Esports - Emergence of a new Sport

The emergence of Esports growing from lan parties at someone's basement to filling out giant venues has started to become a normal theme.  Events like Dreamhack hosting events at Elmia which boasts over 13,000 visitors twice annually at a vendor with the size of around 34,000 square feet to another event like the World Championship Series for League of Legends at the well renowned Staples Center which is over 950,000 square feet!  The Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey has been quoted that "eSports will someday be the biggest sport in the world." Source .

Let's look at Riot Games approach to this market.  They are the company that is responsible for League of Legends and quite honestly a hefty future investment in the Esports scene.  You also have companies like Valve with their Dota 2 and Blizzard previously with Starcraft and World of Warcraft.  But focusing on Riot Games, their strategy has not been to get immediate returns on their investments, but for the future and security of Esports as a whole.  It has been recently discovered that for Riot Games to host their LCS tournaments, they actually don't even break even, but lose money in these situations.  Of course whose to say that they don't make returns elsewhere such as Champion Sales and such.  As you will see soon in the future though, that Esports IS starting to become a legitimate identity.  Even the United States government has started issuing Athlete visas(the same that basketball/soccer players would get) to these Pro Gamers to come here and compete at these tournaments.  You can take a quick google search and easily find information on this now.

2013 LoL World Championships at the Staples Center

One other important approach that Riot Games has taken this year was that in starting of Season 3, which is the current season, they introduced a team salary that would help with the team with keeping costs covered so that the players can fully dedicate their talents into giving out their best show, rather than worrying about being able to pay their rent.  The amount they disclosed was that they give $175,000 to each team.  So let's try to break this down then.  In a team you typically have 5 main players, 1 manager, and subs, usually 1 to 2.  It was also released that each main roster player will receive at LEAST $25,000 with that.  So we can start with the minimum, a main player receives $25,000 a year on the salary, free living expenses minus food and pleasure spending, travel, and gear.  You also can look into tournament winnings which for first place in the World Championship Series is $1,000,000.  Of course the tournament winnings you would be splitting that with your sponsors and with your team.  There's also the streaming aspect.  Streaming has become THE thing for the every day gamer to watch these pro gamers in action AS they're playing.  The big pioneers in this would be websites like Twitch.tv, Azubu, and of course Youtube.  With how many viewers some streamers attract, sometimes in the 20-30k range, it's not a far fetched idea that these people can live off of the streaming revenue alone.  Sites like Twitch.tv offer generally about $3.00 per 1,000 viewers on their Ads.  There are many options in terms of what kinds of Ads can be shown but that's the basic general understanding of it.  So at the end of the day, your average professional League of Legends player can make it easily in the mid 5-figures, while your more prominent players that take advantage of streaming can definitely make it upwards to the 6-figure mark.

So yes, it's here, and probably here to stay with so much more room to grow.  Maybe this will change the persona, or image that the mass public has on hardcore gamers as mom and dad's basement dwellers, desk and room littered with pizza boxes and soda cans.  At the same time, maybe it won't; it depends on how the rest of the country will take to this emerging trend.  It also depends on the image that these organizations and pro gamers portray as well.  Hopefully they look for the long haul and keep things at the most professional level and really give everything they have for the future of the sport.  On one spectrum we have families and groups of people that don't believe in the hype and think it is all a waste of time; then we have the other group that genuinely believe in this idea and support what it means to many peoples' futures.  Here's one interview of a Pro-Gamer known in the North American League of Legends scene who's family did not support his dreams but now has a, so far, successful career in professional gaming. 

I have big hopes and dreams for Esports and everything that it can do.  I hope for more organizations looking into this and branding themselves into this market like in the Korean market you have giant, international brands that sponsor teams.  I hope that the people involved in it now don't give up on it now and to keep on pushing.  But mainly I hope for people like you to support this dream.  Why?  Because it's people, just like you, that will make this happen in full force.  And it's so easy to support, just watch and enjoy.  What do you think of gamers and of esports in general?