The video game industry has earned its respect. The business is serious for the best players in the world who can find a lucrative career there. Find out how the world of sports has developed and what to expect in following years. Playing video games is not a career choice that parents dream of. A brief presentation from the industry could change their minds. Esports is now a multi-billion dollar world that threatens even mainstream sport with millions of fans and a huge audience eager to travel and pay to see its heroes in action. We can now even place bets on the esports matches. The most watched event in the history of eSports took place in Poland in 2017. Katowice’s Intel Extreme Masters attracted 46 million spectators worldwide (34 million in 2016) and 173,000 people attended the live show at Spodek Arena.
There was also a big turnout for the 2017 International festival, which took place in Washington, D.C., At The Seattle Center’s KeyArena. On this occasion, the record for the biggest prizepool for an eSports event was set, with the prize pool set on Dota 2 reaching $ 24.7 million ! Team Liquid winners took home $ 10.8 million. If Team Liquid is not unknown to you, it is probably due to the presence of former Team Pro PokerStars, Bertrand Grospellier. Before being a poker star, ElkY was a video game star, he’s now having fun in both universes. ESports also attracts sports stars as another player representing PokerStars, Brazilian Andre Akkari has teamed up with Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo to buy shares in the CNB E-Sports Club. Athletes such as Alex Rodriguez, Shaquille O’neal and Jimmy Rollins have invested in the NRG sports franchise.
Video games are no longer reserved for young boys installed in a cellar, but it’s been a long road. The concept of sports is quite new but the competition in the world of games is not new. The first video game tournament took place just over 45 years ago at Stanford University. About 20 players have participated in the Intergalactic Spacewar! 1972 Olympics, a free competition. The winners of the team competition – Slim Tovar and Robert E. Maas – and the crowned individual player – Bruce Baumgart-won a subscription to Rolling Stone magazine. It is still possible to play Spacewar! you just have to go to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View In California to find the PDP-1, the machine on which this game still runs.
Increasingly popular from the 1970s onwards, video games were played alone, the goal often being to beat the best score. Trying to beat an opponent didn’t take long to become the ultimate goal. Big tournaments then began, with Rebecca Heineman agreeing in November 1980 for the first edition of the Atari National Space Invaders Championship. In 1981, Walter Day created Twin Galaxies, a world record database for video games that is still recognized today. In 1983, Day named himself captain of the National video game team and launched a tour of the United States by bus. He and his teammates then visit the country in a machine stuffed with arcade pillars, defying the local populations and even the embassies of foreign countries. The tour ended in apotheosis in 1983 with a Video Game Masters whose results will appear in the Guinness Book of records 1984!