Competitive Gaming in Recent History

Bijan Karshenas
Aug 27, 2017 · 3 min read

At its most basic level, esports is competition, and competition in gaming has practically been around since gaming itself, all the way back to when Stanford researchers were playing games of Spacewar with zealously competitive intent in the 70s. (Taylor, 2012, pg. 3)

In the recent past of 1997, Angel Munoz launched the Cyberathlete Professional League, though the league itself is not why I bring it up. Munoz described his early period working on the organization as a “mix of innovation and charting new territory.” (Taylor, 2012, pg. 7) This innovation is, I believe, what made esports stand out as something truly unique among all other sports and entertainment, as the organizers of competitive gaming had to fly by the seat of their pants when trying to advance the industry, due to the fact that the only reference they had for running such events was real sporting events, and in some cases those references simply weren’t applicable. This is ultimately what I believe created the niche that esports has resided within since its inception. However, it is good to keep in mind that that niche had a potential audience of 108 million gaming Americans in 2005, meaning the potential for growth was incredible, even in the earlier days of organized, international esports. (Kane, 2008, pg. xii)

The creation of the World Cyber Games (WCG) is a perfect example of said niche. Created through a partnership between the government of South Korea and various private sponsors (Taylor, 2012, pg.22), it showed immense promise to those in the industry as an international competitive gaming league, as the league was fashioned as a sort of Olympics for esports, where each country would have a team to represent it upon the world stage at the grand finals of a given year. (Taylor, 2012, pg.11). Upon its creation, the gaming league already had 17 participating countries, but in just three years it was up to 55, and was able to provide a $2,000,000 prize pool for its events and leagues. (WCG2008, pg. 21)

WCG held its 2008 grand finals in Cologne, Germany, and while it could be seen as the premier esports event of the decade, it was one of the last that WCG would organize. It had widespread mainstream backing, with companies such as Samsung, Microsoft, and many more partnering with the event, with some like Samsung having partnered with the WCG organization from the very beginning of the league in 2000. Sporting 800 players, over 400 journalists, 70 referees, and many more valued guests and partners, one might think that the 2008 grand finals was going to be an event of monumental proportions, and one that would truly put esports into a positive, professional light. (WCG2008, pg. 3)

The event was, simply put, oversold and under-prepared. Preparations for the event were being done well into the event itself, and the experience was somewhat marred as a result of this, as well as some technical difficulties that sprung up during the event. (Taylor, 2012, pg. 12–14) Did this culminate in a bad event? Not necessarily, but paired with the financial crisis of 2008, WCG was put in a bad place in terms of its financial and public standing.

Due to the financial problems of the late 2000s, there was a call for esports to return to what made in unique, and what people working and playing in the industry were passionate for. (Taylor, 2012, pg. 1) This is, I think, the proper tact given the past decade of the industry with all its triumphs and failures. A large portion of the events and organizations in and around esports have tried to make it something it’s not: yet another sport(s). Competitive gaming is its own beast, and must be treated as such by organizers and partners alike, else it may lose the recognition is has been able to garner to these past few years. South Korea can be viewed as a great case study in terms of how to foster an audience that will keep coming back to events and organizers that will be motivated to support the scene with competitions around the world. The gamer culture that has been built in South Korea has given way to such advancements in the industry there, that it would be most beneficial for those looking to enter the scene, as players or partners, to research and try to replicate the methods that have given them success. (Taylor, 2012, pg. 26–27)

Bibliography

Kane, M. (2008). Game boys: professional videogamings rise from the basement to the big time. New York: Viking.

Taylor, T. L. (2012). Raising the stakes: e-sports and the professionalization of computer gaming. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

WCG2008 Press Kit. (n.d.).

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Bijan Karshenas

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