Are "eSports" a viable enterprise, one which will only grow, evolve, and flourish? I would be among those who argue yes. I am on the fringe of this trend, and am late into it. I've only watched various Starcraft II tournaments and matches on Twitch.tv, a website that in my opinion, is fantastic.
From what I've gathered, eSports, or electronic sports, are basically professional gaming tournaments, and games which are viewed publicly (streamed) to any viewers who choose to watch them. I'm not really the right guy to be involved in competitive gaming, because I don't care about winning, but I love to watch others compete, especially in Starcraft II. Of course, professional gaming pays pretty well, from sponsorship to prize money, so it's a pretty damn cool career choice, though it requires dedication.
Anyway, Twitch is growing, and becoming ever more popular, and eSports I think will only get bigger, as more and more people accept it, understand it, and want to watch it. I saw one tournament of Starcraft II and I was hooked for life. It feels dirty and nerdy beyond all reason to literally watch other people play video games all day, but remember, the tournaments I watch happen once a year or so, and are cast by professional casters like Day9, Tasteless, and Artosis, as well as players-turned-casters like Grubby, who I'm fond of.
It's a sick world down there in eSports, or at least where I am in it, which is only in the realm of Starcraft II obviously. Twitch.tv has a live chat feature during these tournaments of course, and theres thousands of people in the chat, watching the action on multiple live streams. You see a lot of messed up stuff, from the stream breaking and players writing so many lines of swear words and angry rants that it blows your mind, to just people posting political nonsense, whining how they hate casters, saying racist things, but that's what makes it great. It's like the icing on the cake.
The games themselves are great. The people who play in these tournaments are very smart, and often very Korean. They are experts in Starcraft II and they make it look so easy. I watch them and I think "My god, how can anyone do this?" and then I think "Maybe I can do that too," so I try it myself in the game, and it is insane how easy they make it look when it is ridiculously hard.
Listening to the casters, hearing them make jokes, watching weird comical free-for-all tournaments where one player kept saying "I am betrayer" and making alliances and breaking them whenever he felt like it, and killing everyone. It's just amazing stuff, honestly.
That's why I think eSports will continue to grow and be a really great source of entertainment for people like me, who want to watch other people play games, and be amused.
-Mark Johnsen
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