Is esport still a thing?

[Scarthew]

wouldnt valorant be the big thing right now? Siege is still going strong. Fighting games arent going anywhere because skill transfers between them, theyre easy to watch and doesnt need a team of people to play. Though i will say comeback mechanics are hurting them long term.

 

[thejackal2]

wouldnt valorant be the big thing right now? Siege is still going strong. Fighting games arent going anywhere because skill transfers between them, theyre easy to watch and doesnt need a team of people to play. Though i will say comeback mechanics are hurting them long term.

Valorant is big but the prize money isn't big enough to support a ton of teams. 2.25 million dollars was the pool for the big tourney last month. For comparison in 2019 the Fortnite pool was somewhere around 20-25 million all tourneys combined. Even the Saudis are feeling tapped as the DOTA pools have gone down from a peak of 40 million to 15 million since 2019. The big 2023 DOTA tourney was hosted by the Saudis in Riyadh.

To sustain these big money pools you need corporate sponsors and TV deals and those never materialized. Watching people play competitive vidya just doesn't appeal to anybody other than maybe teens. And teens don't have any fucking money. So nobody is gonna spend money to market to them, at least not in e-sports.

 

[OutInTheRain]

I think the money and casual interest has dried up. Most of the big esports games are a little long in the tooth and aren't getting new players. It also seems like the ones that are around are have their niche audience and you have to go actively search for it now.

 

[SentinentCloud]

I still think the nomeclature of "eletronic sports" is retarded, its not a real sport

Competitive gaming like chess Backgammon has existed for thousands of years before and no one never called them "sports"

 

[WULULULULU]

I wish it was back in the old days of CS 1.6 and even Source where tourneys were just simple localized contests, not globalized eSports crap. People knew back in the day that CS is not a sport, just a fun time-waster to play with others out of competitive fun.

 

[Timid Renaissance]

eSports are and still will be a thing as long as there are games that capitalize on and encourage competition with a high skill ceiling. The appeal is forced as many gamers do not have the time, energy or care to be interested to compete. Let alone watch it.

 

[Thiletonomics]

This topic made me wonder, is MLG still a thing? I remember in like 2007-9 it was fucking everywhere but I never indulged in that garbage because it was stupid and gay.

IIRC, MLG was bought out by either Activision or Microsoft, and the MLG name hasn't been used in years.

Also, Quake Champions somehow still has an E-Sports scene going, despite the game having something like 2-3 digit amounts of people playing it, and they had their World Championship last month. And to think that a game that's even more niche than RTS games, makes me wonder how they're funding the QC scene.

 

[hawkisnight]

I watch dota2, cs and broodwar from time to time. I think the scene is doing fine.