, Ryan (2007-06-11). "League beginning for video gamers". Sfgate.com. Retrieved 2012-06-04.
  33. ^ ESPN - Madden Nation 3 - Tuesday Nights On ESPN 2 11:00 p.m. EST / 8:00 p.m. PST - Videogames[dead link]
  34. ^ Schiesel, Seth (2007-07-28). "Video Game Matches to Be Televised on CBS". The New York Times.
  35. ^ "G4 - About". G4tv.com. Retrieved 2012-06-04.
  36. ^ "Dreamhack and Twitch.TV Announce Record-Breaking Online Viewership". Dreamhack.
  37. ^ Raymond Psy. "Asia Gaming League announces Dota 2 league". ESFI World. Retrieved 2012-05-25.
  38. ^ "Warcraft III: NGL One releases finals VODs". SK Gaming. 2010-05-04. Retrieved 2012-05-25.
  39. ^ "OCZ to Sponsor the Cyber Evolution Gaming Contest - Softpedia". News.softpedia.com. 2008-02-14. Retrieved 2012-05-25.
  40. ^ "InsideSimRacing - iRacing DWC". Insidesimracing.tv. Retrieved 2012-07-09.
  41. ^ "teams up with Formula SimRacing.net!". Thrustmaster. 2012-03-20. Retrieved 2012-05-25.
  42. ^ By CVG Australia Staff for computerandvideogames.com (2012-04-12). "News: Australian Cyber League touches down in Sydney". ComputerAndVideoGames.com. Retrieved 2012-05-25.

External links

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