Balancing a career as a professional athlete and being a full-time student can be challenging. But some students are managing it, all without having to leave their computers.
“It’s so nice to have the ability to excel at something and compete at a professional level,” says the captain of the varsity Overwatch team at Tespa Carleton, Jack Meireles.
Tespa is an esports organization with over 270 chapters on campuses across North America. The organization is one of many recruiting students into a growing industry. The Canadian video games esports market is projected to reach $2.8 billion U.S., by 2023.
Drake, a Canadian hip-hop artist, became the co-owner of an American esports organization and lifestyle brand, 100 Thieves. The Weeknd, another notable artist, became one of the highest investors in OverActive Media, which owns the Toronto-based professional Overwatch team, the Toronto Defiant.
Amazon-owned Twitch is the world’s leading live streaming platform, where users can chat, watch, and stream their gaming experience.
In 2018 alone, there were over 505 billion minutes watched of gaming content just on Twitch–or, nearly a million years in total.
Meireles says esports offer competition to people who don’t have access to it elsewhere. Additionally, esports games are largely team focused, drawing major comparisons to traditional sports, says Meireles.
“It’s just like football and basketball. Each person plays a key role to create a collective team that aims to win.”
“In soccer, I would practice two to four times per week. Now, on the Overwatch team, we’re practicing three times a week, which is the same as anyone would in a traditional sport,” he added.
“We are the next generation coming into the working industry, and we have that passion growing up with video games, and that passion still remains. It acts as a driving force”
Martin So, Persident of Tespa Carleton
Growing up as an athlete, Meireles says “it just feels natural to compete in video games too.”
Meireles says people watch competitive gaming because “they want to see what the next level of competition is at, and it’s something that’s becoming more popular.”
“Last year our highest viewership was at 11,000 online viewers and a live audience of 500,” says Meireles.
“As soon as people understand that players are not just sitting in front of a screen and that there’s been a lot of time leading up to that point when they’re playing on stage. As soon as people appreciate the time, work, and skillset that players have to develop, things will change for esports,” says Meireles.
“We are the next generation coming into the working industry, and we have that passion growing up with video games, and that passion still remains. It acts as a driving force,’’says Martin So, fourth-year computer science student and president of Tespa Carleton.
Media attention
Although there are services created specifically to present esports content, such as Twitch, traditional sports networks have also expanded to include this growing sport.
ESPN and Fox Sports, alongside other major sports networks, have begun broadcasting esports competitions.
ESPN’s esports vertical launched in January 2016.
“It takes time to adjust to trends and recognize big emerging topics sometimes,” says Sean Morrison, associate editor of ESPN esports. “Obviously, at the time, the esports scene was pretty far removed from what ESPN did day-to-day.”
Morrison regards esports reporting as a niche, so the news and coverage are going to be substantially different from what is presented for traditional sports.
“ESPN’s bread and butter are always going to be traditional sports, but we’ve definitely grown in the last three years.”
Morrison says there is room to grow in regards to esports coverage.
“There’s definitely potential for those numbers to grow as the sports audience that’s following esports so avidly now continues to grow up and consume traditional media,” he says.
Activate, a strategy and technology consulting firm, estimated in their 2020 outlook report that global esports revenues will skyrocket to $7 billion U.S., alongside a global viewership of 700 million by 2023.
$2.5 billion U.S. of esports revenue including sponsorship, advertising, prize pools, esports betting, merchandise and media rights currently come from North America.
Activate projects there will be 84 million esports viewers, comparatively more than 79 million viewers of the MLB, or the 63 million of the NBA, but it cannot compete with the 141 million NFL viewers.
ESPN’s coverage has grown, according to Morrison, after expanding their coverage over the past three years.
“We’re not just flying by now. We’re a staple of the industry and devote plenty of time and resources to covering it.”
“Every esports publication, including ours, has to stay nimble and ready to react to the next big thing,” says Morrison.
The Ontario Sports League’s co-founder Christian Guirguis attributes the growth of the esports industry and the league to its similarities to traditional sports. He said esports is a place to connect, compete, but also establish a community. In comparison, traditional sports events and leagues revolve more around prize money.
“It is growing from a funding and sponsorship perspective,” says Guirguis.
He credits the growth to the large corporate entities which are “starting to put their dollars into supporting the esports industry.”
Guirguis says this is still largely done in the professional and competitive scene of gaming.
The Ontario Esports League focuses on the amateur esports community which makes up 99 per cent of gamers who aren’t in the top one per cent.
“Companies are finally realizing that people are willing to pay to go see professionals play at the highest level and that while more volatile than their physical counterparts, esports are sustainable in the long term”
Derek Wilson, Member of Varsity Smite team at Tespa Carelton
Although these gamers are not top tier, there should be a place for everyone to compete, not just the most competitive, says Guirguis.
“The esports scene should continue to promote the benefits to gaming and encourage the growth of its communities outside just the competitive realm,” he says.
“Anyone can play. Anyone can watch”
Derek Wilson is on the Varsity Smite team at Tespa Carleton in Ottawa and had the opportunity to travel to compete playing video games. Wilson traveled to Atlanta in November of last year to play Smite, a free-to-play, third-person multiplayer online battle arena game.
Wilson, alongside his teammates, competed in the National Association for Collegiate Esports.
Hi-Rez Studios, the company that owns Smite, paid for the team’s travel, hotel and tickets to the event, including transportation to and from the airport.
“We went there and got to meet some of the pros that we’ve been looking up to for so long,” says Wilson.
Wilson attributes the growing world of esports to the worldwide recognition traditional sports have had for so long.
“I think what makes esports possible is the passion that so many people have for the games they play.”
“Companies are finally realizing that people are willing to pay to go see professionals play at the highest level and that while more volatile than their physical counterparts, esports are sustainable in the long term,” says Wilson.
“When we were young, we always had that one kid in elementary school that wanted to be the next Wayne Gretzky and play in the NHL, but now instead of Wayne Gretzky in the NHL it’s the Wayne Gretzky of esports, that’s what people want,” says So.
So has been playing video games for over 10 years, starting with the original Call of Duty on a PlayStation, and fully transitioning into the art of computer-based gaming.
“They are a way to connect,” says So in regards to video games.
So attributes the rise of esports to the nature of the sport of video games. “It goes back to how the game is created and structured.”
It is clear that attitudes are changing though. Prize pools are increasing, more people are investing, and the stigma behind gamers is changing.
“Naturally that is going to encourage people,” says Meireles.
“We got flown out by ESPN to Houston and literally everything was paid for, we just had to play,” says Meireles.
“Anyone can play. Anyone can watch.”
Feature image by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
