BY DANIEL LEIBOWITZ
Cheers and the screams echoed around the entire stadium. Thousands of fans simultaneously screamed “TSM” while countless more pushed the enemy base and won the game. While this might sound like a football or basketball game, in reality it is League of Legends, an eSport game that was developed by Riot Games.
eSports is a collection of games that allows gamers to play video games on a professional level. Generally, organizations such as Major League Gaming (MLG) will host several different tournaments for multiple games. Throughout the year, players will compete for a prize pool. However, in recent years multiple organizations or even the creators of the game itself have hosted weekly tournaments, or leagues. eSports has been prominent in South Korea and is commonly referred to the “Meca” of eSports since Starcraft: Brood War in 1998. Although other games, mostly FPS games, such as Counter-Strike, were popular in Europe and the United States, the popularity never reached the level achieved by South Korean StarCraft.
Currently, the largest eSport scenes are League of Legends, DOTA 2, and StarCraft II. With organizations like the Korea e-Sports Association (KesPA), MLG, and Ornament (OGN) actively hosting and supporting tournaments for mostly League of Legends and StarCraft II, there are hundreds of pro or semi-pro players for both games.
Overall, while eSports is not a new phenomenon, its popularity continues to expand. The world of gaming is becoming more prominent and integrated into society for professional gamers and non-gamers alike.
