eSports, Can they truly compete?

These past few months I have really got into watching various eSports events on Twitch. No matter what it is, no matter whether I play the game myself I just love watching competitive gaming and it turns out that I am not alone. At any one time there will be hundreds of thousands of people viewing thousands of different channels on Twitch and various other streaming sites.

Single events consistently hit the six figure mark and it was reported by Valve that the recent Dota 2 International hit over 1 million views. This figure may have been even higher when taking into account viewers watching via TV. Competitive eSports are clearly becoming more popular as a spectator event. However, can eSports continue to grow, and will their popularity ever begin to rival that of the more conventional sports?

The Games

Gamescom 2013 attracted record numbers 

If we take a look at arguably the most popular sport in the world - football - it is easy to see how it has gained such a following. To play a game requires an extraordinarily small amount of equipment. I'm sure we all remember a time when we made our own pitch using nothing more than a couple of jumpers for goal posts. You have not got enough players for a full 11-a-side game? That's fine, 4-on-4 works just as well. Not only that but if you didn't have enough space you can make up your own games such as the classic 'headers and vollies'. Most of the time you didn't even need a field to have a kick around, a game of 'wally' or 'kerby' would be enough to while away the hours with a friend. 

Gaming is in a sense quite similar. An average laptop will allow you to play some of the more popular competitive games such as League of Legends, Dota 2 or World of Tanks. There are of course many other eSports such as Starcraft 2 or Call of Duty that require better hardware or a console to take part which at times can get a little pricey. 

The one thing that eSports and football certainly do have in common is that no matter at what level you play everyone plays by the same rules. You can be playing in the Barcelona first team or for Telford fc under 12s but if you receive 2 yellow cards then you're off. This gives you a sense of fairness, equality and the belief that if you put in the effort then one day you could be just as good if not better than the greatest players in the world. Whether I'm playing an unranked game of League of Legends with my friends or whether I'm appearing in the world finals in Las Vegas makes no difference to the rules of which I play by. eSports organisers and game manufacturers need to remember this when creating competitive games, as this is surely one of their strongest assets in the battle to attract more fans. 

The Coverage

MLG (Major League Gaming) have quickly become one
of the biggest eSport broadcasters

As mentioned earlier I have watched a lot of Twitch recently. In doing so I have realised that each game and each competition is covered in in a very similar way: the standard two commentators and the occasional instant replay. All credit to those commentators, they somehow manage to notice everything that is going on. There could be an insane 5v5 fight going on in League of Legends and yet they still manage to notice and name each and every ability cast or summoner spell used. There is no denying that the coverage is of a very high quality however there are certain aspects of gaming that can often make it difficult for the viewer to feel involved in the experience.

One of the main issues that fans have to deal with is the inconsistency in the length of the games. Starcraft 2 for example can swing wildly from 8 minute games (due to an early base rush) to 30 minute games. This can often lead to the spectator either missing the end of a game or not even being able to watch the game that they had wanted to because games can get pushed back. This issue with scheduling has lead me to missing the end of a tournament. It is easy to catch up with what you missed through official YouTube channels, however it just does not feel the same as watching an event live.

At times I have also found myself struggling to get my head around the structure of the competitions. This also becomes a problem when you consider just how many tournaments are going on. Some of these tournaments appear to be officially run events while others seem to have no connection to any of the other events that are going on. Riot Games, Valve and other game manufacturers do a very good job of organising long running leagues and tournaments, however an 'umbrella' organisation overlooking the running of all eSport events may help to reorganise and simplify the system.

The Future?

The observations expressed here are all my own and despite the fact that I have pointed out some of the problems with eSports, I truly do believe that there popularity will continue to grow. Each event brings more attendees and gains more online views. Television channels are starting to pick up these events and as you can see you can even watch them in certain pubs.

What do you guys think? I would love to hear what the opinion in the gaming community is. Please feel free to leave a comment, and if I can will happily respond.