E-sports on the ropes

Forgive me if I crow a little bit.  The New York Times recently published an article that questioned the sustainability of e-sports in North America. The article notes that Rupert Mordoch’s News Corporation and DirecTV unexpectedly shut down the Championship Gaming Series and that several major e-sports tournaments have been canceled citing the bad economy and lack of sponsorship.

This news sounds eerily like a post I wrote earlier questioning the future viability of e-sports, a post in which I was told that I was “simplistic and naive” and that I should “at least make an attempt to do even a modicum of research.” I doubt that commentator will be back on the site, but if he does come back, I’m all ears as to what he thinks of the recent news.

Now before I get any comments about why I wrote a piece being so negative about e-sports on a site that purportedly is all about video games and related topics, let me make it clear that I’m a huge fan of e-sports. That may surprise some of you who have read my earlier post, but I actually watch Starcraft and Counter-Strike matches in my free time and follow tournaments when I get the chance. I honestly would love to see leagues, especially professional ones, expand and thrive. I don’t have any illusions of joining them as a player, but I do enjoying watching them as a fan because I can and do appreciate how difficult it is to pull off some of the things they do.

With that said, I still stick with my contention that e-sports have a long way to go in North America, though I’d love to be proved wrong. While video games are played in 65% of all households, professional gaming is still trying to build credibility in this country. According to the New York Times article:

Personal-computer gaming tournaments and sponsorships have been hit particularly hard by the recession.

“It’s kind of like someone hit the reboot button on gaming,” said Craig Levine, a 25-year-old who formed a team as an undergraduate at New York University in 2002.

The current landscape resembles the one he entered, with few endorsements and little prize money.

The one bright spot in all this is Major League Gaming, which according to the Times, will turn a profit this year. Major League Gaming is the sole organized e-sports league in North America due to the fact that its competitors have disappeared. In some ways, this may prove to be a boon to professional gaming in North America, since it reduces the clutter of other e-sports league vying for media attention.

I’ve said before, but it bears repeating that for e-sports to thrive, it will need to cultivate a superstar. Sports leagues have grown with the rise of stars that have captured the imagination of the public. The growth of the NBA back in the 1980s can be directly attributed to the rivalry between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, followed by the rise in dominance of Michael Jordan. The same can be said of golf with Nicklaus and Palmer in the 1970s and 80s and Tiger Woods more recently. If Major League Gaming is smart, they will be on the lookout for a charismatic youngster who can carry the league and become a household name.

The one point that I should address as well is the potential of e-sports beyond the United States. The United States isn’t the world. Korea has a stable e-sports league and they continue to pay big bucks for promising young players. Likewise, e-sports seems to be gaining ground in Europe with the advent of many tournaments and a number of leagues, though recent discussion about video game violence has put gaming in an undeserved negative light.

Growth and stability in Asia and Europe seems to suggest that e-sports may become like soccer, possibly big in the rest of the world, but at best, a second or third tier sport in the United States. Such a development may cause gamers seeking to make a profession out of their hobby to go overseas, much like soccer and volleyball players do today.

In sum, I do hope that I’m proved wrong and professional gaming does make a comeback in the United States. However, for the near term, it looks like it will be exceedingly difficult for a young person to make a career out gaming in this country.

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