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What's with the hate on e sports? (1 Viewer)

I'm not even dipping my toe into the world of content creation with what I'm laying out here... but the prime age window for most pro gaming right now is 18-24, and then your reaction time is too slow to hang beyond 28ish (with the exception of a couple of god gamers). Obviously games that don't rely on reaction time you can have a longer career, ie Hearthstone (and soon MtG). You pick a game that you're great at, git gud, make money, retire to the pastures of daily streaming. Unless you're playing the same game in a series, like going from StarCraft to StarCraft 2, there isn't enough transferable experience to make a truly successful transition between games, and the most important thing in being a pro is time spent practicing and working on your approach to the metagame.
The eSports career life cycle looks a lot like professional sports life cycle, with the difference being pro athletes hit their peak a few years later.  I would posit, though I don't know for sure, eSports will see a few "HOF" caliber exceptions of players making it 10 years past their peak, being the extreme rare example, I'm sure you'll disagree until I can show examples (spoiler alert, I can't).

 
I'm not even dipping my toe into the world of content creation with what I'm laying out here... but the prime age window for most pro gaming right now is 18-24, and then your reaction time is too slow to hang beyond 28ish (with the exception of a couple of god gamers). Obviously games that don't rely on reaction time you can have a longer career, ie Hearthstone (and soon MtG). You pick a game that you're great at, git gud, make money, retire to the pastures of daily streaming. Unless you're playing the same game in a series, like going from StarCraft to StarCraft 2, there isn't enough transferable experience to make a truly successful transition between games, and the most important thing in being a pro is time spent practicing and working on your approach to the metagame.
Ah yes, we call this the "shroud"

 
If darts and stuff like that are considered a sport than i guess video games should be.

For the record, i don't think stuff like darts/bowling/video games/etc are sports.  

 
The eSports career life cycle looks a lot like professional sports life cycle, with the difference being pro athletes hit their peak a few years later.  I would posit, though I don't know for sure, eSports will see a few "HOF" caliber exceptions of players making it 10 years past their peak, being the extreme rare example, I'm sure you'll disagree until I can show examples (spoiler alert, I can't).
Part of the problem is that very few video game titles have long enough life spans to truly showcase a player's career arc in this sense.  If you're an esports player who hits the pro scene in his late teens, you need a title that will be around and relevant for roughly 15 years to hit the "10 years past your peak" mark.

I mentioned Get Right and forest earlier, two legends of Counter Strike who have been around seemingly forever, are still very relevant, and are 28 and 30, respectively.  Zeus is 31 years old and captained Gambit to a Major victory at nearly 30 years of age.  Part of the reason these guys have been so relevant for so long is that competitive Counter Strike dates back to the early/mid 2000s.  These guys have been playing at an exceptionally high level for close to 15 years now.  Most esports titles do not last nearly that long. 

The other option to stay relevant is to make a total title shift.  There have been some high-profile successful shifts of Halo players moving into Call of Duty after the sad demise of competitive Halo.  Enable, Formal, Huke - all players who have made a successful jump from one to the other.  If Call of Duty can stay relevant for another 6-8 years, Enable and Formal could be in the conversation you're talking about.

I'm sure there are plenty of players in the LoL, DOTA, etc. realm that fit this as well, but I am not entirely familiar with those titles.

 
I mean LoL has been around forever it seems, and so has even that hearthstone game that people get a billion followers on.

 
I mean LoL has been around forever it seems, and so has even that hearthstone game that people get a billion followers on.
LoL is absolutely massive and has 13 (!) professional leagues scattered around the world.  DOTA 2's The International tournament is incredible, and had a total purse of $25.5 million USD.  Hearthstone is huge as well.

 
What I remain really interested in, however, is the future of Overwatch League.  It is truly the first real, legit, worldwide international esports league with legit financial backing, sponsorships, TV deals, etc. Teams are owned by Robert Kraft's group, the NY Mets, Cox Communications, Comcast, Stan Kroenke's group, private equity groups, a bunch of big Chinese groups.  The cost to acquire an expansion franchise for season 2 was between $35 and $60 million USD, and they landed 8 new teams for season 2.  That is an absurd amount of money.

I don't know if anyone here other than @hagmania actually watched any of season 1, but the production quality was absolutely fantastic.  High-level esports always have pretty good production quality, but Overwatch League is so over the top that it is incredible.  Regular season 2 starts on Valentine's Day 2019.

 
I keep telling anyone who will listen that esports will be as big as, if not eventually bigger than the big four (NFL/NBA/MLB/SoccerOnIce).

I started a thread or posted awhile ago how soon we won’t even be attending those games in person, we will all be paying to put on VR goggles. You will be in the stands and when you look left, you’ll see your friends or a young vibrant Jack Nicolson at Staples.

10 years from now his will be old news. By then you’ll be able to watch Wilt Chamberlain against Jordan. 

20 years from now you’ll be able to play against Wilt.The simulations will start to become so real you won’t be able to tell the different from the real players and the “fake” players.

30 years from not (if not sooner) e-sports will start to take over. “Real” sports will be relegated as a niche sport.    No more head injuries, pain killers, torn knees, or the grinding physical exercise. Why pay real players when you can replace them with simulated players that never tire, never get hurt and never hold out for more money?

Watch the movie Ready Player One and you’ll get the picture. I wish I wrote that book cause I’ve also seen “the oasis” coming for 25 years at least. 

 
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What I remain really interested in, however, is the future of Overwatch League.  It is truly the first real, legit, worldwide international esports league with legit financial backing, sponsorships, TV deals, etc. Teams are owned by Robert Kraft's group, the NY Mets, Cox Communications, Comcast, Stan Kroenke's group, private equity groups, a bunch of big Chinese groups.  The cost to acquire an expansion franchise for season 2 was between $35 and $60 million USD, and they landed 8 new teams for season 2.  That is an absurd amount of money.

I don't know if anyone here other than @hagmania actually watched any of season 1, but the production quality was absolutely fantastic.  High-level esports always have pretty good production quality, but Overwatch League is so over the top that it is incredible.  Regular season 2 starts on Valentine's Day 2019.
May have to check it out.  I used to be a "semi-pro" Counter-Strike player.  Made about $3,000 winning local tournaments while in college in 2000-2002.  Obviously it was not big money, but felt like a decent chunk to a poor college student.  That said, there is a huge time requirement.  Not only do you have to be good with aiming, you need to practice regularly with your team (grenade placement/angles, flashbang timing/coordination, map tactics, etc).  Practices felt similar to actual sports practices in that we would practice tactics and then look for teams to scrimmage to test them out.  

I still keep up with the competitive CS even though I rarely play anymore.  It's the "eSport" I understand at a very high level, so watching top players compete is satisfying.  Every time I watch Overwatch it makes my head spin and I barely understand what I'm watching.

 
LoL is absolutely massive and has 13 (!) professional leagues scattered around the world.  DOTA 2's The International tournament is incredible, and had a total purse of $25.5 million USD.  Hearthstone is huge as well.
To put this in perspective  thr Pegasus horse race, highest purse race, has a $7 mil purse. 

 
http://www.midlandathletics.com/roster/0/43.php

There is a local college that has Esports as a Varsity level sport - offering scholarships for that sport.  Now this particular college likes to tout the percentage of their student body that participates in Varsity level competition.  I don't know if this has become a thing at other colleges/universities.  Hey anyway to get help with tuition costs is a good thing.
This thread eluded me back in January, but I was just reading an article about a TCU (my alma mater) grad who was just named coach of Dakota State's esports program.  The article said TCU's program started with 50 members in 2017 and now has 300.   An ESPN list as of Feb 2019 has about 130 schools listed, and according to this article, these schools have given out $15 million in scholarships for this year.  Dakota State's program is set to begin this fall, so clearly the numbers are growing.  

 
On topic, qualifiers for Dota2's The International begin in early July. The prize pool is supplemented by regular players buying an in-game product, and grows to quite the large sum each year.

 
I like playing video games but I think I'm in the group of not really following the appeal of esports from a professional team model and don't really enjoy watching other people play.  

 
Most kids  could do much better preparing for a real profession.  It’s a shame.  
This is turning into a multi-billion dollar industry.  Seems to me there is a viable future in it.  Much like professional sports, there are only going to be an elite few with the skill set and talent to be competitors, but also like professional sports, there will be an entire industry growing around it with plenty of opportunities for a profession within the industry. 

 
This is turning into a multi-billion dollar industry.  Seems to me there is a viable future in it.  Much like professional sports, there are only going to be an elite few with the skill set and talent to be competitors, but also like professional sports, there will be an entire industry growing around it with plenty of opportunities for a profession within the industry. 
Uhhh no

Spend those countless hours becoming a world class developer if you want a piece of the industry.  The pipe dream of becoming a professional gamer ruins futures.

 
Uhhh no

Spend those countless hours becoming a world class developer if you want a piece of the industry.  The pipe dream of becoming a professional gamer ruins futures.
Did you miss the part where I said there are only going to be an elite few the skill set and talent to compete, but plenty of opportunities for a profession within the industry.  

 
until they have egamer leages for burger time and dig dug i dont even want to hear about it take that to the bank bromigos

 

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