How to learn to love e-sports

Posted February 20, 2012 by James Pickard in Gamer Culture, News, Opinion.

Sporting Behaviour: Welcome to the first of BeefJack’s new regular columns, our guide to the very best in competitive gaming. E-sports have exploded in popularity over the last 12 months, but if you’re not already one of the converted, where’s the best place to start? James Pickard is here to help.

Finding where to start is never easy. Take this column, for instance: where would be the best place for me to introduce you into the world of e-sports?

I’ve been stumped for days. The scene is massive, and it’s growing – quickly. By the time you’re reading this, a number of StarCraft II events will have come to a close, another will quite possibly have just begun and a new League of Legends tournament may have popped into existence. It’s a fast, constantly evolving and growing sector of gaming – so just where should I, and you, begin?

My best advice? Pick a competitive game you know and like – there’s bound to be at least one tournament or a series of matches out there for you to watch. Don’t be fooled into thinking that just because something like Quake is ancient, people still aren’t playing it competitively. Perhaps you’re a Counter Strike fan? No worries, you’re sorted – it remains hugely popular on the competitive circuit. There’s even a Counter Strike: Source tournament taking place at this weekend’s Assembly Winter.

Looking for something more modern? That’s easy. StarCraft II is the e-sport right now, with competitions springing up all over the place and streams upon streams of regular content. Intrigued by just how good some of the Korean pros are compared to you? Watch a couple of games from the GSL. The talent on display is unmatched, with entertaining and informative commentary to keep things interesting during the downtime and frantic during the action. The level of professionalism might surprise you.

There’s huge momentum behind MOBAs too, League of Legends’ massive player base and the potential for delicious advertising revenue has encouraged tournament organisers to pick up the game. The DOTA 2 beta has also seen the introduction of a number of small competitions, which will surely grow as it moves towards a full release.

Elsewhere, fighting games have an enormous following across a range of titles, from mainstream entries such as Super Street Fighter IV and Marvel vs Capcom, to the more obscure Blazblue titles. They practically command a whole area of e-sports to themselves, culminating in the mammoth EVO tournament each year in Las Vegas.

The sheer amount of choice is unprecedented. If you find yourself with some free time, or perhaps fancy trying something different during your lunch break, head over to TwitchTV or the equally brilliant WellPlayed.tv, choose your game, and get watching.

An alternate path

Or, you could ignore all that and do what I did: watch a game you’ve never played before, and find something special.

Here’s where I started. This very StarCraft II match. I had zero understanding of the mechanics, no clue who the players were, no knowledge of individual units – even the races were lost on me. I had not a single Scooby. Nevertheless, all that I needed to know was the essential concept of any competitive game: the red guy wanted to beat the green guy, and the green guy wanted to beat the red guy. Nothing else mattered.

Sure, I could also praise the brilliant commentary from John ‘TotalBiscuit’ Bain, who infuses each engagement with enthusiasm and drama, but when a game works on such a fundamental level, it’s almost impossible to avoid getting caught up in the excitement.

It’s an incredible series of matches, full of explosive battles between vast numbers of units and displays of immense skill and strategy from both players. As proof of what competitive StarCraft II can be, it’s one of the greatest series I have ever seen, and I encourage you to give it a go.

Getting into e-sports, hell, anything new, is intimidating at the start but take the first step and I’m sure you’ll find something wonderful. Start small, focus on one single game, find out who the best players are and when the tournaments start.

That’s something I’m here to help with. Every week I’ll pull together what events are taking place across as many games I can find, discuss the Big Topics, and hopefully provide some insight into the games, and the players who are so much better at them than I will ever be.

There’s so much free content out there as the scene continues to grow, thanks to streaming and entrepreneurial folks, so now is a great time to become interested. Soon enough, you’ll know your Idras from your INcontroLs, your Justin Wongs from your Daigo Umeharas and your Evil Geniuses from your Startales. And perhaps one day soon, I’ll see you down the pub at your local BarCraft, for a pint and some incredible e-sports action.

Save the date

There are two big tournaments competing for your attention this weekend. MLG’s inaugural Arena event will be taking place over the same weekend as Assembly Winter. MLG  has announced that the Winter Arena will be a pay-per-view event too, so we’ll have to see how this bold move affects viewing figures and payment models adopted by other competitions in the future.

February 21st – 22nd: GSL Code A Round 2 – StarCraft II

February 22nd – 25th: IGN Pro League Team Arena Challenge 2 – StarCraft II

February 23rd: EU 5-on-5 Champions Club 36 – League of Legends

February 23rd + 25th: NASL Season 3 Qualifiers – StarCraft II

February 24th – 26th: MLG Winter Arena – StarCraft II

February 24th – 26th: Assembly Winter 2012 - StarCraft II, Counter Strike: Source, Tekken 6

February 25th – 26th: IGN Pro League 4: League of Legends Qualifiers – League of Legends

Sporting Behaviour is BeefJack’s weekly guide to the very best in e-sports action. This is the very first entry, but in future you can click here to read all the more editions of the column.

Tagged as Assembly, DotA 2, e-sports, League Of Legends, Marvel vs. Capcom, MLG, Sporting Behaviour, Starcraft II, Super Street Fighter IV