THE WORLD OF ESPORTS THE FUTURE OF ONLINE GAMING
CONTENTS 4
12
INTRODUCTION
POPULAR GAMES
6
14
TEAM DYNAMICS
PUBLISHING COMPANIES
8
16
A COMPARISON
FAN CULTURE
10
18
THE CONTROVERSY
TERMINOLOGY
As with traditional sports, esports consists of many different games. But those games don’t necessarily mimic traditional sports. For example, in Aspen the game of choice is Counter-Strike, a first-person shooter in which you choose to be either a terrorist or a counter-terrorist. No, you can’t be Lionel Messi. But the most popular is League of Legends, a multi-player strategy game whose Wikipedia description sounds like it was written by the lovechild of JRR Tolkien and C-3PO. To the uninitiated, it sounds as impenetrable as cricket.
INTRODUCTION esports – or electronic sports – is the umbrella term for organised, competitive computer gaming, usually between professionals. Competitive computer gaming has been around since the days of Pong in the 1970s. But that gang of youths gathered around an Atari console in some lucky bleeder’s bedroom has become 40,000 fans in a football stadium, some of them in fancy dress,
all of them glued to the action on giant screens. Imagine the PDC World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace, times it by six, take away most of the booze and you get some idea of what major esports events are like.
ESPORTS VS TRADITIONAL SPORTS
STRATEGY Games such as League of Legends and StarCraft are incredibly complicated and constantly evolving. Indeed, some scientists now believe certain computer games might give a better indication of exceptional intelligence than chess. esports teams spend a huge amount of time working on strategy, which will usually be the difference between victory and defeat.
FITNESS esports players don’t need to be as physically fit as traditional sportspeople. Indeed, an elite esports player might be sat in front of a computer screen for 14 hours a day. However, it is now widely accepted that a fitter body equates to a fitter mind, so many top players make sure they eat healthily and exercise regularly.
REACTION TIMES Pro gamers have lightning reflexes and remarkably flexible minds. Esports players can make more than 300 ‘actions’ per minute, within a team framework, which takes multi-tasking to a whole new level. Studies have shown that reflexes and mental agility are markedly better among gaming enthusiasts than the general population.
STRATEGY Highly-developed appreciation of strategy is part of what separates elite sportspeople from the merely good. Elite sportspeople must be aware of a myriad of options at all times, while also being intimate with an opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. Different conditions might also require different tactics, as with different surfaces in tennis.
REACTION TIMES Many elite sportspeople are required to make decisions in a fraction of a second. This requires exceptional hand-eye co-ordination, speed of thought, vision and spatial awareness, especially in a team environment. Someone attempting to return a 120mph Serena Williams serve has less than half a second to react.
FITNESS Most elite sportspeople – although there are exceptions – are supremely fit. Most have very low body fat and highly developed muscles. They are unusually strong and quick, while also possessing tremendous stamina. Novak Djokovic spent about 20 hours on court in winning the men’s singles title at Wimbledon in 2014.
MOST POPULAR ESPORTS GAMES LEAGUE OF LEGENDS STRATEGIC
League of Legends is a fast-paced, competitive online game that blends the speed and intensity of an RTS with RPG elements. Two teams of powerful champions, each with a unique design and playstyle, battle head-to-head across multiple battlefields and game modes. With an ever-expanding roster of champions, frequent updates and a thriving tournament scene, League of Legends offers endless replayability for players of every skill level. In League of Legends, players assume the role of a character, called a “champion”, with unique abilities, battling with a team against other player or computer-controlled champions. In the most popular game modes, each team’s goal is to destroy the opposing team’s nexus, a building which lies at the heart of a base protected by defensive structures. Each League of Legends game is discrete, with all champions starting off each game fairly weak and progressing by accumulating gold and experience over the course of the game.
COUNTERSTRIKE GLOBAL OFFENSIVE FIRST PERSON SHOOTER
Global Offensive is an objectivebased multiplayer first-person shooter. Each player joins either the Terrorist or Counter-Terrorist team and attempts to complete objectives or eliminate the enemy team. Players purchase weapons and equipment at the beginning. Completing objectives or killing enemies earns the player money while negative actions, like killing a teammate or hostage, takes money away from the player.
DOTA 2 STRATEGIC
Dota is a competitive game of action and strategy, played both professionally and casually by millions of passionate fans worldwide. Players pick from a pool of over a hundred heroes, forming two teams of five players. Radiant heroes then battle their Dire counterparts to control a gorgeous fantasy landscape, waging campaigns of cunning, stealth, and outright warfare. Irresistably colorful on the surface, Dota is a game of infinite depth and complexity. Every hero has an array of skills and abilities that combine with the skills of their allies in unexpected ways, to ensure that no game is ever remotely alike. This is one of the reasons that the Dota phenomenon has continued to grow. Originating as a fan-made Warcraft 3 modification, Dota was an instant underground hit. After coming to Valve, the original community developers have bridged the gap to a more inclusive audience, so that the rest of the world can experience the same core gameplay, but with the level of polish that only Valve can promise.
Each match of Dota 2 takes place on a functionally symmetrical map that features the strongholds of two warring factions, the Radiant and the Dire. The Radiant is based at the southwest corner of the map, while the Dire is based at the northeast corner; the two sides are divided by a river that runs perpendicular to the central lane. These factions are defended by up to five players. In each stronghold is a critical structure called the “Ancient”, a fountain that provide health and lesser structures.
WORLD OF WARCRAFT ROLEPLAYING
World of Warcraft is an online game where players from around the world assume the roles of heroic fantasy characters and explore a virtual world full of mystery, magic, and endless adventure. Games in the same genre as World of Warcraft are commonly referred to as MMORPGs, which stands for “Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game.”
Bora “YellOwStaR” Kim, who lives in France, is the Support for Fnatic’s League of Legends team.
Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon is a South Korean League of Legends player who is currently the top laner for Fnatic.
TEAM DYNAMICS FNATIC LEAGUE OF LEGENDS TEAM
FNATIC COUNTERSTRIKE TEAM
Fnatic is a professional eSports organization consisting of players from around the world across a variety of games. On March 14th, 2011, Fnatic entered the League of Legends scene with the acquisition of myRevenge. Fnatic is one of the strongest European teams since the early days of competitive League of Legends, having been the champion of the Riot Season 1 Championship.
Fnatic is a professional electronic sports organization based out of Australia, UK and South Korea. Fnatic was founded in July 23, 2004. Fnatic is particularly well known for its highly successful Counter-Strike team, which is the single most financially successful Counter-Strike team in electronic sports history. Fnatic began the year 2012 with a new title sponsor, and is now known
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer is a Swedish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former CounterStrike 1.6 player.
as FnaticRaidCall. MSi still remains as a main sponsor, as they support the team with their latest laptops, motherboards, and graphics cards. However, with the new support of RaidCall, Fnatic was able to become the first foreign eSports organization to have their own house in Seoul, South Korea.
Jesper “JW” Wecksell is a Swedish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He currently plays the role of main sniper in fnatic. He is known for his aggressive style of play using a sniper rifle.
THE CONTROVERSY OF ESPORTS Michal Blicharz, originally from Poland, is a former judoka who has fulfilled many roles in esports, from competitor to referee to coach. He now organises esports events around the world. Despite cheerfully referring to himself and his fellow esports enthusiasts as “nerds”, Blicharz passionately believes esports is indeed sport. “I’ve sweated on the judo mat enough times to have a good opinion about it,” he says.“Judo and esports are not that dissimilar,” he adds. “There are tournaments, you have to climb up a ladder to eventually compete with the best. In terms of training you have to put in the same amount of hours, perhaps even more in esports. You study strategy, technique and opponents. All the elements are there – the excitement, the adrenalin, players crying tears of sorrow and joy.” Blicharz concedes physical exertion in esports is minimal, although some players do get struck down with repetitive strain injuries. But the fact that most dictionary definitions of ‘sport’ include the words ‘physical’ or ‘athletic’ hasn’t prevented darts or snooker from shielding under the sporting umbrella.
However, and in common with most people you speak to in the esports community, Blicharz doesn’t really care if people think esports is sport or not. esports is doing things its own way – and traditional sports should take note. The US Government recognises esports players as professional athletes, at least where the granting of visas is concerned. But not everyone agrees. Despite ESPN dipping its toe into esports, its president John Skipper is distinctly lukewarm. “esports is not a sport,” he said, “it’s a competition. Mostly I’m interested in doing real sports.” Tim Warwood is a former UK snowboarding champion who now commentates for the BBC. He agrees with Skipper that computer gaming is not a sport and believes esports should not have been included in the Winter X Games, which take place from 21-25 January. He continues, saying, “When I was a kid, sport was all about getting outside, getting wet, muddy, out of breath – you’re not going to get out of breath smashing your thumbs on a controller.”
PUBLISHING COMPANIES GAME DEVELOPER
VALVE CORPORATION
Valve is an entertainment software and technology company founded in 1996. In addition to creating several of the world’s most awardwinning games, Valve is also a developer of leading-edge technologies including the Source® game engine and Steam®, the premier online gaming platform. Valve was founded by longtime Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington on August 24, 1996, as an L.L.C. based in Kirkland, Washington. After incorporation in April 2003, it moved from its original location to Bellevue, Washington, the same city in which their original publisher, Sierra OnLine, Inc., was based.
GAME DEVELOPER
STEAM
Steam is an internet-based digital distribution, digital rights management (DRM), multiplayer, and social networking platform developed by Valve Corporation. Steam provides the user with installation and automatic updating of games on multiple computers, and community features such as friends lists and groups, cloud saving, and in-game voice and chat functionality.
GAME DEVELOPER
RIOT GAMES The company announced its first game, League of Legends: Clash of Fates, in October 2008, and released the game in October 2009 as simply League of Legends. Their game uses a free-toplay model, supported by microtransactions rather than ads or boxed copy sales.
Riot Games is an American video game publisher that was established in 2006. Their main office is based in Santa Monica, California. They currently have additional offices located in St. Louis, Dublin, Berlin, Seoul, São Paulo, Istanbul, Moscow, Sydney, and Taipei. In 2015, Riot debuted at number 13 on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list.
Riot Games has already released and distributed League of Legends in Latin America, Australia, the United States, Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Canada, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Europe, Brazil, and Indonesia. In China, Riot's primary shareholder Tencent Inc. distributes the game online. In Southeast Asia, online game service provider Garena publishes League of Legends.
67 46 52
About 52 percent said they went to live events to meet the pro players, and 46 percent said they attended so they could become better players. 67 percent want more events.
FAN CULTURE IN ESPORTS A CULTURAL SHIFT
In a short few years, e-sports has become a huge global phenomenon. And fans are going to large events in ever-increasing numbers. It might seem strange for people to pay for an event where they watch other people play games, but those fans say that they’re in it for the community of fellowship with other gamers and because of the atmosphere, according to a survey by ticketing marketplace Eventbrite. The new report shows how much of a cultural shift live gaming events are creating in gamers, who used to be more of a sedentary and solitary group, at least based on the stereotypes.
UNDERSTANDING ESPORTS
TERMINOLOGY A
G
AFK Away From Keyboard.The user is
GANK The term gank is an
away from their computer.
B BAN If you get one of these, you're
in real trouble. You've broken the rules many times or did something strictly forbidden by the rules of a tournament. The consequences of a ban can vary depending on the exact circumstances. A ban can be temporary or permanent.
C CAMP To remain in one strategic place and repeatedly kill people or mobs.
F FORFEIT The act of conceding or
"giving up" a game/battle, or match.
FRAG Kill. Can be used as a verb or noun, e.g. “I just fragged him” or “First team to 20 frags”.
abbreviation of the words gang kill. A gank is when multiple people attack an unsuspecting opponent in an attempt to kill them. Ganking is an essential skill in the MOBA genre and it’s not unusual to have your teammates requesting ganks on enemy heroes.
GG The most common and simple
term in all of gaming. GG simply means good game and is used to respect your opponent and the game you just played. The term is also used sarcastically, and to imply that a game will end in defeat.
L LAG Time delay between sending
a command to the game and your character actually performing the action. Frequently cursed when the time delay is longer than expected.
LANES The main paths that minions follow in esports games.
M
T
MIA Missing in action is a term almost
TANK Character who can take a lot
exclusively used in the MOBA genre. The term is used to warn that an enemy is missing from one of the lanes. When you see MIA you should play more defensively until the missing opponent reappears.
MINIONS Expendable allied or enemy units that spawn automatically.
N NOOB Newbie, new person, inexperienced person.
P PWNED Owned. One of those strange internet variations that start at typos and become words unto themselves
S STRAFE Move sideways. This is often used as an evasive manoeuvre while shooting.
of damage. Often the tank will be a warrior and charge out in front of the team, distracting the opponents from weaker characters.
W WI-FI A catchy name for the
802.11 set of wireless connection standards. Technically, it’s not short for Wireless Fidelity, as fidelity has nothing to do with it.