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Sep 10, 2013

Competitive Video Gaming, the Sport of the Future

originally published on April 2013 as part of my Masters Report for graduate journalism school.

Abstract:

Competitive video gaming is experiencing exponential growth. Advances in technology and global Internet penetration has created highly dedicated fan bases for games played at a competitive level. Game developing companies are beginning to focus their attention on making games for the new eSports market.

How avid eSports fans view competitive gaming is disrupting traditional consumption models. Twitch.TV a site that streams live gaming content is seeing massive growth.

Now, more than ever, dedicated gamers can live off of playing games – whether by competing in tournaments as sponsored players or running ads on their Twitch.TV live stream while they play.

The communities that have developed around different genres of competitive games are as varied as traditional sports such as Major League Baseball or the National FootballLeague. A new industry with a complex infrastructure is developing in this new market.

"The Case for ESports Vs Traditional Sports with the Rosen Bros."

Two Houston brothers and University of Texas students want you to experience competitive video gaming on your own computer. They aren't relying on the commercialized machines involved in existing gaming leagues. Twins Adam and Tyler Rosen plan to bring competitive gaming directly to you.

Competitive video gaming is among the fastest-growing spectator sports in the world. Pursuing these games isn't about getting the highest score on your local pizza place’s Pac-Man machine. Commonly called eSports, competitive gaming presents individual and team competitions as a spectator sport on the Web. A recent tournament presented by Major League Gaming netted a combined 2.6 million viewers, some in person, but most on the Internet. The eSports phenomenon has seen huge growth throughout Europe, Asia and the United States as Internet connectivity improves.

[SXSW World of Tanks]

On most weekends, you can find live streams of tournaments across the globe – “StarCraft II” tournaments in South Korea, “League of Legends” tournaments in the United Kingdom, “Street Fighter” tournaments in California and “World of Tanks” tournaments in Russia.

Websites that cater exclusively to streaming live video games, such as Twitch.TV, have seen massive gains as well.

“In February 2013, more than 600,000 unique Twitch broadcasters attracted in excess of 28 million unique viewers,” a recent Twitch press release said. “Each of those viewers watched, on average, more than 1.5 hours of video a day.”

Major game companies are beginning to create products aimed at the new market.

Activision, makers of the successful “Call of Duty” franchise, recently announced a $1 million tournament as its first step into the eSports world. Blizzard Entertainment, maker of the popular “StarCraft” franchise, has also taken steps to support the global competitive scene for its game.

Digital natives, those born in the ‘90s, consider high-level video gaming a legitimate alternative to traditional sports. Some eSports tournaments garner an audience that can outperform the television viewing audiences of Major League Soccer broadcasts. The eSports revolution, however, is not being televised. It is live-streamed by communities that have formed around specific games, usually through Twitch.TV. In March 2013, 2.3 million viewers tuned in to Major League Gaming’s Winter Championship.

The Rosen brothers foresee a day when digital competitions disrupt traditional pastimes like football, basketball and baseball. They see a future in which the global popularity of competitive video gaming makes kids lose interest in conventional sports.

In Austin, Texas, a packed, dimly lit theater is buzzing with anticipation and excitement. The chatter of the mostly college crowd is punctuated by laughter and cans of Red Bull popping open. Electronic music thumps over the house speakers. Hundreds of fans sit in the purple and blue glow of neon stage lights. They are here to see their favorite gamers duke it out. They await their champions, who will soon be taking their place at their back-lit battle stations on the stage. The stage consists of an elevated platform with two desks flanked by panels of light.

Each desk has a computer monitor, keyboard, noise-canceling headphones and a mouse that is finely tuned and crafted for one purpose – the virtual slaughter of opponents.

The combatants emerge and step onto the stage. Professional commentators, booming over the house speakers, introduce them by running down a list of stats and recent tournament wins or losses. Were they not using words like “Zerg” and “Terran” – two of the three races you can choose for your virtual army in “StarCraft II” -- to identify the players, you might think you’re listening to a Super Bowl announcer.

The crowd alternately cheers and boos for their respective favorites. The players, in this case Ret, a “Zerg” player, and Ganji, a “Terran” player, take control of their battle stations, put on noise-canceling headphones and assume their hand positions over their modified mice and keyboards. Unlike the roar of the crowd, the players are somber, serious, playing through the game in their minds’ eyes before a unit is summoned to the battlefield. A massive screen towers behind the competitors. Soon it will be filled with images of the encounter. Their every movement on the virtual battleground will be picked apart an analyzed, play-by-play, to the crowd in the room and to the tens of thousands watching all over the world.

The game is “Star Craft II,” a modern-day chess match if your pawns are cockroach-like aliens and your knights are moon-roving battle tanks. It is one of the most popular games in the world, and in South Korea it is often referred to as the countries unofficial national sport. This tournament is Lone Star Clash II, the second of its kind hosted by the Texas eSports Association – a brainchild of the Rosen brothers.

The match begins, and the crowd goes wild. Commentators try to keep up with frenzied action on screen as they call out plays. The players race to establish superior positions on the battlefield. In this game, you harvest minerals and gas to pay for a virtual army. Soon the rivals will be commanding masses of ground troops made up of space marines, tanks, air ships (alternatively, zerglings, infestors and hydralisks) and more as they race toward the inevitable conflict that will decide who advances and who goes home. This game doesn’t have checkmates. It has “GG’s” – the “Good Game” from the losing player signals concession and the end of a match.

[audio sample from Ret vs Ganji at Lone Star Clash II]

While the 2010 release of “StarCraft II” might be responsible for the boom in massive gaming events, it isn't the most popular title at Lone Star Clash II. That honor belongs to ratings juggernaut “League of Legends.” At first glance, the games are similar – each has bird’s eye view of a battlefield, and gamers control “units” or “champions” with mice and keyboards. The major difference is that “StarCraft II” is played one-on-one, and “League of Legends” is played with two opposing teams of five players.

“If it weren't for ‘League of Legends,’ my life would be completely different,” 18-year-old Danish pro gamer Mike “Wickd” Petersen of team Evil Geniuses said. “I would just be a normal average guy in school having to do homework and probably partying all the night. Now I get to travel all around the world. It’s a great experience, and in a sense I get to grow up faster.”

Lone Star Clash II, the heart-pounding tournament in Austin, is unique not because of its high turnout (tournaments of this kind routinely attract audiences in the thousands); nor the fact that the Texas association, which is hosting this event, secured sponsorships from Dell Inc., AT&T Inc. and Red Bull (like most large tournaments, Fortune 100 companies are eager to sponsor). It is unique because the production is being executed by a student organization formed at the University of Texas at Austin.

The story of the Texas eSports Association is a microcosm of what is happening in the world of eSports. Founded two and a half years ago on campus by the twin Rosen brothers, the organization has grown exponentially, from 20 person meet-ups to elaborate mega-tournaments that rival the production values of traditional sporting events.

Hosting tournaments such as the Lone Star Clash II and featuring competitions in “StarCraft II” and “League of Legends,” both juggernauts in competitive gaming, is just the beginning for the Texas association. If the Rosen brothers realize their hopes, there will be lots more eSports in the United States.

“We have some pretty aggressive growth goals that we’re working on right now,” says founder Adam Rosen with the cadence of a rehearsed, but confident, sales pitch. Why not sound confident? Before taking a job as a consultant, the 23-year-old president of the Texas association (he’s 15 minutes older than Tyler) grew a student group into a statewide organization in a short time. Now the brothers want to spread the gospel and help other gaming communities mobilize massive volunteer armies and organize top-level tournaments.

“We were amazed when we got 20 people to show up,” Rosen said, referring to the first official meeting of Texas group, “but as the gatherings grew, the idea of hosting tournaments kept popping up.”

The rapid expansion of the Texas eSports Association recently culminated in the epic tournament known as Lone Star Clash II. Lone Star Clash I had 650 people in the audience and 1.5 million viewers online. Lone Star Clash II surpassed that with about 1,000 in attendance and 4.4 million viewers online.

“We tried to challenge what we thought was possible for a student organization,” Rosen said, “and each time we blew ourselves away with what we accomplished.”

Now that both Rosen brothers are going to be UT alumni (Adam now works as a consultant in Houston, and Tyler graduates in May 2013), their association has moved beyond the student-group state. The first TeSPA board of directors, staffed by recent UT grads, was formed and “tasked with expanding the organization nationwide.”

Bolstered by rise to prominence, the group aims to remove barriers of entry for any group wanting to enter the world of eSports – whether that means hosting tournaments or growing the eSports scene in their area.

“[Our] community hosted Lone Star Clash, which is amazing, right? What if we had 50 communities hosting Lone Star Clashes?” asks Rosen.

Their ambitious goals include a TeSPA chapter in every college and high school in the country. Adam preaches that, as little league and pee wee football can create lifelong sports fans, eSports clubs can do the same for competitive gamers and consumers.

“Just like a football fan is going to stay a football fan for pretty much their whole life,” says Rosen, “if you hook somebody on eSports when they are young, I don’t think that is something that just dies out.”

Rosen is gleeful when he explains how TeSPA has no competition right now. The idea of almost “open sourcing” the operation is to encourage competing organization to join rather than be rivals. Currently there are TeSPA chapters at The University of Texas at Austin, Rice University in Houston, Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas A&M University in College Station, The University of Texas at Dallas, The University of Texas at San Antonio and more.

"Ben Goldhaber and How Twitch Empowers a Community"

Sitting in the back of the theater at Lone Star Clash II is a neatly shaven, blond, 25-year old guy monitoring the event. He is Ben Goldhaber, otherwise known as Fishstix, and he represents Twitch.TV, the most popular outlet for eSports, as senior manager of partnerships. When I ask him for an interview, the first thing he does is panic. He has just arrived from the airport, he says, he doesn't have his official Twitch.TV shirt on. Now approximately 1 million people watch live video game content on Twitch.TV. They are part of the more than 20 million viewers who visit the site every month. They aren't all watching the same thing. Some are watching podcasts, others record-breaking speed runs of classic titles, and others still – perhaps those who can’t afford a new game every Tuesday – are tuning in to see live play of new titles. Even video game developers like Japan’s Capcom Co., Ltd., makers of the Mega-Man and Street Fighter series, are going live to show off games still in development – a great way to build excitement and gauge fan reaction.

Instead of going to mainstream sites that deal in video game content – Kotaku, Polygon, IGN – gamers are tuning in and searching for someone playing their game of choice at that moment. The nature of the medium -- video gaming live online -- has proven unusually successful. Unique visits and length of stay (usually more than one hour) eclipse other gaming sites, Goldhaber says.

Competition looms, though.

Microsoft, maker of the successful first-person shooter “Halo” franchise, has, in what many considered a draconian measure, said it has the right to stop anyone from streaming its content.

“It is kind of a legal gray area,” Goldhaber says. “The fact of the matter is that people streaming their game is just damn good marketing.”

In this share-everything digital ecosystem, however, players want you to see them on their stream because the streamer gets paid for the ads being served up. Streaming content creates a bond between the player and the game, as well as with the audience and the player.

“I like to think of my stream as a university lecture hall for [games] where I can shape the minds of my students to make them hardened learners,” pro gamer Eric “Juicebox” Albino, 24, says. “I do my best to show off its merit by learning as much as I can live while answering questions and engaging my audience.”

Streaming video game content is so popular that Sony Computer Entertainment announced that its forthcoming PlayStation 4 gaming console will come with a baked in “share” button. Gamers will be able to go live at the push of a button.

“Certainly we're more connected now than we've ever been,” says Craig Kanalley, a senior editor at the Huffington Post who has writes about social media. “We're more plugged into technology and instant communication devices than ever. It's only natural for us to want to share our world with others, especially since we have the easy capability to do so.”

In the same way that Twitter, Vine and other forms of instant communication have become more prolific, Twitch.TV has become the method of choice for gamers to communicate and share with one another.

Meanwhile, the audience online keeps growing. In 2011, Twitch averaged 5 million unique viewers a month; in 2013, it is closer to 29 million COO of Twitch.TV Kevin Lin said during a panel discussing eSports held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in March.

While hundreds of fans pack ballrooms and auditoriums for a chance to say they were in the room during the finals of a League of Legends match, hundreds of thousands more are just as happy sitting in the comfort of their home in front of their computer.

“It’s actually interesting. If you look at mainstream gaming sites like IGN, Kotaku or Gamespot, we’re actually eclipsing most of these sites in terms of traffic by a lot,” Goldhaber says. “And on top of that, the average viewer on Twitch is staying for over an hour a day, every single day. We have about a million hits on the front page every single day.”

Goldhaber, like much of the young talent filling the ranks of the eSports machine, is a hardcore gamer turned corporate. More than a decade ago, he started competing in one of the first popular competitive games, “Tribes.” His passion for the game led him to become interested in streaming as a way of promoting his community of gamers, as well as the vast pool of talent that other communities had to offer. Live streaming back then was way less popular and prominent than it is today, Goldhaber says.

So Goldhaber and friends took it upon themselves to gather up all of the live streams they could find and put them in a directory for enthusiasts. At the time, that included Fighting Games and First-Person Shooters like “CounterStrike.” The newly formed GamesCast, a directory of streams, would eventually catch the eye of Justin.TV – an early live streaming website - and evolve into the now wildly successful Twitch.TV. Justin.TV did this by hiring guys like Goldhaber to work for them.

Twitch.TV recently raised $15 million in venture capital by Bessemer Venture Partners, an investment group.

Even though Goldhaber has been there since day one, he is still amazed at the exponential growth in popularity of games such as “League of Legends.” This popularity has opened the door for content creators (streamers) to make a living off doing what they love, playing games.

How much money could you make by streaming your own practice sessions as a professional “League of Legends” player? Goldhaber explained how the CPM (cost per impression) works on Twitch.

Twitch offer a flat rate of $3.50 for every 1,000 ad impressions served. Frequent Twitch.TV viewers have grown to except commercial breaks when watching long gaming sessions.

“So if you think about it rationally, we won’t have 100 percent fill rate, but let’s just say that you’re “x” “League of Legends” player and you get 5,000 concurrent viewers whenever you stream. You stream 10 hours a day, which equals 50,000 hours of content consumed in that day. You run between five and seven commercials an hour, and you could potentially be making around 40 to 50 bucks per commercial run,” Goldhaber says. “Some of our bigger streamers can easily bring in hundreds and hundreds of revenue dollars in a day.”

Gamers have the endurance to sit at their desks for hours on end, fueled by competitive drive and an endless supply of energy drinks. Some could make a career out of gaming.

“It is a very realistic possibility if you are a pro gamer or if you are a YouTube personality that has a big following. If you’re able to pull in a big audience and you have the dedication to stream, you can make a lot of money through Twitch.“

A routine check of Twitch.TV’s most popular streamers pulls up people such as Canadian professional “League of Legends” player Brian “theOddOne” Wyllie, who in spring 2013 had 50,000 concurrent viewers watching him stream a practice session. Every time he runs an ad, he makes $175.

Twitch does not really have any competitors. The closest, Own3D.TV, folded in January 2013. YouTube offers live streaming but does not have the market share in the gaming world enjoyed by Twitch.TV.

YouTube does outshine Twitch.TV in the way that it distributes advertising revenue. When a content creator goes live, the broadcast can later be viewed through the channels archive. Broadcasters can make content available to anyone, charge for it to be viewed, or simply choose to keep it locked. Re-watching archived streams via Twitch.TV is not as intuitive as watching it on YouTube. This has led many broadcasters to re-upload their content on YouTube for easier sharing.

It makes sense to make content available because ads will continue to run on the content. But broadcasters have complained that amount made is so insignificant that you would have to have thousands of viewers for a prolonged period of time to make any money. Professional players of the most popular title on Twitch.TV, “League of Legends,” easily garner audiences of 50,000 just for streaming their practice sessions.

Twitch.TV remains the preferred platform for streaming tournaments. In March 2013, Blizzard Entertainment announced an exclusive partnership with Twitch.TV to stream all of their North American tournaments.

“The international reach is not available through traditional broadcast methods,” said CEO of Major League Gaming Sundance DiGiovanni at an eSports panel at MIT in March. “Our event will reach 175 countries this year.” Not all genres of competitive gaming get as much corporate love.

[Ben Goldhaber on the FGC]

"Some Competitive Games Don't Fit the Mold"

In its current state -- massive tournaments with prize pools that can reach into the millions of dollars -- eSports is relatively new, but competing in video games has been popular for decades. Years ago, championships weren’t won one international tournament at a time, but one quarter at a time in video arcades around the world.

Arcades, often lit only by the screens of the machines, where rivalries were born and scores were settled, were the birthplace of the Fighting Game Community.

[VIDEO “Profile of Arcade UFO”]

Released in 1991, “Street Fighter II: The World Warrior” is responsible for kicking off what would become a rich legacy of rivalries, grassroots events and international tournaments.

The golden age of arcades came and went, and although community-driven events continued, games like “Street Fighter” and “Mortal Kombat” lost some of their mainstream appeal, and the growth of the fighting games scene stalled until 2009, when Capcom released “Street Fighter IV” and reignited the interest of gamers.

The popularity of “Street Fighter IV” also opened the door for other classic titles to reemerge in sleek new versions. At a fighting game tournament, you can expect to see “Street Fighter IV”, “Mortal Kombat 9” and the hyper-frenetic fan favorite, “Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3.” Each year, these tournaments grow, and so does the community they serve.

Ironically, the fighting game community -- fiercely loyal and protective of its scene -- has resisted folding into the greater “eSports” world.

Japanese game company, Capcom -- maker of the most popular fighting games -- has not supported the fighting game community in the same way that “StarCraft II” creators Blizzard Entertainment and “League of Legends” creators Riot Games have. In the case of Blizzard and Riot, these two companies have taken control of the competitive scene for their games. Riot has gone created an official tournament season, complete with playoffs culminating in a final tournament that last year awarded first place a cool $1 million.

Competitors in the Fighting Game Community would love to see these kinds of prize pools, but the landscape is much different.

Alex Jebailey, 30, of Orlando, Fla., has been a competitive gamer since 1993 and a tournament organizer since 2002. He hopes Capcom will begin to support more events. “Capcom has always been a fairly traditional Japanese company that might not see things the same way American-driven companies like Blizzard and Riot do,” Jebaily said. “Capcom may not be throwing millions of dollars at tournaments, but they are really starting to show that they care about the community and its fans.”

Jebaily, responsible for one of the fighting game community’s most popular annual tournaments, “CEO,” says that this year Capcom’s live streaming team will broadcast the tournament on Twitch.TV.

CEO is beloved by gamers because of its unique nature. Like baseball Hall of Famer Bill Veecks, who in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s was instrumental in the promotion of baseball by being the first to include sound effects and fireworks at baseball games - he also engaged crowds by handing out placards with suggestions for the umpire - Jebaily, like sports promoters before him, is a pioneer in giving the fan something extra. In 2012, CEO 13 featured a real wrestling ring that players had to enter to play their matches. The fans ate it up.

“I want it to be a great tournament first and foremost, but I also want it to be memorable for everyone that attends, not just those who end up winning them,” Jebaily said. “I do it because I find it fun and the laughter, memories and experiences that I've helped create and been a part of have stayed with me through my life.”

This sentiment can be seen throughout the fighting game community. Arguably, should the community allow the corporatization of their scene, these unique aspects of their events might not be possible.

“With eSports,” Jebaily says, “a lot of it is advertiser and sponsorship driven. If the money were to run out, then certain events might cease to exist.” The Fighting Game Community was around before the eSports explosion and will likely remain if the bubble were to burst, Jebaily says.

In 2012, the IGN Pro League, a professional eSports circuit, announced that they had reached a deal with Capcom. The IGN Pro League and would begin including titles like “Street Fighter” into its tournament season. Members of the Fighting Game Community that feared the commercialization of their tournament scene met the deal with skepticism.

The fear was short-lived, as a few months later, IGN and all of its assets were purchased to by Ziff Davis Inc. and its tournament hosting arm, The IGN Pro League, was sold off to Blizzard Entertainment to be its exclusive tournament organizer.

Regardless of what happens to the Fighting Game Community, the landscape is wide open for anyone who has the drive and motivation to create a product for gaming audiences.

One such gamer who has been able to live off of producing content for fans of fighting games is CEO of CrossCounter.TV and professional gamer Ryan “Gootecks” Gutierrez of California. A popular YouTube personality, Gutierrez rose to prominence with his hilarious YouTube video series, “Excellent Adventures with Mike Ross and Gootecks.” The videos consist of Gutierrez and his pro gamer friend Mike Ross sitting on a couch and facing off against live Internet opponents in online “Street Fighter.”

Something about the friendship expressed on screen between these two guys struck a chord with fighting game fans, and Gutierrez now commands the attention of a wide swath of gamers. Nearly 400 YouTube videos later, Gutierrez has amassed 63,000 subscribers and more than 21 million video views. They aren't all “Excellent Adventures.” His channel also includes tutorial videos to teach newcomers how to play specific games and game characters, podcasts in which he discusses the scene, and the archives of his Internet show, “CrossCounterLive.”

Gutierrez says tournament organizers, whether they are a part of the eSports world or the Fighting Game Community, are not doing enough to grow the scene. He aims to change this.

“Wouldn't it be a better use of resources to try and find new people who don’t give a shit about ‘StarCraft’ or ‘League of Legends’ or ‘Street Fighter’?” asks Gutierrez. “How do we reach people who play games casually?” His answer is producing high-profile exhibition matches and placing them in nightclubs in Los Angeles – essentially the video game version of a real-life Ultimate Fighting Championship cage match or pay-per-view event. He calls this venture “Bar Fights,” and he says 2013 is its year.

In the same way that traditional sport fans have their favorite team or player, so too do fans of competitive video gaming. Typically, the only way to see your favorite player compete is in a tournament, live or online, but Gutierrez wants to take existing rivalries and elevate them by cherry-picking interesting personalities, removing them from the tournament platform, and placing them in a casual environment.

“Right now, you can’t bring your normal, non-gaming friend to a ‘Street Fighter’ event and have a good time,” Gutierrez said. “Bar Fights provides them a place to come and chill and have some drinks and get to know the other people in the scene. Combine that with watching exhibition matches where people are drinking and having a good time and cheering. Now you have something that I think more people are into.”

Stephen Wille, a lecturer in sports media at the University of Texas at Austin, has 25 years of experience in sports advertising and marketing – including time as the vice president of marketing for the Sacramento Kings NBA team and senior vice president for marketing at the esteemed Pebble Beach golf course. I asked him to explain the parallels between traditional sports and eSports. He responded with this email:

The uniqueness of sports has to do with the ephemeral, unpredictable emotional nature that characterizes the category. Sports offer fans an intoxicating response some call “eustress”, a mix of euphoria and stress, plus two other essential ingredients. The first is the opportunity for self-identification so strong that the fan feels that what is happening to the team or athlete is actually happening to him. The second is a social component that can create bonding experiences, making allies of pure strangers and deepening relationships of friends and family members. It is not inconceivable that online gaming can find ways to tap into these characteristics. Featured gamers that can develop strong brands that are loved and hated and require fans to take sides would be required. Unpredictable outcomes in the context of expert play, which can create both stress and celebration, would be required. Real time social media could be an important tool in making the appreciation of these electronic athletes a shared experience, which will be an important requirement for any major success.

Competitive gaming is already popular and is potentially a viable way to make a living. Legions of competitive gamers and game enthusiasts have been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. There is a sense among gamers that this is here to stay.

“The Holy Grail of all of this is, ‘How the fuck do we get more girls to give a shit about this?’ Whoever figures that out is the real winner,” Gutierrez says.

#eSports #FGC #League of Legends #Star Craft II #Tespa #The esports Association #Fighting Game Community

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