eSports: Taking gaming seriously

A trend towards dedicated gaming arenasin London highlights the growth in competitive gaming. Nicole Kobie enters the world of eSports

M illion-dollar prizes. Millions of fans. Live commentary. Doping. You know a sport’s entered the mainstream when it starts ticking off these achievements. Even if, arguably, it’s not a sport at all.

Research from analyst firm SuperData suggests there are 134 million eSports viewers around the world – and that’s doubled in the past year. The market’s worth $72 million in Europe and $143 million in the US, though Asia dominates at $374 million, led by Korea and China.

The day we attended, during the $14,000 Play Like A Legend FIFA 2015 tournament, it wasn’t difficult to find a seat – despite the finals being touted as a “match of titanic proportions” by a commentary team featuring two former champions. That’s right: not only do people pay $20 for a ticket to watch others play console games, but there’s a commentary team, instant replays, reaction shots of players’ faces when they concede a goal, and even post-match interviews.

Despite these trimmings, FIFA isn’t the most popular game, as Call of Duty, DotA, League of Legends, Hearthstone and Counter-Strike are all much bigger draws.

Playing the game

eSports first started in the late 1990s, said James Dean, managing director at ESL, one of the original eSports organising bodies: “In its very basic form, it started with casual groups of friends challenging each other for pride or a token wager, much like many traditional sports. Over time, the stakes became higher, and eventually professional tournaments started to appear.”

Like other sports, the number of fans watching is greater than the capacity of the stadiums. ESL’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event in Germany in August had 11,000 visitors each day, but topped 27 million unique viewers online. “What was once a small, tight-knit community of dedicated gamers has dramatically changed over the past ten years,” said Dean. “Some of our biggest tournaments, such as ESL One and IEM, are regularly attracting millions of unique viewers over the course of a weekend, and it keeps growing year upon year.”

Consequently, Dean argued that eSports can already be considered a mainstream pursuit, with figures “rivalling the viewership of several mainstream sports”. A report from analysts Newzoo claimed eSports is on a par with ice hockey, with gaming competitions boasting 89 million fans last year versus 94 million for the winter sport. And hockey isn’t doubling its fan base annually. “As soon as the current demographics mature we should hopefully witness greater acceptance across the board,” Dean added. “We just need to melt away the stereotypes.”

Demographic split

Gaming is hugely popular around the world across many platforms, predoiminantly onsoles, computers or smartphones. It may come as a surprise that gaming is a few percentage points more popular among women than men. But, when it comes to competitions, female players are rare – not a single woman competed at the Gfinity event we attended. Women were in the audience, but make up only 18% of attendees, according to an Eventbrite report.

ESL hopes that changes. “Attitudes are rapidly changing, which is really helping to stimulate growth,” said Dean. “The traditional gamer stereotype is slowly dissolving, leading to better gender representation both in tournaments and within the millions that watch both online and offline.”

Dean argued that the power of eSports is that anyone can play. “It gives individuals with limited lifestyles a chance to compete within virtual arenas, and gives those infused with the competitive spirit an avenue to excel,” he said. “There are no real barriers to entry, that’s the real appeal. We see both males and females taking part, with many teams having players ranging from 16 to 32 years of age. It’s an inclusive experience.”

Doping scandal

With mainstream success comes mainstream challenges. This summer, leading professional gamer Kory Friesen admitted that his entire team took the drug Adderall while competing in an ESL Counter Strike: Global Offensive tournament. He suggested his team wasn’t the only one using the amphetamine, saying on YouTube that “everyone does Adderall”.

ESL disputes this. The organisation tested players at a recent tournament, but didn’t find a single case of doping. “Although we are yet to find any proof of substance abuse within any of our competitions, we have recently established an industry-leading anti-doping policy to protect both teams and players,” said Dean.

Want to play?

Adderall aside, what does it take to play professionally? Anyone can enter the online tournaments, but you have to be good to advance. We asked Frenchman Brian Savary – better known as “Vitality Brian” – what it takes: “I started at the beginning of FIFA 2014, so I’ve played for two years,” he said. He reached the final in his first big tournament. “After that, I was like ‘whoa – I can do this’. So I continued and I’ve won Gfinity [tournaments] two times since.”

Savary was one of the favourites going into the tournament, although commentators expressed concern he hadn’t been playing enough. “We have to practice a lot each day. For FIFA... maybe five games each day. For this [tournament], I couldn’t because I have summer work near my parents’ house, and they haven’t got an Xbox so I haven’t trained a lot. Not at all, really.” The pundits were right: Savary placed second to another favourite, Spencer “xL HugeGorilla” Ealing, who took home $7,000.

Why choose FIFA and not more popular competitions? “I’ve played football in real life since I was four,” he said. “I’m not bad at [real] football, I play in the seventh league in France, but I think I’m better at FIFA.”