Steve Bruce Almighty 2,764 Posted March 21, 2017 Quote Esports will generate more than £1bn in global revenue and almost double its audience to nearly 600 million people by 2020, forecasters predict. Esports is organised, competitive computer gaming and can be staged in front of a live audience and millions more online. "It has the potential to become one of the top five sports in the world," said Peter Warman of esport analysts Newzoo. French football club Paris St-Germain has created an esports team. Some English clubs - including Manchester City - employ professional gamers. Esports generated $493m (£400m) in revenue in 2016, with a global audience of about 320 million people. Prize money of $93.3m (£76m) was won last year, with the winning team at the League of Legends world championship - the biggest esports event - sharing a pot of $1m (£810,000). https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/39119995 Would never watch someone else playing a computer game, fuck me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rab 825 Posted March 21, 2017 I've been following eSports for a long time, way back before they all started earning big bucks. Lots of people think it's weird although I like to compare it to football: you can either play football or watch football. A few League of Legends tournaments have brought in bigger crowds than some of the bigger football teams could only dream of. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mel81x 1,917 Posted March 21, 2017 (edited) eSports has been on the rise for a long time now and some of the big hitters in this area are games like Counterstrike (how this still goes on today is beyond me but its one of the bigger ones) and DOTA. I watch a lot of them when I get the time but some of the money on offer is ridiculous. I vaguely remember a footballer who quit his career to actually try and become a pro FIFA 17 player as well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bluebird Hewitt 649 Posted March 21, 2017 With that amount of money on offer and people watching, there's no denying how big it can become. While I don't watch much of it, I have watched some parts of the Evo tournaments (the beat em up games ala Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom etc.) and have seen some good matches on there. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mel81x 1,917 Posted March 21, 2017 2 minutes ago, Bluebird Hewitt said: With that amount of money on offer and people watching, there's no denying how big it can become. While I don't watch much of it, I have watched some parts of the Evo tournaments (the beat em up games ala Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom etc.) and have seen some good matches on there. Some classics over the years Umehara over Vale and then even beating the shit out of Justin Wong one year. That 16 yr old who played one of the best MvC3 games I have ever witnessed. The Blazblue comeback in the finals from 2014 with Garireo [Probably the second best fighting game comeback I have ever witnessed. The Beast video on YT with Umehara for its time will always be number one for me] 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mel81x 1,917 Posted June 1, 2017 https://compete.kotaku.com/lung-collapses-are-a-surprisingly-common-esports-injury-1795731971 Apparently its become a trend (micro-trend) even for players of eSports to develop this kind of lung-collapse and it takes no second guessing that gaming does have this as a drawback in pro tournaments. Some of those gamers are in seriously bad shape and couple that with some fantastic nutrition habits and you've got a recipe for injury and this kind of shit. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RandoEFC 4,267 Posted June 2, 2017 It's baffling how much some people lose touch with reality to the point that they start spectating other people play games, it's a new level of addiction. I even noticed that on bet365 you can bet on other people playing Counter Strike and watch the matches online. Absolutely fucking weird. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
