Let's look at the people involved in the eSports gamer revolution:
Pro-gamers
The ones who get paid to play. Samsung White, Dignitas, Fnatic, Team Liquid and Rascal Jesters are a few of the more famous professional gaming squads, in which the brightest young men (and maybe the occasional woman?) train daily to become the best video game players in the world. Despite their parents’ inevitable protestations, they make a decent living, with the top players earning over $100k a year, whilst others generate millions as they become international sports brands. They usually embark on this career path in the most formative years of their lives, dropping out of school or university to compete.
Samsung White
Dignitas
Fnatic
Team Liquid
Rascal Jesters
Cos-players
In addition to the humans who want to play the characters, there are also the humans who want to be them. We’re in this strange place where, if you drop some dosh on creating an elaborate costume, you can actually become a professional virtual character, an online presence in the real world. There are teams of these people, who are making careers out of dressing up, parading at events as mascots, posing for photographs and becoming the ‘cheerleaders’ of eSports. Women’s outfits can be particularly revealing, you wouldn’t guess at the traditionally male gamership.
Manager “Coaches”
They enlist players, they make merchandise, they ‘train’ their players, they make cash. Nuff said.
Amateur Gamers
The video-gaming public, tapping away at controllers in millions of homes and internet cafes around the world.
The movement is vast – League of Legends has 27 million players, the FIFA franchise has generated more than $6 billion USD since it launched in 1993, Twitch has accumulated 55m unique monthly users and “Leeeeeroy Jenkins” has 43,925,767 views and counting.
It’s a fun and satisfying pursuit – many even suggest that video games can actually boost analytical skills and reaction times.
And if you still in any doubt as to the scale of the revolution, watch the blinding vision of the League of Legends’ World Championships – held in the gigantic World Cup stadium – complete with Korean drum ceremony, American rock band, Olympic-style graphics of the players, fireworks, commentators, pres junkets, paparazzi and a $1m prize. It’s an incredible spectacle as the Samsung Whites claim their momentous victory.
History’s arenas have seen chariots raced through the dust, gladiators fighting to the death, maimed war veterans sweating through the Paralympics, bull fights, rodeo, the World Cup Finals, celebrating humanity’s glorious physical prowess. Now the twenty first century offers ten eSports gamers in various degrees of scrawn and podge.
Are these gamers to be the sport legends of our time?
