Esports, the competitive scene of gaming for prize money at tournaments, is held around the world. Esports consists of individual players or teams of players, who strive to reach number one at tournaments to show the world their skills, earn money and represent their countries. Professional Esport players push themselves as much as any other athlete to improve their skills, but instead of practicing on a field they practice on the screen for hours. The Esports tournaments that are held for competitive gaming consists of big name sponsors similar to those in other sports and prize pool money. The competitive gaming industry brings in a lot of revenue do to the amount of people, who watch the competitive gaming tournaments as a sport.
Esports consists of people participating in tournaments individually or as a team to reach the top, earn money and represent their countries. The competitive scene of gaming consists of big name games such as League of Legends, Dota 2, Counter Strike Global Offense, Hearthstone, Smite, Melee, Street Fighter and more. The tournaments consist of teams or individuals; some well-known teams are Team SoloMid, Team Liquid, Fnatic, Cloud 9, and more. These teams are no different from soccer teams or any other type of sport teams that strive to win for their countries, such as Team Liquid, Cloud 9, Team SoloMid represents North America, Fnatic, Epsilon, Ninjas in Pyjamas represents Sweden, and more. These teams compete against each other to be the best.
The professional Esport players train and practice as much as any other athlete to improve their skills. Esport players don’t practice on a outside field, they practice in front of a monitor for hours, though it may not seem tiring but playing a mental competitive game can be extremely stressful and very tiring. Games such as CSGO (Counter Strike Global Offense), Melee, Hearthstone and more consists of reading your opponent’s actions, thoughts and having situational awareness, similar to play a game of chess. Professional Super Smash Bros Melee players such as Mango, Armada, Hungry Box, and Leffen put at least 40 hours a week into practicing Melee to improve their skills. Professional Esport teams and individuals put a lot of time and effort to hone their skills.
Esports similar to any other sport consists of companies or organizations that sponsor gaming tournaments with big prize pool money. As Esports grows more in views, companies such as Redbull, Doritos, Intel, Nissan and more are taking advantage of how big the audience of Esport is by advertising their products. In January 2015 the MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) Smite held their World Championship Tournament containing $2,612,259 prize pool, the winner got $1,306,130 for winning it. Dota 2 had a much bigger tournament called The International 2015: Dota 2 Championships with a prize pool of $18,429,613. These tournaments are broadcasted on a website known as Twitch where more than 100 million people per month get on to watch tournaments or people play.
Esports has demonstrated how similar it is to any other sport that has been played. Esports consists of teams or individuals similar to other sports. Professional Esport players practice like any other athletes each day for hours. The competitive gaming industry makes a lot of money like any other sport. Esport has grown to be another sport, where players do their best to be number one.
