Interesting video from The Game Theorists about why ESPN's President and much of their fans are wrong about eSports not being "real" sports and should not be on ESPN.
Personally, I like what he's saying and what he's saying makes sense, but the title is really clickbaity not particularly accurate to what is discussed in the episode. To me a more appropriate title would be along the lines of "Why eSports should be on ESPN" or "How eSports and traditional sports are similar."
I need to preface this block of text by saying that I think eSports should be considered a real sport and that eSports deserves just as much respect as every other sport. I agree with a lot of what MatPat says, but he does spin this with his own personal biases. Most of what I say is anecdotal from my personal experiences with eSports both as a spectator and a participant. I hope that one day eSports will not be looked down upon, but for now we have a long way to go. I'm always open for discussion and much of what I say could be totally wrong! Let's just try and keep discussion civil :) So, I have some experience with eSports (which is something for another time), and while I agree with a lot of what he says, he didn't really go into a lot of depth about certain things. Like his argument about ABC and Twitch. He's trying to make Twitch seem like a really obscure and inaccessible website, but it is very much the opposite. All kinds of games are streamed on Twitch, which means that even those unfamiliar with MOBAs are given some exposure via Twitch. Another thing about Twitch is that the major tournaments are streamed right there on the front page! So it's not hard to come across games you may not watch regularly if at all. Twitch is also international, something that, to my knowledge, ABC is not; which allows more people to be able to watch an event. All of these things lead to an inflated viewer count that doesn't necessarily represent the community as a whole. A good example of this comes in the case of Super Smash Bros Melee. When Twitch put Melee on its front page, viewership rose to unprecedented proportions that did not accurately reflect the actual Melee community. Because of these things, it is unlikely that ESPN would receive that much traffic for such an event. Also, these tournaments span very long amounts of time even over just one day. ESPN would be forced to compensate for this large time expenditure. Another thing MatPat talks about is the bureaucracy involved in recognizing eSports. While the US may recognize competitors by granting them visas, this is only for the best of the best athletes. One of my friends was actually unable to compete in the US due to this issue. The last thing is the meritocracy that he claims allows MOBAs to flourish. In my experience, there really is not a whole lot of mobility within the MOBA scene because of money. A team can have some of the best players in the game, but if they don't have a sponsorship they won't get very far. They will need to work other jobs in order to keep the lights on and the computers running. This cuts into practice time. On top of all of this, there are also people in the eSports team who care very little for their players or teams. These people need to be dealt with before eSports can be seen as a viable thing to invest in.
The comparison between ABC and Twitch did feel weird. He's basing accessibility on the fact that he might stumble across and NBA final therefore it's more accessbile? I think the argument comparing World Series Poker Tour and Cup Stacking to eSports is stronger than his accessibility argument. I would have liked to see more reasoning like, if World Series Poker is worthy enough for ESPN, then eSports should be as well.
I feel like we are comparing two very different animals here. Just like there are flaws comparing network television to internet broadcasting, there is a problem comparing poker to eSports. Poker is something their current demographic probably wants to see. eSports? Probably not so much.
I can see that. I'd imagine that most people who are watching eSports are computer/internet literate enough to find Twitch and watch it there, rather than on television.
Yeah, agreed. From the ~60 seconds I watched, his voice is really grating.