Professional Gaming is Finally Getting Back on Its Feet
It has been 3 long, barren years in the professional gaming (i.e., eSports) scene. Ever since the abrupt cancellation of the Championship Gaming Series in 2008 and the shut down of CPL shortly before that, few have been willing to invest into making competitive gaming a viable industry. While console games such as Halo and Call of Duty have had meager competitions and some success within the professional gaming sphere recently, there hasn’t been anything to fill the PC gaming void that Quake, Counter Strike, and Warcraft 3 left behind…until now.
With the 2010 debut of StarCraft 2, 12 years after its predecessor stormed the RTS gaming market and grew to be a phenomenon in South Korea, the eSports scene has had the breath of life blown into it once more. Leagues from the popular Global Starcraft League to Major League Gaming and the newly formed North American Star League have welcomed Starcraft 2 with open arms and full wallets.
Boasting 35,000,000 stream viewers and 20,000 live spectators, the recent Major League Gaming event in Anaheim, CA. proves that not only are gamers interested in playing the games at a high level, but watching them. It’s one thing for people to enjoy an activity such as gaming in their spare time, but for people to become fans and have favorite players and attend live events is something completely different that has never really taken off, especially within the United States. The GSL announced in July that they had 50,000,000 foreign (non-Korean) viewers of the event’s matches, making it one of the most successful and widely viewed gaming events of all-time. What’s more, is not only are people watching, they are feverish — watch the crowd reaction when Boxer, an extremely popular player from Korea, defeats a tough opponent.
While Starcraft 2 may currently be attracting players and viewers at a rate never seen before, other games such as League of Legends and Heroes of Newarth are gaining fans and established tournaments at respectable rates. Valve, creators of the well-known Half-Life, Portal, and Left 4 Dead series have just announced a monstrous tournament for their new game, Dota 2, with the winning team bringing home a jaw-dropping one million dollars.
It still may not be an accepted career choice by most, but professional gaming is finally getting back on its feet and this time it has the support and dedicated fans it needs to actually gain momentum around the world.
It’s an exciting time to be sitting in your grandma’s basement.