COVID-19 affects esports industry Sean Liuli
play. However, the European division nels, TSM, and Cloud9 at the top. remains online, which is what Mouritzen Many agree that aside from the lack of A student wakes up to the sound of a complains about. in-person play and the growth in viewernotification from his phone. He turns to “I love competitive integrity, and North ship, people have not seen many changes. his nightstand, checking his alarm clock. America has the most of that with the new Abbas said, “I don’t think the pandemic 3:30 am, it reads. He knows that today, format by far,” Mouritzen said. had a huge impact on the industry other exactly at this time, he was supposed to However, some do not see this as a big than forcing them to get a little creative be in Korea, watching his favorite esports problem. with how they stream matches.” team play. “I would guess that it has had a small He knows that he should have been impact on the players if it all. If I had to sitting in one of the largest stadiums in the guess, I would say the big difference is world, listening to the loudspeakers boom- not being able to bond with teammates by ing with the casters’ voices desperately seeing them in person,” Stephen Abbas, the trying to keep up with everything going on president of Esports Club, said. around him. Esports Club has faced similar difficulHe knows that he should have been ties during the pandemic. According to feeling the thunder of the crowd. HunAbbas, organizing has been challenging dreds of fans seated across the stadium, since everything has gone online. each cheering for their own team, hoping “Organizing esports during the panthat they will be the ones to take home the demic was difficult because it’s hard to title and the millions of dollars on the line gauge interest over text. If the this year. meetings were in-person, I But this year is different. This year, he’s could talk one-on-one with people and get watching from home. This year, there will a better sense of what they’re thinking,” be no crowd, no loudspeakers, and no Abbas said. stadium. But that will not stop him from Although organizing events has become watching. more complex, the industry has benefited Esports is currently one of the fastfrom the growth in viewership due to evest-growing industries in the world. The eryone being indoors. According to Activmulti-billion dollar investment banking ision Blizzard, the company that develops company, Goldman Sachs, expects esports the popular esports title “Overwatch,” this to surpass both the NHL and MLB, and year’s Overwatch League Grand Finals rival the NFL in viewership numbers by gained more than 1.55 million viewers, 2022. making it the most-watched event in the But with the recent outbreak of league’s history. COVID-19, several things have impacted However, even though viewership the industry. Leagues are making changes numbers are up, that does not mean that after being forced to push almost all tourviewers enjoy watching the streams. naments and events online. “To be honest, even though I’m watchWithout traditional local area neting a lot more, it’s not as interesting since work-based tournaments, teams have had it’s all the same teams,” Jake Generalis, a to deal with online play difficulties: inconsophomore, said. sistent pings across different regions and Because of the pandemic, leagues have the lack of player-to-player interaction. not been able to branch out which would “With North America being localized allow new teams to play. For these reawith best of threes on LAN, it sucks playsons, leagues have been recycling the same ing online in Europe with high ping and teams through similar tournaments. best of ones with draws,” Niclas Mouritzen, In addition to leagues not adding new a professional “Rainbow Six: Siege” player teams, teams have not been able to add for one of Europe’s top team, G2 eSports, new players. Without roster changes, viewsaid. ers who want to see their favorite talents The North American division of “Rainjoin their favorite teams are not happy to bow Six: Siege’s” professional scene recent- see the same players over and over. ly decided to run only localized tournaOne prime example of this was Valoments, where players would not have to rant’s Ignition Series tournaments. North suffer from the problems of long-distance America repeatedly saw teams like SentiSean Liuli 12 HIGHLANDER SPORTS
