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What is E-Sports? Why E-Sports will gain mainstream attention?

ImSuperBored

What Is E-Sports?


E-sports is basically as it is mentioned, Electronic Sports. There is many debates as to whether or not it is a sport or not but in the near future E-sports popularity will be mainstream.


Recently as of May 18th 2015 David Stern has taken his attention to the growing E-sports scene. If you do not know, David Stern was the Commissioner of the NBA for 30 years, and he had invested money in a Fantasy Draft for the professional scene of the popular MOBA game, League of Legends. (Source)


Is It Popular?


The most popular E-sports event ever is that of the season 3 World Championship Finals of League of Legends. The total worldwide viewers accumulated to 32 million, and 8.5 concurrent viewers or 8.5 million people watching the stream at the same time (Source).This championship had taken place in the Los Angeles Staples center and sold out very quickly. The event featured the two teams SKT T1 and Royal Club, a Korean team versus a Chinese team. It's clear that there is popularity in E-sports but not so much in the USA. In Korea E-sports is very much mainstream with dedicated T.V channels to such streams. The same goes for China and other Asian countries.


Why E-Sports will gain mainstream attention.


The Growth of League of Legends' World Championships.


What is E-Sports? Why E-Sports will gain mainstream attention?
The DoTA 2014 International.


Is It Lucrative?


Yes, indeed it is,in 2014 DoTA had held a tournament in Seattle with a total prize pool of about 11 million dollars. The first place team winning 5 million dollars(source). In League of Legends' organization, the company, Riot Games, provides the starting players of every team a salary which comes out to about $25,000 a year alone(Source). It is very difficult to say anything more specific because there are many sources of revenue for a pro gamer:



  • Sponsors

  • Streaming Advertisements

  • Streaming subscribers

  • Streaming Sponsors

  • CD-Key Websites and revenue participation for the streamer

  • Wage (by Riot)

  • Price money from Tournaments


Players can reach 6 figures for their yearly income with all these combined. The E-sports scene has the popularity and has above average earnings to explode and become mainstream which would further increase the amount of money and popularity involved.


This was my first myTake and I am tired! Let me know what you thought and how I could improve.


TL;DR


It's popular and there's $$$$.

What is E-Sports? Why E-Sports will gain mainstream attention?
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