eSports: The Birth of A New, Modern Sport

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For the past year, we’ve been tracking what many are describing as the birth of a new sport: eSports, or competitive video-gaming, a cultural movement that’s redefining how we think about content, sports, and entertainment. With over 200 million hardcore fans around the world and a potential 1.4B that are ready to convert — it’s no wonder some big brands and players in media want in on the action.

On October 20, sparks & honey organized the Inaugural eSports Industry Brand Summit in New York City that brought together eSports advocates, agency leaders, brands and eSports fans to talk about how to engage with this cultural phenomenon.

We also devoted a whole week to eSports coverage on our app N2. Below are the top five trends we covered during eSports week.

1. Traditional Media Companies Are Helping eSports Explode

The eSports market, now dominated by Asia and worth $748.8M, will grow to over $1.9 billion by 2018, according to SuperData. And they predict that the growth will be driven by the U.S. and European markets, which now lag behind Asia, where the whole eSports phenomenon started in Korea.

Visibility on traditional television is helping eSports to go mainstream, with a TBS eSports TV deal and ESPN’s eSports coverge of the X Games and The International. More than 188M viewers will tune into eSports this year, and as in traditional sports, eSports players and teams like the Evil Geniuses will turn into celebrities.

eSports have even been the subject of a documentary. Directed by Patrick Creadon, “All Work All Play: The Pursuit of eSports Glory” is a behind-the-scenes look at the best pro-gamers in the world as they fight for the Intel Extreme Masters championship.

2. Mobile Gaming and Non-MOBA Games Will Help Expand eSports’ Audience.

The most popular eSports games are MOBAs (Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas) including League of Legends, Smite, Heroes of the Storm, and Dota 2 (Defense of the Ancients). They dominate because they require both skill and strategy, according to research firm Newzoo. But if eSports wants to find more of an audience, it will need to continue expanding the kinds of genres pro gamers play that don't present a barrier to entry for the casual spectator, like shooter, fighter and mobile games.

NonMOBA games are already entering the ring. Valve's multiplayer first-person shooter game Counter Strike: Global Offensive beat out League of Legends recently on live-streaming platform Twitch in terms of most hours watched for a game in one day.

And analysts predict that mobile MOBAs like Vainglory will continue to gain in popularity. Clash of Clans, the biggest mobile game, now has tournaments, and publisher Activision has created a league for Call of Duty.

3. Gender Neutral eSports?

The handful of female pro gamers have acknowledged that a big barrier to entry for women in the game is harassment from other players,, and as eSports continues to grow, the disproportion between men and women in the game will need to be addressed.

Ralf Reichert, managing director of ESL (the Electronic Sports League), told Polygon.com that the dearth of women in eSports couldn't be attributed to the barriers that exist in traditional sports.  "There is no reason why a female gamer should not be able to compete with a male one, and surpass him in terms of skill."

Former pro gamer Lydia Picknell, now an assistant manager of the SMITE organization Paradigm, is now the only female professional eSports coach. She argues that having all-women teams is not the answer to eSports integration. Instead, she thinks that the successes of the few women who are pro gamers should be highlighted. There should be workshops and conferences on how to get women into eSports. And pressure should be placed on eSports administrators to implement policies that punish sexist, "toxic" players who bully female gamers.

"[T]here are women players that are at a level with any male player," James Grunke, Head of Global eSports at video card manufacturer nVidia told HopesandFears.com. "We're just looking forward to the day when they don't have to have gender-specific tournaments." Could this be a big opportunity for a brand, to be at the helm of ushering in gender-neutral competitions?

4. eSports Little Leagues And College Scholarships

Word on the street is that eSports will be part of the Olympic games in less than two decades, so kids with dreams not only to be pro gamers but also to compete in this future eSports-inclusive Olympics will need a way to practice.

Super League Gaming after-school game league started in October and takes place in a movie theater. It's aimed at players 7 - 14 to play games like Minecraft 1 1/2 hours as week. Players can see their individual and team ranking and compare it to national league leaders, and after 6-weeks, a $5000 college scholarship is given to the top player.

Players can graduate to the High School StarLeague, which organizes matches featuring students from about 2,000 schools nationwide playing League of Legends. The League will give $35K in college scholarships to winning teams of this year's finals.

As eSports continues to take off in the U.S., we will see more young students play eSports in Little Leagues, perhaps with the hope that, if they become elite players, they can make millions a year at tournaments.

5. eSports Has The Problems Traditional Sports Does: Issues Around Doping, Game-Fixing, and Player Contracts

As eSports continue to mature, players are organizing on behalf of their rights. In October, players for the games Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive formed a union, making demands such as minimum cash prize pools as a prerequisite for tournament participation, standardized payment processes, travel payment help from tournament organizers and a reasonable number of matches played per day. And a bathroom they can use separate from autograph and selfie-hungry fans!

In January, Valve banned seven pro players from participation in any official CS: GO (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive) when it was suspected that they fixed a match in the North American pro gaming league CEVO. Korean investigators recently arrested 12 people who fixed a number of StarCraft 2 matches that took place earlier this year. And ESL (Electronic Sports League), other eSports organizations and betting companies like Unikrn are attempting to combat match-fixing by tracking all in-game data and betting data and using software to detect any irregularities that might suggest illegal activity is happening.

After a player confessed to taking the amphetamine-like drug Adderall, usually prescribed to patients with ADHD, ESL (the Electronic Sports League) will implement an anti-doping policy that takes into account education and prevention. Other leagues have yet to address doping, but as eSports continues to blow up and more money is on the line, they will have to. It's a perfect opportunity for legal performance-enhancing supplements, energy bars, and drinks to fill the need for (legal) speed.

sparks & honey covers hundreds of trending signals in our briefings every week and push the most relevant ones for creators, brands, and organizations via N2. Get your daily dose of cultural trend analysis with N2 (Now, Next).