Esports
Esports, the video gaming competitions have taken place in the form of organized competitions between teams or individual players. These competitions take place among professional players. The competitions were present in the past too but they were among amateurs but in late 2000s, Esports gained a lot of popularity through live streaming. The professional competitors have a large number of popular games among themselves but the mid-1990s tournament coincided with fighting games and first-person shooters genres’ popularity which still has quite a devoted fan-club.
In the South Korean internet cafes, the real-time strategic games came very popular. The most popular games in esports are League of Legends, Hearthstone, Street Fighter, DOTA 2, Call of Duty, Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege, Super Smash Bros, StarCraft, Fortnite Battle Royale, and Counter Strike. There is a spectators’ mode in Esports that gives a chance to viewers to watch the game and get some tips and tricks from the professional competitors by watching their battle during the tournament.
1. Defense of the Ancient 2 (DOTA 2)
DOTA 2, an MOBA genre of video gaming is the development of Valve Corporation and is the successor of DOTA. In this game, every team has five players and they are responsible for protecting their base. All the ten members of the game are controlling their own individual character that is called as the “Hero”. All these heros are strong character with their own unique abilities and fighting styles. There are experience points that you have to collect for your hero so that you can defeat the other team’s hero. The game is won by the team who destroys the other team’s “Ancient” which is present in the heart of the opposing team’s base.
2. Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO)
CSGO or Counter Strike: Global Offensive, an FPS genre of multiplayer video game is the development of Valve Corporation and Hidden Path Entertainment. There are two teams in the game. One is pits as the terrorist and the other as the counter-terrorist. Both teams have to eliminate each other in order to win and there are certain tasks too for each team. Like, the terrorist team has to plant a bomb or to protect the hostage. The other team, Counter-Terrorist team has to either diffuse the bomb or they have to prevent it from getting planted and the other task for them is to rescue the hostage.
3. Overwatch (OW)
Overwatch, an FPS genre of multiplayer video game is the development of Blizzard Entertainment. There are six players in both the teams. Every player gets to choose his/her character, called Hero from the roster of more than 30 characters. Every hero has a unique style of game and it has three roles to perform which are most suited for its purpose. The teammates communicate and interact with each other to make a perfect team so that they can coordinate with each other and protect the control points or to transfer the payload within the limited amount of time, across the map.
4. League of Legends (LoL)
League of Legends, an MOBA genre of multiplayer video game is the development of RiotGames for the MacOS and the Microsoft Windows only. In this game, the team has to coordinate and communicate with each other to build-up a strategy so that they can achieve the ultimate goal. All the players get to be an unknown “Summoner” that has the control of a “Champion”. The champion has unique skills and the team has to fight against the other team. The opposing team can be computer-controlled or they can be other players. The ultimate goal is for one team to destroy the other teams’ Nexus which is situated in the center of the base. The matches in league of Legends are very discrete and the game builds up from weak champions to stronger champions by collecting different items and getting experienced over the course of the game.
LoL Boosting or Elo Boosting has been a part of league of legends for a long time because climbing up the ranks in LoL is very tiring and tedious work. It is frustrating and irritating too when your teammates are unable to understand the technique. So, elo booting helps in getting out of a division where a gamer is stuck so that he can get to enjoy again in playing at an average LP.
Potential of Esports
The multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), fighting, battle royale games, real-time strategy, digital collectible card games and first person shooter (FPS) have been the most common video gaming genres in Esports. The tournaments of League of Legends, Hearthstone, Street Fighter, DOTA 2, Call of Duty, Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege, Super Smash Bros, StarCraft, Fortnite Battle Royale, and Counter Strike gave live broadcast and there was prize money for the competitors. Previously, the structure of the competitions used a series of promotion and relegation game because of the sponsored teams but now it is taking more of an American professional sports structure by giving salaries to the players. In many events, esports has achieved featuring with the other traditional sports. The International Olympic Committee is deciding of incorporating Esports in the future Olympic events.
The revenues of esports have increased to more than 1 billion US$ due to the audience of more than 454 million in 2019. Youtube and Twitch are the center of online streaming media for the spectators and it has increased the growth and popularity of esports among the public. There are reports by Major League Gaming about the male and female viewers. They reported about 85% Males and only 15% females but the increase in female population among the gamers is also not very far, as stated by several female personalities of Esports. Japan is the most underdeveloped in Esports even after a large video gaming market because of the broad anti-gambling laws of the country that prohibits them from participating or organizing the paid gaming tournaments.
