Video Games, the Olympics and stupidity

I think anyone who has even a passing interest in video games is aware of how much of a thing e-sports have become.  Most people are familiar with the big competitive games like League of Legends or Starcraft 2.  You probably have heard of certain big events such as Dreamhack in Sweden or the EVO fighting game tournament just to name a couple.

E-Sports have become so much of a thing that they are now being broadcast on TV the same way you'd broadcast any other sports.  When I was living in Sweden a few years ago I watched the Dreamhack Starcraft 2 tournament on the TV as it was happening live and on the plane to Rome two videos under the "TV Shows" section of the entertainment were finals from a DotA2 and Hearthstone tournament.

I think even ESPN are showing LoL, DotA and Hearthstone on TV and we also have Twitch which is basically the place to go for live feeds of tournaments so it's safe to say that the e-sports scene has come a fair way.

Then I hear that there's been talk of putting e-sports in the Olympics which is an interesting topic for discussion.  I can totally see why some would see e-sports having a rightful place in the Olympics but I can also understand why some people wouldn't want them there either.  But that's not what I'm here to talk about with this post.

This is Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee.  If you take a quick look at his Wikipedia page you can clearly see he's a well educated man and some kind of ex-fencing beast that took home a gold medal in 1976.  But just because he's got some decent academics and can wield a foil like a pro doesn't make him immune from saying some of the stupidest shit I've ever heard in my life.  Here's a quote

“We want to promote non-discrimination, non-violence, and peace among people, This doesn’t match with video games, which are about violence, explosions and killing. And there we have to draw a clear line.”
[Source: https://www.sporttechie.com/no-violent-video-games-in-the-olympics-says-ioc-president/ ]

What in the name of fuck is wrong with this guy.  Video games are about violence, explosions and killing?  This is the kind of stupid statement I expect to hear from my elderly relatives that barely know what a computer even is, not the head of the IOC.  There are good arguments for and against putting e-sports in the Olympics like I said before but games being "violent" isn't one of them.

The olympic is host to a number of combat sports which could be seen as violent.  I mean this guy making this statement used to be a fucking Fencer.  I could easily make some kind of ignorant bullshit comment like him and say something like "We want to promote non-discrimination, non-violence, and peace among people, this doesn't match with fencing which is just stabbing and slashing at folks with bits of metal"

It sounds to me like Mr Bach is just an old, ignorant man who has a tired old view of gaming and doesn't want to do ANY research on the topic and expand his knowledge on the topic.  Go and watch any kind of analytical video on a game like Starcraft, Street Fighter or Counter Strike and you can easily see that there's so much more going on that just "violence, killing and explosions". 

There's no place in 2017 for stupid, ignorant and misguided comments like that.  Should video games be in the event? I don't know, but should they be disregarded entirely because of "violence"?  Hell no and that idea is so fantastically fucking stupid that my head might just explode violently and kill me in reaction to reading something that dumb. 

The International and the Interactive Compendium

Right, today is the day The International 2013 starts, so let's get hype!

Really thought I just want to spend some time talking about how awesome this tournament actually is.  For those that don't know, The International is a yearly tournament that takes place where 16 of the best teams from around the world come together and kick the shit out of each other until only one remains and takes a massive cash prize.

The cool thing about the cash prize, is that Valve released something called "The Interactive Compendium" which is this virtual book that that gives you all sorts of tournament information, allows you to make predictions and even manage a fantasy DotA team.  The coolest thing about this though, is that Valve had said that a small amount of money spent on compendiums goes towards the prize pool for The International, so after all the sales this thing has had the prize pool is at something absolutely crazy like $2.8 million.

The Compendium even gives back to you, the player because as stretch goals are made you get nice little bonuses.  For example, I bought the compendium with steam credit but after a stretch goal was met I was given an item that I then sold on the marketplace for MORE than the compendiums value.  On top of that I've been given all sorts of other free shit, and the chance to earn even more free shit by simply watching games, although the chance of actually getting something from that is stupid low.

So if you're a fan of DotA, support this thing, it's nice that we have events like this and we should show them some love so they don't just die out.  If you're not a fan of DotA, you could always give it a watch anyway because maybe you'll find that you'd like to give the game a go, it's not like you have anything to lose.

The E-Sports Essay (By HKM) Part 1

These posts, regarding E-sports, are not by me.  These have been written by my buddy known as HKM, and are nice little guest posts for my blog.  So enjoy reading something I didn't write, here we go!

E-Sports

Before I get started I want to firstly do an introduction about myself; I am “HKM”, the one who
drew the really bad banner you see above. Secondly I am a 'nobody' in terms of the E-Sports scene
and what I am about to talk about is my personal feelings about E-sports in general and what it
should do to move forward as a whole, of course this will be all done in separate parts, as I am a
guest blogger here, so look out for them, as for my gaming history, I watch quite a bit of Starcraft 2,
play League of Legends, Guild Wars, Counter Strike, as well a load of other games I have history
with, so enjoy the read hopefully as much as I enjoyed writing this.

Part 1: What is E-Sports?
So some of you may be wondering what is 'E-sport'? While others have a vague idea or a good
knowledge of what e-sports is. I'm here to give my perception of what is e-sports as a whole.
What comes to mind when someone mentions e-sports, for the people who have heard of the
term before, is a large stage with two teams/players playing against each other for prize money.

What people think e-sports should mean.

 

While this perception may be true about the definition of e-sports, I would say that this form of esports is the top end of e-sports (think of it as the premier league for football or the major leagues
for baseball) and that it is only a small portion of e-sports as a whole, where gamers will strive
towards when they decide to 'go pro' in gaming, as most of the money lies here waiting to be won
in form of tournaments and others. This part of e-sports includes professional and semiprofessionals
as what they do in essence is they compete in tournaments and win prize money, the
difference is that professionals gain enough money, through sponsorship or others to make a living
while the semi-professionals gain money through sponsorship or others to help with the cost of
living, and may have a part-time job to supplement his income.

The question now is “If professionals are only a small portion of e-sports, then what is the other
portion?”, if some of you are sharp enough and understand my examples given then it should be
clear where the other portion of e-sports lies, but I will make clear where the other portion of esports
lies. The rest of e-sports lies in the amateur and 'non-competitive' side of e-sports. This is
fairly simple to break down, as the amateur side is basically those who are not making a living off
e-sports but are playing competitively at a decent level and are not making some form of money or
a small amount, while the 'non-competitive' are those who play for fun, or have no interest (or no
knowledge) in making money in e-sports.

The amateur side of gaming is a simpler side to e-sports, this is where a person/team competes
(semi-)regularly in tournaments (online or offline) where there is prize money on offer and is small
or no prize money altogether, the definition of small may vary from person to person but the idea
is that the money won and the frequency of the tournament(s) is not enough to make a
sustainable living even if they won it all the time. The player/team are not sponsored, and if they
are, and/or winning small tournament constantly they are in a grey area between an amateur and
a semi-pro.

To explain further the 'non-competitive' side, this includes the rest of the players playing the game
or are actively supporting the game. This is where, I believe, most of e-sports lies in terms of the
amount of players. I have noted two different 'non-competitive' sections here, each one is fairly
different from the other. For the section of players who play the game they are partaking in the
culture of e-sports as a whole, as long as this game is competitive and require two (or more)
players. E-sports at it's basic level all boils down to two players/team playing against each other in
a competitive game in order to see who is better, this means that two players playing against each
other in a game of Super Mario Kart in a bedroom somewhere in another part of the world, is
taking part in the culture of e-sports whether they know it or not.

Think of it as playing football (or soccer for the U.S.A readers) on the street while they are playing
amongst themselves and have no bearing on the football as a whole, they are still participating in
the culture of football, following its rules and scoring; This means that the next time you play a
game of Starcraft or Tekken that you are participating in the culture of e-sports whether you intend
to or not.
Now for the 'actively supporting' side of the game, this section is as important, if not more
important, than the professional side of e-sport. This section contains; watchers, sponsors, and
everyone else. The watchers are simply those who watch tournaments, streams, read blogs,
forums etc... that are related to e-sports, without these people e-sports would not exist as it does
today.

View from SC2 World Championship Series 2012 European Finals

As the more fans that actively watch/support e-sports the more sponsors there are, and the more
sponsors the more advertising/reach e-sports has, and the more reach means more fans, and so
forth. But it all begins with the fans. Sponsors are exactly what it says on the tin, they are the
companies who sponsors individual players or teams, by monetary or otherwise, this is simply a
mutually benefiting agreement as the player/team gains more money to go to tournaments paid
for by the sponsor and the sponsor gets advertising at the tournament. With everybody else this
means everyone who is actively supporting a person in e-sports or is a personality, be it family,
team manager, shoutcasters or a host, all of these people are part of e-sports.

This is my definition of e-sports as a whole, and what is inside of it. As you can see it contains
pretty much everything that is associated with a game, while some may be found in one level of a
game then another it is all still part of e-sports, it is very large, and hopefully its here to stay.

.....

So yeah, it's a bit long but it's a pretty good read and there is more to come, and you can follow this guy on twitter too!

https://twitter.com/wisH_HKM