Getting Sporty with eSports!
Electronic Sports, or eSports, can be
defined as “a form of sports where the primary aspects of the sport are
facilitated by electronic systems; the input of players and teams as well as the
output of the eSports system are mediated by human-computer interfaces.” (Hamari & Sjöblom, 2015)
According to ESPN, there are 89
million eSports audience in 2015 worldwide. Next to music, [eSports] gaming has
more YouTube followers than news, education, and movies, with a 79 million
number of subscribers. 7.4 million
Filipino gamers comprise the Philippine eSports population.
There are at least 25 world famous
eSports games. They are subdivided into different eSports categories such as
Fighting Games, First-person Shooters, Real-time Strategy, Sports Games,
Multiplayer online battle arenas, and more. Data from ESPN shows that the more
famous, and high grossing, eSports are League of Legends (LoL), Defense of the
Ancients (DotA), DotA 2, Smite, and Call of Duty.
On a personal note, when roaming the
streets of Cebu, I would often see computer shops and internet cafes usually
full of people, particularly minors, engrossed in their ongoing games. When I
go to the mall, I would occasionally witness an ongoing tournament. Even in
universities, I would encounter groups of students playing a game or two in
between classes.
With all my observations and the
statistics mentioned above, I ask myself: Why is eSports becoming a hobby for many
Filipinos? And why do they love it so much?
In my quest to satisfy my curiosity,
I set myself to interview a fourth year computer science student, who is also
the vice chairperson of the University of the Philippines Student Council, who
also happened to play eSports as a hobby.
Vince Dingding first learned about
eSports when he was a grade three student. He involved himself in playing DotA
from grade school to high school. When he entered college, he started playing
League of Legends along with his circle of friends.
When I asked why he chose this as his
hobby, he said this serves as his stress reliever. It gives him the chance to
do something that’s “not in the real world.” Although he can express his
creativity through his other hobby, writing, it isn’t always enough—which is
why he challenges his creativity in making game strategies in order to win.
Like many other gamers, Vince went
through a phase when he would spend almost the whole day just playing eSports. He
even remarked that “it already felt like an addiction.” When asked about his
opinion on why he got “addicted”, or simply got hooked to playing, he said:
That explains why the gamers spend so
much time in front of the computer, playing game after game.
From Rookies to Professionals
For some gamers, eSports is more than
just a hobby. From simply being a pastime, it is now a career. Just imagine
this: in 2014, a team called Newbee from Korea bagged the title of being the
champion in Dota 2—and the winning prize of $5.03 Million dollars. That’s more
than what a minimum wage earner gets in a year.
As a professional gamer himself,
Vince told me that he and his teammates join tournaments to win a cash prize,
along with some gaming paraphernalia such as keyboards, mouse, mousepads, and
even headphones. His other teammates are even hired by companies to play for
them in major events. They would get paid regularly to practice the game, and
also receive additional cash prizes if they won the tournament.
In an article by the Business
Insider, they listed 15 of the highest paid professional gamers in the world
who earned more than $300,000—and that doesn’t even include “the sponsorship
deals and income they receive from streaming their practice games.”
On the first spot, earning around
$519,086.72 in 52 tournaments, is Lee “Jaedong” Jae Dong from Korea.
Sources:
Featuring the write ups of a Mass Communication student from the University of the Philippines Cebu.
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