eSports
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ilmaestro
State Alchemist
eSports is a somewhat controversial term in the community, but I follow competitive fighting games as closely as any other sport that I watch.
I have slowly been getting into StarCraft very casually, I do mean to learn more about it at some point though.
I have little interest in LoL/HoN at the moment, but when DotA2 hits I might look into the genre a bit more.
FPS make for terrible spectator sports imo, it always surprises me how popular they are.
I have slowly been getting into StarCraft very casually, I do mean to learn more about it at some point though.
I have little interest in LoL/HoN at the moment, but when DotA2 hits I might look into the genre a bit more.
FPS make for terrible spectator sports imo, it always surprises me how popular they are.
My aim is not to cause controversy, in fact I didn't know there was any to begin with, that's just the term I know these things by so that's what I shall refer them by.
I might look at following some LoL tournies as I've finally gotten around to playing it. The only FPS stuff I would look at personally would be Counter Strike and, if they do them, HL2
M, possibly some UT and Quake, but I can understand your viewpoint on them.
I might look at following some LoL tournies as I've finally gotten around to playing it. The only FPS stuff I would look at personally would be Counter Strike and, if they do them, HL2
M, possibly some UT and Quake, but I can understand your viewpoint on them.I think part of what makes more conventional sport interesting is the human element of it; the competitors being the best at something only humans can do. It doesn't seem so special if it is something a computer could do better. No machine could race as well as an F1 driver, nor dive at the turf as well as a footballist. Esports are too artificial to interest me as a sport.
There's still a human element in whatever you may call this. It might not be as prominent as conventional sports, but it's still there.
I'm just asking if anyone out there follows this stuff, terms don't matter to me and I'd rather not have a debate over them, we could have a thread dedicated to that.
I'm just asking if anyone out there follows this stuff, terms don't matter to me and I'd rather not have a debate over them, we could have a thread dedicated to that.
I watch Starcraft 2 a lot. Being a fan of TotalBiscuit does kind of help, considering i got started with the whole side of things through his beta videos on how he sucks at SC2. I play regularly, though i'm fairly bad still. Stuck in Silver league. If i had more time, i'd play more, but there we go.
I'm only really getting into the fighting game side of things more recently, it didn't take my interest as much, but some tournaments have been entertaining to watch. Like seeing the japanese UMvC3 player use Raccoon to decimate a couple of months back got me pretty interested. Still, it's a growing medium, and it's growing fast.
It is quite mad how huge the scene has gotten in the past year though. I remember watching TB cast some early matches about a year ago and it had maybe a few people watching it. Then you tune into the IPL4 last week and you get in excess of 75k people watching the finals between Alive and Nestea and you realise it's boomed. League of Legends is another one which has gotten big interest, but it has a larger playerbase, the only reason it has more viewers. It's dull to watch though, it takes too long for anything to happen. SC2 or fighting games, anything could happen fairly quickly.
I'm only really getting into the fighting game side of things more recently, it didn't take my interest as much, but some tournaments have been entertaining to watch. Like seeing the japanese UMvC3 player use Raccoon to decimate a couple of months back got me pretty interested. Still, it's a growing medium, and it's growing fast.
It is quite mad how huge the scene has gotten in the past year though. I remember watching TB cast some early matches about a year ago and it had maybe a few people watching it. Then you tune into the IPL4 last week and you get in excess of 75k people watching the finals between Alive and Nestea and you realise it's boomed. League of Legends is another one which has gotten big interest, but it has a larger playerbase, the only reason it has more viewers. It's dull to watch though, it takes too long for anything to happen. SC2 or fighting games, anything could happen fairly quickly.
On the other hand, I always enjoyed watching people compete against each other on GamesMaster, and I think Bad Influence did that sometimes too. That was 15 years ago, however. Still, I can understand how eSports can be exciting so long as you are interested in the game being played.
Mutsumi said:
Here's the thing. The primary audience of esports has, and probably always will be gamers, but a there has been a lot of people starting to watch esports who have never played the game, or don't play games often at all. It's captive audience is expanding, basically, and it wouldn't surprise me if it got the point of people watching it as a general form of entertainment soon enough, and i only say that because of how fast the numbers have risen in the past year.
Vashdaman
Za Warudo
Are esports kind of like chess? Don't all the top fighting game players get so obsessed with counting frames and hitboxes (whatever those mean) that it just all turns into some kind of mathematical equation, due to the limited variables? I would imagine strategy games must turn into that at some point too.
ilmaestro
State Alchemist
Frames and hitboxes are fighting game terms (although the concept of frame data is not 100% different to timings in RTS and other things).vashdaman said:
But no, the variables are not limited enough for it to be like that (not that the variables are limited in chess or go any more than they are in "real" sports) - the main difference is that physical skill rather than mental skill is also challenged, which puts them in a very different bracket to board games, even if people don't want to lump them in with soccer and tennis just yet. This introduces a quite literally unpredictable human element, meaning you often have to react to things that were outside of the scope of what you calculated beforehand.
RTS at the top level at the moment is ever changing, especially when you look, at Starcraft 2. I could have told you about 3-4 months ago that a 1 Barracks fast expand was a scary thing to do, now it's become common that, nearly everyone has it in their arsenal. Going mech as a terran player is more common now too when it used to be a hard one to work with. With patches changing the smallest things here and there as well it just evolving generally, it's hard to say it's down to maths.
Put it this way, everyone plays differently, whether it's them going for something completely crazy or just works on macro(keeping a good economy, building tonnes of stuff) well, it's hard to say it's going to be the same every game. You also have to consider that Heart of the Swarm is due out this year, and that will evolve it more. Though that will depend on how many people transfer over to that when it launches, or if they move over later.
Put it this way, everyone plays differently, whether it's them going for something completely crazy or just works on macro(keeping a good economy, building tonnes of stuff) well, it's hard to say it's going to be the same every game. You also have to consider that Heart of the Swarm is due out this year, and that will evolve it more. Though that will depend on how many people transfer over to that when it launches, or if they move over later.