In the past few years, the act of spectating others play video games has taken off internationally. Numerous games have taken the role of spectator sports, with many of these games offering prizes large enough to allow many people to make a career out of being a progamer.
Games such as Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty and League of Legends are among the most popular, with both of these games hold numerous tournaments every year. Many years ago, the popularity of eSports was limited to certain countries such as South Korea, with only the occasional fan being found in any other country. South Korea’s interest in the games was as large as many traditional sports in other parts of the world, with viewership, either at the event or online, reaching numbers which compete with classic events such as the Super Bowl. Recently, however, these games have begun expanding around the world, with more and more countries and participants competing in each of these tournaments every year. Though viewership in other countries around the world has not yet reached the mass that eSports has reached in South Korea, the amount of viewers is significant, with over 250 thousand people watching some of the major tournaments.
One great part of spectating games such as Starcraft is the commentators. As in any sport, the commentators will comment on the game, examining each player’s strategies. As the commentators do this, they also explain what each player is doing, allowing even those new to the scene to understand and enjoy each game. Though there are many English casters, among the most popular are Tastosis and Day[9]. Tastosis is possibly one of the most known casters, with the name standing in place of a duo of casters, Nick “Tasteless” Plott and Dan “Artosis” Stemkoski. These two casters work for one of the biggest tournaments in eSports, the GSL (Global Starcraft 2 League), a tournament which is broadcast on Korean TV. Sean “Day[9]” Plott is also a well known caster, with one of his main contributions being the Day[9] Daily, where he examines top players and teaches aspiring players how to improve their game.
The popularity of watching others play these games has spewed a variety of responses, with students from the University of Washington even writing a paper studying why people enjoy watching the sports (available here), and others creating guides teaching people how to spectate (with one of those available here). Now, if you’re looking to watch a tournament, you have two options – You can either research information about a previous tournament and watch the videos on YouTube, or you can wait for the next tournament to happen, and watch it live. Next weekend, the World Championship Series North America will be held in Raleigh and streamed online, giving anyone interested a perfect chance to get into the game. The World Championship Series is a tournament that is sponsored by Blizzard, the creator of Starcraft 2, to be the Olympics of Starcraft, with qualifiers being held in each country, then in each continent, to qualify for the World Championship being held in Shanghai on November 17th. Competitions like these happen quite often due to the number of players and the amount of interest in the sport, something which is great for spectators. If you’re interested in watching tournaments, you can always have something to watch!
