I think they just fail to realize a sport is called that because of the athletic activity. Not because they're competitive. Many sports are not competitive.
Competitive gaming leagues partner to elevate eSports globally
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Major League Gaming, DreamHack, and Electronic Sports League announce partnership for remainder of 2012 and upcoming 2013 season.
Competitive gaming leagues Major League Gaming (MLG), DreamHack (DH), and the Electronic Sports League (ESL) have announced a partnership for the remainder of 2012 and the upcoming 2013 season. The partnership is for the betterment of eSports, and will include a universal ranking system, unified competition structure, master tournament calender, and cross-promotional efforts.
This is the first time such an initiative has come to fruition between the competing league organizations in eSports. Talks between the head members of the leagues--MLG CEO Sundance DiGiovanni, DreamHack CEO Robert Ohlén, and ESL CEO Ralf Reichert--began at the first eSports Congress in Valencia, Spain last month, which was organized to help alleviate concerns for the industry moving forward. DreamHack and ESL will have their major events overlap next weekend, with the DreamHack Winter Season Finals and the Intel Extreme Masters Singapore event occurring on the same dates.
"The growth of competitive gaming over the last few years has been staggering and we have now reached the point where we need to align our efforts to advance eSports on a global scale," said DiGiovanni. "The collaboration between our organizations is the first step in a united effort to take the sport to the next level while benefiting all of those involved."
"DreamHack’s philosophy has always been about inclusion and never exclusion," said Ohlén. "This joint initiative by MLG, ESL, and DreamHack is something that will insure the continued growth of eSports that we have been seeing during the past 24 months, for the players, the audience and the industry as a whole."
All three league's currently use Blizzard's StarCraft 2 and Riot Games' League of Legends as featured titles, but have said that this partnership is not limited to any one game or genre.
Other leagues in the space such as the IGN ProLeague (IPL) and North American Star League (NASL), who were both present at the Valencia congress, were not included in this partnership. GameSpot has reached out to comment from each organization, but has not heard back from the time of this posting.
More details on the partnership are expected to be released soon.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
38 comments
Really who cares what you call it? E-sports rolls off the tongue easier than pro-gaming or competitive gaming.
2 Like If esports want to be taken more seriously, then publishers need to start doing something about all the hackers that plague many games. EA and Activision, for exemple, do not seem to care at all, as long as they sell copies. Their games are often filled with hackers, including the entire leaderboard, yet they don't seem to care much. Is it that hard to code the games in a way that people can't cheat?
I'll be interested once they stop calling it "sports". On another note, I do wish the organizations comes more "global". It's like always the same countries having these events, while others just fail to pick up on it.
@Scisor50 Then i honestly am sorry for you. The fact that the name means so much is weird to me. It's the same stupid discussion about american football that it's not football or australian rules football. i mean so what everyone else can call it something else because they are not "football" but you cannot undo the name because it is culturally embedded in every related to it already. And in football and esports it still doesnt take away from whats important and that is the sport/activity. I wonder if everyone who is pissed at the term was or would have been just as mad when e-mail came out. But it's not mail because the postman didn't bring it for me and i can hold it :(. It's something new and different. It's competition just like sports. it's not physical, it's electronic and it's a beautiful thing.Do yourself a favor, call it pro-gaming (we aren't saying it isn't!) and watch VODs of professionals playing the game you like to play the most. Try to experience it first with an open mind and compare your experience or that of the other viewers (you will notice the live audience even if you are watching online) and then compare it to the experience of watching football ( traditional/american/australian or otherwise) and understand why we do call it what it is
Oh and people are bothered about the name. It's completely unrelated to whether they like pro gaming or not. It's that silly name.
And you can't seem to get a sport is an ATHLETIC activity. No one is saying anything about the pro gaming itself. I even say it's entertaining myself when it's on TV. I was just saying in an ironical way that the name just plain sucks. It's contradictory. And american football is not football, you get over it yourself. =/ Just go and analyze why is that.Sports has -nothing- to do with whether it's a competition or not. Man why is it always the hard fans that have to get all worked up about someone's opinion. And do yourself a favor and actually search up definitions. "E-sports" is completely contradictory. And I'm strictly bothered by the name, not the activity.
2 Like Have they consider that the stagnation of the growth of e-sports might be linked to there horrible broadcast schedule which generally is 14 hours on Sat followed by 14 hours on Sun with random hour long breaks in the middle where the viewer has no idea when the cast will continue? I've never seen an e-sports event from any of those companies where they were able to stick to the broadcast schedule.
Let 'em expand all they want but I'm sick of having it shoved down my throat all the time. if I wanted to watch I would have been there from day one, I hate the crap, I'd rather watch a let's play and have the voice behind the video be hilarious and insightful about whatever game is on display than announcers who are more idiots than funny and game players with serious social issues.....
that's just me though.
He could have, for all we know, been kidnapped and strapped to a chair Clockwork Orange style, then forced to watch.
1 Like There is nothing wrong with e-sports. It is similar to chess tournaments where there isn't much physical movements, but that does not mean it can't be a sport. Not everyone can play in "traditional" sports.
@FragRaptor @TheArcade Biggest problem is probably capcom not letting MLG use their games so doubtfull since it can't be in their ( also DH and ESL) game line up.
And that sucks because it can help em get many more viewers. (eyes closed at SF AE at the DH ;( )
@RockySquirrel I'd rather watch Pro StarCraft, and I've watched pro wrestling before for a year. It was really boring. :/
1 Like I fear that one day would be rare people actually practicing any kind of sports , and everyone will be playing video-games and calling themselves "Athletes" .... sad stuff.
Shooting and Archery are Olympic sports. They rely on twitch reflexes and hand-eye coordination. Just like video games...
@Undietaker Just to compare sitting in a chair and play a video game with Archery and Shooting is absurd , do you have any idea the amount of time , skill , effort and physical aptitude it takes to go to the Olympics as an Archery and/or Shooting athlete ?!? It's a daily routine , with training , right amount of sleeping , proper diet , etc... Please dude don't compare it unless you know what your talking about.
1 Like @suplax I only hope for the day less people are put off by the name and just give a legit try with an open mind. Don't like the term eSports, call it pro gaming. it's a word it's been around for awhile. The fact that that is such a hot topic for debate is still weird to me. It's used because like *sports* it is competition. That to me is more important in a sport than physicality and athletisism.
And if you do give a real chance and don't like it, have the decency and respect that other do love it.
I only hope for the day people stop calling it sport and call it pro gaming instead. Gaming has 0 athletic interaction. And this is just related to the term, nothing about the activity itself.
@suplax Or rather make an initiative to make games more difficult to play physically :O What a though right?
1 Like I like games that focus on competition, and I'd like to see it become more widespread.
Still not sold on the idea of having "famous" video game players, but I guess that's the effect of this and much less the cause. Competitive games are great, bring em' on.
@Richardthe3rd Whether you are sold on it or not it already exsists. While he isn't at the top of his game in SC2 right now Grubby old WC3 superstar has 600k following him on twitter and cannot move anywhere in china without getting swarmed. Albeit, not america, but it is possible. Also Lee Young Ho, or Flash, in korea is a similar comparison for the original starcraft.Get used to the idea and start shaping it for the better instead of ignoring it, because all ignoring it will do is make people more passionate and possibly hurt themselves more than they would normally.
It looks like one day we will see super-high paid gaming equivalent of Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Sidney Rice, and Leon Hall.
2 Like Hmm...I see it now....A merger between the three to create the National Electronics Gaming League (NEGL).
@HelghastUser *whisper* can't be National if it's US/NA and EU. lol but i dont see that happening, each one of em has a very unique and destinct feel to them, (judging by watching online). But global ranking is really good enough for now though
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