The cultural development of Esports - where the money is

Since the beginning of video games, we have been warned off them by many, with investing a significant amount of time into gaming being frowned upon. However, this is beginning to change now. With the current young generation of people being raised with access to the digital world, people's opinions of the internet, computers and games are rapidly changing. To this, we have the rise of Esports and competitive gaming to thank.

A few years ago, if someone were to say they could earn a living from playing video games, they would be called an idiot and told to go back to work, whereas now, professional gaming is a viable, although ill-advised, career choice, no offence to our current pros. But then we have to ask, why has Esports had this effect? My opinion is that Esports has developed a cultural aspect, meaning that it is more than just 10 people in a room playing each other for a few dollars. Instead, what it has turned into is a source of entertainment in itself aside from the game, with hundreds of teams, millions of fans and billions of dollars involved. But what has really driven it to success isn't the money involved, but the people around it, people who are passionate about the game and care about making entertainment for others, starting with the fans themselves spreading spoken word, then writers and Youtubers like me and of course the players and organisations who make it all possible. It could be argued that these people could have made it just as enjoyable with a tenth of the money that they are working with right now.

Let me remind you that Esports has been to some of the biggest venues in the world, including Spodek Arena (Poland), Wembley Arena (UK), the Seoul World Cup Stadium (South Korea), the Staples Centre (USA) and in a few months, ESL One Cologne in the Lanxess Arena (Germany). Each of these places have had massive audience participation with thousands of attendees each time. So what does this lead to? Esports is now treated like a real sport in terms of participation and press, and that is what has allowed it to grow culturally, because it has been given the audience needed to make it succeed.

Now, there are cases where the growth and size of Esports are exaggerated, as demonstrated in Thooorin's recent video, but it is undeniable that there is significant bank in the venture. Valve's The International 5 has amassed a prize pool of over 12.5 million USD, with almost 10 million being contributions from the playerbase. Even the online ESL ESEA Pro League has a total pool of 500,000 USD, twice that of the last CS:GO major, ESL One Katowice. So, now we have to see what impact this has had on the everyday gamer. Nearly everyone in League of Legends knows about the LCS and everyone in CS:GO knows who Pasha, KennyS and GeT_RiGhT are, showing just how much the professional scene has spread throughout the regular playerbase. And what does this mean for the general public? Many more young people have heard about Insomnia or GamesCom and even if they don't follow the scene, the knowledge is still there.

In conclusion, the growth of Esports into everyday community and culture has been prevalent. Maybe it isn't quite as big as what people make it out to be, but it is still there, and it is down to all of the people involved to allow it to continue to grow.

Thank you for reading, and please, if you liked this article, please comment, share, tweet and follow me on Twitter @Metis_Lee.