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?