I passed every day, while everything is evolving with the developing technology every hour, why shouldn’t sports evolve? In this article, we have examined what e-Sports, one of the most popular sports of the 21st century, is, how it started, and what awaits e-Sports in the future.
Increasingly competitive video game world; It is an international company that has grown rapidly in the last few years with its ever-expanding fan base, and where solid money has returned. phenomenon has become. Thanks to their live broadcasts and events, ordinary players have even earned hundreds of thousands – sometimes even millions – of revenues and huge brand endorsements.
As such, we are in this competitive video game world, or as it is known, ‘eSportsLet’s take a look at what e-Sports is, its history and what awaits e-Sports in the future.
What is this eSports?
To define it simply; Organized competitive video game world where participants from different leagues or teams compete in the same game electronic sports or known as ‘eSports‘ is called. Competing players from all over the world millions people You can follow by attending live events or connecting online.
Often played from home Fortnite, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, Overwatch and Madden NFL streamers who prefer to play games such as Twitch can share the moments they play games with their followers using similar broadcast platforms.
In fact, there are also similarities between the traditional sports we are used to and e-Sports. For example, in e-Sports, where talent and professionalism come to the fore, a professional player, just like a football player or athlete in their own field, has full control of the game he plays.
Players want Fifa and Street Fighter one-on-one in games like in teams they can fight. for example haloWhile two teams of four compete in overwatchTwo teams of six each compete. Rules and strategies may differ in each game.
History of eSports
The oldest known eSports competition; spacewar for the game Stanford UniversityIt was a fairly small-scale tournament held on October 19, 1972. The first large-scale video game competition was launched in 1980. arcade organized by the United States 10,000Attracting more than Space Invaders Championshipis .
When history came to the 1990s, computer games began to become popular with the spread of the internet. One of the biggest esports tournaments of the 90s, with finals held in California, United States Nintendo World Championshipis . Blockbuster Video and GamePro simultaneously edited by their journals on their behalf. World Game Championships are some of the e-Sports tournaments held in the early 90s. in the late 90’s Cyberathlete Professional League, QuakeCon and Professional Gamers League tournaments such as
When we come to the 2000s, as a result of the economic crisis in the late 90s, especially in South Korea, with the massive spread of broadband internet networks, people who were unemployed turned to video games in order to spend their spare time, which contributed greatly to the growth of e-Sports.
e-Sports since 2010; It started to experience its golden age by achieving an incredible increase in both the amount of views and awards. The number of e-Sports tournaments held in 2000 was approximately 10 When we come to 2010, this number 260elevated to ; Wold Cyber Games, Internal Extreme Masters and Major League Gaming Many successful tournaments such as
The emergence and rapid popularity of online streaming services contributed to the increased interest in eSports at that time, which online services are the easiest and most common way to watch eSports. With the launch of the popular broadcasting platform Twitch in 2011, popular e-Sports competitions began to be broadcast regularly. The International Twitch tournament in one day 4.5 million record with the audience, each viewer averaged the tournament two hours followed throughout.
in the USA since 2013 Robert Morris University and University of Pikeville Some universities and colleges, such as sports scholarship offers such opportunities.
Also in 2013 Staples Centermade in Season 3 League of Legends World Championship All of their tickets are sold out, a world-renowned music group made in Seoul in 2014. Imagine Dragonsyou took the stagei League of Legends World Championship More than 40,000 fans have participated. In 2015, the first esports arena was opened in Santa Ana, California.
Who plays eSports?
NBA and NFL As hard as it may be to believe for those accustomed to traditional sports leagues such as eSports, eSports at its best functions similarly. For example, in April 2018, NBA, basketball-themed NBA 2K drafted a bill for the launch of the new eSports league focused on the gaming franchise. During the bill, 102 professional e-Sports players were selected, who will be provided with all the splendor and facilities provided to the athletes on the field.
Universities and colleges are also very active in e-Sports. more than 50 colleges, National Association of Collegiate EsportsIt has various e-Sports programs approved by . E.g NACE championship offers a cash prize of thousands of dollars awarded as scholarships to the winner.
Who watches eSports?
Who watches eSports? To answer briefly, most North America, China and South KoreaThere is a considerable esports audience made up of people from. in 2015 235 e-Sports with millions of viewers in 2016 323 million people watched, approximately in 2017 385 When we come to 2020, this number, which is millions, is approximately 590 reached millions of people. Only League of Legends world final match in 2016 43 With a million people watching, the NBA finals 31 remained behind this issue with a million viewers.
According to 2017 data, e-Sports audience 71%when he was a man 39%are women, and the average age of viewers is also 21 to 35 between.
e-Sports in Turkey
Turkey’s first known e-sports team was created in 2003 for the Counter Strike game. Dark Passage is the team. The same team also formed a roster for League of Legends in 2012. With the increasing demand for e-Sports, apart from independent teams, Beşiktaş ESK, 1907 Fenerbahçe e-Sports and Galatasaray eSports started to support e-Sports teams for the League of Legends game. Established in 2005 for e-Sports teams active in Turkey Team Tranquality and established in 2008 HWA Gaming example can be given.
in 2014 Benjamin Aydine-Sports team founded by Space Soldiershas achieved international success by representing Turkey in many tournaments in the CS:GO game. of Turkish descent Tarik Celik, one of the most well-known international esports teams OpTic GamingHe was a CS: GO player in 2016-2017.
The e-Athlete license has been granted to the competitors who will compete in the professional league since 2014 by the Ministry of Youth and Sports-General Directorate of Sports of the Republic of Turkey, and the players who have this license are considered as professional players.
Established in 2011 Turkish Digital Games Federation and e-Sports, which the state recognizes at the federation level, fell to the vice-presidential level with the closure of this federation in 2013; but in 2018 Electronic Sports Federation was established and the institution became its first president on April 4, 2018. Alper Afsin Ozdemir started its operations with
Riot Games Turkey Manager Bora KoçyiğitAccording to what he said, the second most watched sport in Turkey is e-Sports after football, and the support from big teams such as Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray played a very important role in increasing the interest in e-Sports.
Worldwide eSports and mobile device market analyst newzooAccording to a report by , the number of e-Sports fans in Turkey is in 2018. 4 exceeded one million. Gaming in Turkey’According to a presentation by Turkey, more than 29 million of more than 46 million people with internet access are actively playing games. According to the presentation Gamescom 2016‘s choosing Turkey as a partner country and SteamThis potential contributed to the fact that Turkey started to accept payments in Turkish lira.
What awaits eSports in the future?
Although we do not know exactly what awaits the future of e-Sports, which is an industry with endless potential and which can be considered quite young, we think it would not be wrong to say that it will continue to grow and develop at full speed. After all, the award of the first esports tournament held in 1972 was a one-year subscription to the Rolling Stones magazine and free beer. million dollars has seen. The global eSports industry today is about 1 billion dollars and the winners of the most famous tournaments also receive millions of dollars in prizes.
According to Newzoo, the esports industry will continue to grow unabated for the next 5 years, with esports revenue growing by 15% annually in 2023. 1.6 will reach a billion. Newzoo also predicts that growth will be driven by sponsorship revenue in the future as it is now.
BMW, IBM, Levi’s and Marvel Entertainment The entry of many heavyweight brands, including e-Sports, into the e-Sports field in 2020 shows us that the interest and interest in the e-Sports industry will continue to increase in the coming years.
It seems that the next 5 years will determine how e-Sports will take its place in the future. The mobile gaming industry has been on the rise lately, and this rise also contributes to the growth of the esports industry in general. PUBG Mobile the rise in the market of extremely popular games such as; mobile e-Spo also signals that it will gain an undeniable place in the future.
Think about it; which did not exist until just a few years ago Fortnite and Valorant Games like these have now dominated the entire e-sports market. As we said, we can easily say that e-Sports will have a very solid place even if we cannot predict where it will come in the future. At least, that seems to be the case for now, given what e-Sports promises.