Worlds Collide: ‘Ambassadors’ of traditional sports and eSports, Part 1
Hello everyone, welcome back to the eSports channel.
eSports is growing in a large scale and it is getting reviewed by the general public and mass media. Even though it is slow, it is making some process.
However, some people don’t think eSports is a kind of sport for different reasons; some say it is not “physical” (By physical I think they mean physical activities)enough, some say games are mainly for entertainment, so eSports should not be taken seriously.
I understand how they feel towards eSports. To be honest, eSports is still a new industry, even scholars are still debating over the relationship between eSports and traditional sports.
To understand them better, there are some ‘ambassadors’ that can help to spread the message and knowledge, so they can start the “diplomacy” of eSports and traditional sports field.
So, what’s so special about them? They are knowledgeable and they have experiences on both fields.
Ambassador 1: Rick Fox
Gravity Gaming is a professional League of Legends team in the NA LCS (North America League of Legends Championship Series). They didn’t have a good result despite having a good start in the Summer Split. It discouraged the owner from the scene, therefore he is looking for a potential buyer.
At 2015 December, Rick Fox purchased the spot of Gravity Gaming and renamed the team to Echo Fox, which is the eSports organization that he set up.
According to “The Business of Gaming” by himself, he said he had mutual love on gaming along with his son Kyle, who is a game designer. The first eSports event that Rick Fox attended is the 2015 NA LCS Summer Playoffs, he said going to the event together is a family bonding activity to him.
In my opinion, that playoff has marked an important milestone in LoL’s eSports development. It is because they playoff is held in the Madison Square Garden, which is a landmark in New York City, and it is the home court of New York Knicks.
Also, the finals is the battle between Counter Logic Gaming and Team SoloMid. Both teams are the pioneers of competitive LoL, they are the very first professional teams and they have the longest rivalry status between them, therefore the whole event has a very special meaning.
Rick Fox then continued his stories on how he set up the organization and how he met the star player in the LoL team, Henrik “Froggen” Hansen. In this part there is a part that caught my attention.
“What struck me were all the similarities he shared with the great players I had come across during my NBA career. This was someone who focused intensely on one thing for 16 hours a day because he was driven to be the best at it. The only difference between him and guys like Kobe Bryant and Larry Bird was name recognition.”
As we can see, Rick Fox is respectful to eSports athletes and he thinks there are no difference between eSports and professional sports athletes.
At the later part of the article, his philosophy on owning and managing a team can eliminate some stereotypes on gamers.
“Gamers are nerdy, fat or extremely skinny, have loads of pimples in their face….. all the so called practice is just sitting there playing games all day……”, that sounds familiar, right? This is sad to see how the general public characterize an ordinary gamer. There are multiple ways to solve this problem and lets take a look on how Rick Fox deal with it:
Our team treats our players the same as if they were professional athletes, because that’s what they are. We monitor all aspects of their training and preparation, all the way down to their nutrition, fitness and sleep. We supply them with the best coaches in the industry and offer them a state-of-the-art training facility. We do that because, quite simply, it’s what’s required in order to compete for championships.
I think Rick Fox has done a very good job so far, not only because of his experience on both eSports and traditional sports, but he is also passionate to promote eSports to the public.
Therefore, I think Rick Fox can be a good ‘ambassador’ to introduce eSports to the public to build connection between these two fields since he is knowledgeable and he is good on communication, here’s a video of him supporting eSports on the TV show ‘The View’.
2. Gordon Hayward
If you are familiar with the NBA scene, there is no way that you don’t know who Gordon Hayward is.
Hayward sure love playing games. In 2014, there was an interesting tweet from him, Hayward said that he can definitely crush Lebron James in a 1v1. That sounds ambitious and it attracted many NBA fans to see what’s going on that his website crashed due to overload.
Sure, I believe Hayward can crush Lebron…… at least in League of Legends.
In his blog “Best in the Game”, Hayward talked about how he got into games, how much he like the competitive environment, what games he played actively and competitively and the most important part, comparing playing games to basketball. The training schedule of a professional LoL player is tough, that’s how Hayward describe it:
It would be like going to basketball practice for 12 to 14 hours, and then after practice, spending your free time working on hook shots or left-hand floaters.
It sounds like a tough schedule right? That’s how professional gaming players do everyday. They have to play the game everyday, workout, attend events like fans meet, join the conference for their opponents…etc.
This schedule, to me, is very similar to a professional athlete, play the game basically means training.
Besides talking about training, I think Hayward’s attitude towards eSports is positive.
In the interview he had with theScore eSports, he is asked about what he would say to people that want to introduce eSports to the general public.
He said be patient is a key since it takes time for people to accept eSports. He believes that the stereotypes on gamers will disappear as long as they know more about eSports and he think that eSports professional is ‘a job in every sense of the word’.
Here’s a video that made by LoL eSports in 2014 and Hayward is very supportive on the competitive aspect of eSports.
That’s why I think Hayward can be a good ambassador to build connection between eSports and traditional sport since he is positive and his experience made his words more convincing, I think the general public can know more about eSports from him.
For the next blog, I will talk about the 2nd part, which are sport organizations or investors in the eSports field.
Rick Fox did a very good job to start his own business in eSports, he is definitely a innovator in the connecting eSports and traditional sports field.
In 1 year, more and more organizations are involved in the eSports field. Maybe the investment is just a very small portion in their whole portfolio, but it sure has a great meaning to eSports fans, it means eSports is getting recognized by people, and that’s very beneficial to the growth of eSports.
Works Cited:
The Business of Gaming, by Rick Fox
Best in the game, by Gordan Hayward
Interview on Gordon Hayward, by Tyler “Fionn” Erzberger
