Growth of eSports
Growth. eSports. Two words we often hear together, but what does it really mean? How much have we grown over the last decade and a half - and how do we measure it? Starting with some anecdotes, I'll try to give a small look into the various aspects of the growth eSports - or lack thereof.
Battlereports, anyone? I never used to know about eSports initially. Playing Brood War for about 5 years, on and off, (1998-2002) the main site I consumed data from was a little site called www.battlereports.com. What their writers would do, is to type up a whole replay in a text format so you can read it without having SC1 installed. They'd supply screenshots and write funny subnotes underneath to show what kind of game it was. I'd typically use the site if I were on a PC that didn't have StarCraft installed. Occasionally, I'd download replays of longer than 50 minutes (my favorite kind as you'd see a huge war of units) or under 12 minutes (my second favorite - smart rushes like slow-overlord Lurker drop into someone's main base). The players would have weird names which I didn't recognize. It was strange, because I'd download replays of SlayerS`BoxeR` but then in the game no one had the name BoxeR. I didn't know about "smurfing" (the act of hiding one's identity by using an alternative fictional nickname) yet so it was confusing, but I figured out who was who anyway.
My first tournament, and 'mine own ladder fear' My own personal first tournament that I experienced in a live fashion was consumed long-distance; as an observer. Clikarena in France hosted some of the world's best WC3 players. I knew of players like SK.Insomnia, mTw-Tak3r, DIDI8 and 4K.TillerMaN and I saw them in action here. It was at this point my appetite for tournaments got well and truly whetted. Another thing that made me feel ready to get involved was my ladder "results". I'd typically level up my account until it was in the top 20 of the EU (Northrend) ladder. It'd have stats like 150-12. With the scaling difficulty as you got higher on the ladder, I was afraid to ruin my win % and pretty stats and would usually start a new account as I roughly hit Top 20 or so. It also gave me an excuse to challenge myself to get as high xx-0 record as possible. The furthest I got, incidentally, was 98-0 :( almost triple digits, damn! (I did use to have a 135-2 account on the NA ladder, but anyway I digress). All in all, it was inconclusive evidence that I was legit good, but I had some of the prettiest stats on the ladder. Even as people were calling me an online hero or "can't perform on LAN", I felt even hungrier to try and make a mark on the LAN scene. My first international tournament was ESWC 2003. I heard about the ESWC and its Dutch qualifiers through the grapevine, and I decided I'll try my luck. I had previously won three small Dutch LAN's for first prizes like €100 and €200, so international was the next step. As it stands, I was the only player to show up at the qualifiers and got the qualification spot by virtue of being the only one present. The hot summer weather stopped people from coming, or perhaps my reputation had preceded me. Whatever the reason, this meant that I got to spend MY summer in Poitiers, France!
Frenchies Got Game So, July 2003, ESWC in France! I met my first three Korean progamers, one of which was ShowTime.WeRRa, my Night Elf idol (I played Night Elf at the time). He and the other Koreans were kind to me, and even knew me by name, which was unbelievably fantastic to me. I did fairly decent, finishing Top 16. It was one of the best experiences of my life back then, and I was hungry for more. ESWC had left a great impression on me. They had set it up in giant theatres with a very big walk-in traffic attendance, and the theatres provided headsets with trilingual shoutcasting (you could choose which language shoutcast you wanted on your headset). Even to this day, it's rare to see this, so we're not "only growing"! It really does seem that the Frenchies have always set up sick events, from ESWC 2003 through to Iron Squid 2 (2013).
ECG & WCG 2003 It wouldn't be until September 2003 that the next event took place for me. This time it was the European Cyber Games, a kind of awkward precursor to the WCG intended for players who had already qualified for the WCG. It wasn't particularly memorable to me, and also I didn't perform too well (lost in first round). WCG 2003 took place in October. It was the first tournament where I felt more ready and more hungry to really do some damage, but I fell to the eventual tournament winner SK.Insomnia by a score of 1-2. In the third and final map, I creeped better and I dare say micro'd better, but he outstrategized me, was more daring and generally more "winningy". He aggressively took an expand from a disadvantageous position (I was level 5/3/1, he was 4/2/1, all else was same) and I passively waited, scared to commit to anything. He pulled ahead and it was the end for me.
Woof woof In January 2004, following a 2 week Christmas school holiday, I had been "let off the leash" for the first time ever, as I had for the first time had 2 weeks straight of nothing-but-practice. It was my first tournament victory! It was also the first time I was defrauded (though definitely not the last), as the $10,000 first prize pay-out was pocketed by the event organizer and never paid out. In more ways than one, CXG for me was about making an acquaintance to eSports ugliness and beauty alike; the unprofessionalism and fraudulant activity on the one hand, but much more than that it was about the raison d'existence; overcoming challenge and that lusty victorious feeling one gets after achieving ultimate and sweet victory, and hearing the crowds' cheers (there was no crowd at CXG, though, nor at the WCG 2004 I won come to think of it).
A comparison Anyhow, if you look back at these 4 events, I can say that they reflected certain trends about eSports a decade ago: one or fewer events per month, and no streams or anything of the kind in between these events to tie storylines together or to keep people entertained. You'd be lucky if the prize money was paid out quickly, IF AT ALL. Sometimes players missed tournaments because they simply didn't know they were going on. Prize money on WCG was high ($25,000 for first) but most other events offered $2,500 - $12,500 for first place. My salary for the first year in 4Kings was $0, for the second year it was between $300 and $600, and we were one of the wealthier teams. Most teams got by on one or two major sponsorships per year. The first time I ever streamed (on XFire), I quickly reached the maximum viewer limit of 50. It was capped at 50! At the same time, I was so amazed that I was playing in front of 50 viewers, it was unbelievable. Lastly, besides the ESWC 2003, the vast majority of tournaments I went to in 2003 and 2004 and very few live visitors / fans. Looking at all these things, one can only marvel at the leaps and bounds we've made (one step backwards, two step forwards) in eSports, and marvel at the steps we've yet to make - and will surely make.
Conclusion eSports has its ups and downs, and unfortunately even some drama. We take one step backwards with every drama, unfortunate incident and growing pains, but we take two steps forwards every time we witness the passion that exists for all of eSports' games; yes, even if it's League of Legends! It's still dudes and dudettes checking out other dudes and dudettes playing games at a high level. That's eSports. IEM Poland with 9000/200 supply of spectators in the stadium? That's eSports! Streaming to thousandssss of viewers simultaneously while practicing? That's beautiful - that's eSports. Player(s) being able to make it independently with several high profile sponsors. Yeah - a huge thanks to Sony Xperia*, BenQ* & TwitchTV*). That, too, is eSports.
Enjoy everything this year has to offer.
Yours truly,
Grubby
*On this note, I really want to stress how lucky I am to have been able to make these connections with said sponsors. Besides the crucial financial support that they offer me, from which I pay all my tournament expenses, you'll be surprised to know that help comes in other forms as well.
Sony Xperia actively supported me at all the MLG championship events in 2012, setting up signing sessions and fan interactions, which helped me connect to the audience, get me pumped up for my games and makes me feel like an eSports star. They also gave me their awesome phones, the Sony Xperia Ion and Sony Xperia TL.
BenQ America set up Q&A Video's where fans asked me questions and I answered. They set up a GRUBBY$20 discount code for my fans on their gaming monitors. BenQ also provided me with the tournament training monitors RL2450HT and XL2420T so I get ideally prepared.
TwitchTV has obviously helped the most by making streaming readily accessible to anyone and everyone, they also helped me with finetuning my stream quality and with general PC issues. They've also set up TwitchTV player lounges at dozens of events throughout the year, of which the relaxing effect should not be underestimated for the tournament. Much love and gratitude to them all.
