At $6 million in prizes, ‘Dota 2’ tournament now one of world’s biggest sporting events
Big news in the world of eSports today–wait, what’s that? No, I didn’t mistype. I said eSports. As in, Electronic Sports. As in, competitive video gaming. There are people who play computer games for hours on end, and make a living doing it.
At this point, I think at least a few people may have stopped taking me seriously.That’s okay. Gamers have garnered a stereotype over the years as excessively hairy, introverted basement-dwellers. It would seem common sense that these individuals have a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming professional athletes.
The question of the status of competitive video gaming as a “real” sport is certainly up for debate, and there are good points on both sides. One of the arguments that has made up a large portion of the debate is whether or not a competition has to be athletic to fulfill the definition of a sport. I’m not here to explore this debate in-depth, though I will say I stand firmly in the “eSports is a sport” camp. This is a good question for another day, and one I may dive into in a future post.
But on to what I really want to talk about, an exciting piece of eSports news. Or should I say world news, because I do believe this is big stuff.
Earlier today, the prizepool for Valve’s The International 4, an annual tournament for Dota 2, eclipsed $6 million. The linked article by the Daily Dot goes more in depth, and I encourage everyone to read it. The prize money rivals that of several notable sports events, and even more impressive is the fact that it was raised by the community.Believer in eSports or not, the fact that the first place team will be going home with (as of now) nearly $3 million is worthy of respect and recognition. National news organizations are even starting to notice.
The news coverage that TI4 has received is interesting in this respect–it seems to imply that if an event can raise a noticeable amount of money, it should be considered a sport (see Daily Dot headline). I don’t like this criteria, even compared to the athleticism argument. The Super Bowl technically has a “prizepool” upwards of 8 million, but no one uses that as a reason for football being a sport. Why people who compete with a controller or keyboard are lower in the hierarchy of competitive sports than those who use a ball is frustrating to me. It’s events like The International that I hope will bring the idea of eSports and the relevant associated questions to a wider audience; I like to think (as an optimist) that the more people know about what eSports really is, the faster it will come to be accepted as a legitimate competitive sport.
Until then, I’ll be watching streams, buying compendium points and supporting the scene however I can. GLHF, my friends.
Field Notes 