E-SPORTS Coming to the X Games this June!

[RiBBz22]

http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/28/mlg-x-games-invitational/

http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2014/04/mlg-and-espn-team-up-for-first-ever-esports-event-at-x-games-austin/

MLG is partnering with the X Games to allow pro gamers to compete for medals in Call of Duty: Ghosts in June. This event will go down in June and will be broadcast on ESPN and ABC. Seems like an enormous step for the pro-gaming community! Check out the article links above to read more!

 

[Compbros]

Every step towards competitive gaming garnering mainstream awareness/coverage is good. Hopefully we don't get the "scream at everything and everyone" CoD tournament.

 

[Vagrant]

That's cool.

It's weird cause action sports and e sports are at the complete opposite ends of the spectrum. And yet they seem like they still go really well with each other and draw a lot of the same audience.

I personally love skateboarding as well as fighting games and I know alot of gamers skate too. Hope this does well.

 

[FrothyOmen]

As an elitist, goddammit why call of duty. As an esports supporter, yay mainstream TV coverage. Hopefully this leads to better games being played

 

[MidTierHarley]

CoD Ghosts why lol. Im a huge fan of MW2 cod4 and WaW but Ghosts is just awful. Why dont they have League of Legends or Dota 2?

 

[FrothyOmen]

CoD Ghosts why lol. Im a huge fan of MW2 cod4 and WaW but Ghosts is just awful. Why dont they have League of Legends or Dota 2?

Because we live in America, not South Korea/China. Everyone and there mother here knows what CoD is and can identify with it, plus I'm sure that Activision (or whoever publishes that game) is putting butt tons of cash down for it. LoL and DotA are very happily dominating Twitch right now, who knows if they'll ever make the transition to US TV

 

[RiBBz22]

CoD Ghosts why lol. Im a huge fan of MW2 cod4 and WaW but Ghosts is just awful. Why dont they have League of Legends or Dota 2?

Yeah the quality of the game really matters zero it is just based on what is mainstream and popular and what ESPN and ABC thinks will get the viewers at this point. Hopefully it can grow.

 

[THTB]

Because we live in America, not South Korea/China. Everyone and there mother here knows what CoD is and can identify with it, plus I'm sure that Activision (or whoever publishes that game) is putting butt tons of cash down for it. LoL and DotA are very happily dominating Twitch right now, who knows if they'll ever make the transition to US TV

LoL and DotA likely will never make it to US TV. The complexity of those games makes it difficult to even watch without knowing. There's no clear indicator of who is winning and who isn't. You can't just look at kills or towers taken or gold or CS and be like "okay, this team is winning" unless it's 100% clearly in one team's favor.

There's just way too much to take in to even begin to watch MOBAs. I wouldn't be surprised if FGs end up becoming more watched than MOBAs if they get to that point. The genre, as a whole, is very easy to watch. The clarity of advantages is right there, without having to pay that much attention.

 

[MidTierHarley]

Because we live in America, not South Korea/China. Everyone and there mother here knows what CoD is and can identify with it, plus I'm sure that Activision (or whoever publishes that game) is putting butt tons of cash down for it. LoL and DotA are very happily dominating Twitch right now, who knows if they'll ever make the transition to US TV

Nope. LoL in the states still has more players ans viewers than CoD. Its not even close. Same thing in EU too lol

 

[Dirtylova]

LoL is full of nerds playing a nerdy game.. Cod is the new madden, all the cool kids play it, watch it and will support it








Inb4...... Only 12 year old RAYSIS kids play... << You FOOLS...

 

[B Pryme]

LoL and DotA likely will never make it to US TV. The complexity of those games makes it difficult to even watch without knowing. There's no clear indicator of who is winning and who isn't. You can't just look at kills or towers taken or gold or CS and be like "okay, this team is winning" unless it's 100% clearly in one team's favor.

There's just way too much to take in to even begin to watch MOBAs. I wouldn't be surprised if FGs end up becoming more watched than MOBAs if they get to that point. The genre, as a whole, is very easy to watch. The clarity of advantages is right there, without having to pay that much attention.

Yea, I have to respectfully disagree too. The U.S. league numbers are insanely huge, as it continues to grow, the facilitation of it into mainstream culture becomes easier. It may be hard to understand how to watch initially, but entry level players can understand how high level games are, more players = more viewers.

Also Riot/LoL production value > anything else...

 

[Compbros]

LoL and DotA likely will never make it to US TV. The complexity of those games makes it difficult to even watch without knowing. There's no clear indicator of who is winning and who isn't. You can't just look at kills or towers taken or gold or CS and be like "okay, this team is winning" unless it's 100% clearly in one team's favor.

There's just way too much to take in to even begin to watch MOBAs. I wouldn't be surprised if FGs end up becoming more watched than MOBAs if they get to that point. The genre, as a whole, is very easy to watch. The clarity of advantages is right there, without having to pay that much attention.

I agree with this, I watched a LoL World Championship match (it was like 2 hours) and I didn't understand what they were judging a team "winning" on and still don't. I went in cold with no prior knowledge of how to "win" and I didn't understand a lot of what was going on. I picked up on some things eventually but it's still a lot to know.

FGs, on the hand, I've never had a problem understand the basics of, "the person with the most life is winning the round, the person with the most rounds is winning the match". Even Smash is a simple "the person with more lives is winning".


Edit:

Yea, I have to respectfully disagree too. The U.S. league numbers are insanely huge, as it continues to grow, the facilitation of it into mainstream culture becomes easier. It may be hard to understand how to watch initially, but entry level players can understand how high level games are, more players = more viewers.

Also Riot/LoL production value > anything else...

People stumbling onto it for the first time, not knowing the rules, won't be able to grasp much of what's happening. Even prolonged viewing may not allow them to pick up enough of the game to get invested. Casual viewers are brought in by an ease of understanding.

 

[THTB]

Yea, I have to respectfully disagree too. The U.S. league numbers are insanely huge, as it continues to grow, the facilitation of it into mainstream culture becomes easier. It may be hard to understand how to watch initially, but entry level players can understand how high level games are, more players = more viewers.

Also Riot/LoL production value > anything else...

That's the thing, you have to at least play or follow enough to really understand. There's a lot to understand before you begin to really see who is winning. And you have to remember, a casual viewer isn't always someone who plays the game or sport.

Whereas, you throw a fighting game, or basketball, etc, at someone who's never even seen, and all you have to do is give them a super-basic outline of the game's goals, and there's basic enough info to tell you who is winning (scoreboards at sporting events, lifebars and rounds won in fighting games. A MOBA doesn't have that, at all. There's too much info to process before you understand who is winning.

 

[MidTierHarley]

I agree with this, I watched a LoL World Championship match (it was like 2 hours) and I didn't understand what they were judging a team "winning" on and still don't. I went in cold with no prior knowledge of how to "win" and I didn't understand a lot of what was going on. I picked up on some things eventually but it's still a lot to know.

FGs, on the hand, I've never had a problem understand the basics of, "the person with the most life is winning the round, the person with the most rounds is winning the match". Even Smash is a simple "the person with more lives is winning".


Edit:




People stumbling onto it for the first time, not knowing the rules, won't be able to grasp much of what's happening. Even prolonged viewing may not allow them to pick up enough of the game to get invested. Casual viewers are brought in by an ease of understanding.

Yes but the following of LoL is by far enough to be on mainstream tv

 

[Compbros]

Yes but the following of LoL is by far enough to be on mainstream tv

I didn't say that, I was responding to the ease of following the game for a casual viewer.


Edit: I can see how the "I agree with this" can be misconstrued. I was strictly talking about how easy the game is to follow. But, thinking about it, I might not be able to hit mainstream right now, at least not a major network. Network's want expansion of viewership to sell advertising dollars, getting, let's say, 1 million viewers for the World Championships time after time and it barely having an increase because casuals can't follow it isn't great for a company. For an MTV2 or something that's great but for ESPN, ABC, Fox, what have you, I don't think it can grab casuals quick enough to want to see more and learn more about the game.

 

[ShotgunInsanity]

Why can't we just be happy that e-sports is getting a mainstream spotlight?

 

[Qwark28]

My body is ready

 

[FrothyOmen]

Nope. LoL in the states still has more players ans viewers than CoD. Its not even close. Same thing in EU too lol

Yea, I have to respectfully disagree too. The U.S. league numbers are insanely huge, as it continues to grow, the facilitation of it into mainstream culture becomes easier. It may be hard to understand how to watch initially, but entry level players can understand how high level games are, more players = more viewers.

Also Riot/LoL production value > anything else...

I understand this. But remember that most of the people who are playing LoL/DOTA are not exactly big TV watchers. People that play CoD? They are much more likely to be TV watchers. They go hand-in-hand.

Anyways, I don't know what sort of game would be good on TV. Fighting games, while they have a clear indication of who is winning, happen WAY TOO GODDAMNED FAST for most people to follow. Commentators honestly have trouble keeping up with the action 90% of the time, and can barely accomplish play-by-play simply because by the time they're halfway through a sentence, 3 more things have happened. Starcraft, League, and DotA are on the exact opposite end of the spectrum. It's hard for a spectator to watch and understand who's winning, and you need extremely strong commentary teams to keep people interested without essentially reacting "YEAH LEAGUE OF LEG-ResidentSleeper"

What's the middle ground? What kind of game can we put on TV that is neither too fast nor too slow, is easy to watch and understand, and can appeal to a lot of people? Let's look at another point, why do you think that we see so many video game advertisements on ESPN? Sports watchers are gamers nowadays, and vice-versa. A lot of those people are CoD players. CoD just so happens to be easy to watch and have an idea of what's going on. It plays at the perfect speed where commentators can both explain what's going on and throw in sufficient color to make it interesting, AND the playerbase is already very established. Movement isn't crazy like quake, tribes, or titanfall, so it's really easy for the lay watcher to see and understand the lanes that a person can be moving through, and they don't have to worry about wallruns and double jumps and shit that they don't understand.

On network TV specifically... Fighting games are not the future. MOBA is not the future. FPS is very questionably the future because "OH MY GOD THERE ARE GUNS AND PEOPLE SHOOTING EACHOTHER, PLS BAN THIS FROM TV NAO"

I think that the demographic is there to watch all of these things on TV both in the US and abroad, but frankly there are too many things that can go wrong and too many people who can voice opposition to it. I still think that Twitch should be the main avenue via which eSports are broadcasted, and it's available free and on-demand to everyone in the world provided they've got some sort of internet connection.

This whole x-games thing is cool, and I'll be watching, but I don't think our future is on network television. I wish everyone would just focus on streaming everything online, it's a more readily available and easy-to-consume format than TV can ever be. TV is a dinosaur anyways, if we want eSports to be the future we have to embrace the future, which is specifically NOT TELEVISION

/rant

 

[FinalBoss_FGC]

Why Call of Duty?
Simple.

Massive following (obviously not as much as LoL or DOTA2 but this is where fighting games in America lack)
Easier for people to just watch and understand what's going on (LoL and DOTA2 are much slower paced)

Even with this knowledge, I doubt me ever going back to Call of Duty.
I promise coL is going to win anyways.
Smh.

But this and the E-Sports arena in China are massive steps in the right direction.

 

[MidTierHarley]

I understand this. But remember that most of the people who are playing LoL/DOTA are not exactly big TV watchers. People that play CoD? They are much more likely to be TV watchers. They go hand-in-hand.

Anyways, I don't know what sort of game would be good on TV. Fighting games, while they have a clear indication of who is winning, happen WAY TOO GODDAMNED FAST for most people to follow. Commentators honestly have trouble keeping up with the action 90% of the time, and can barely accomplish play-by-play simply because by the time they're halfway through a sentence, 3 more things have happened. Starcraft, League, and DotA are on the exact opposite end of the spectrum. It's hard for a spectator to watch and understand who's winning, and you need extremely strong commentary teams to keep people interested without essentially reacting "YEAH LEAGUE OF LEG-ResidentSleeper"

What's the middle ground? What kind of game can we put on TV that is neither too fast nor too slow, is easy to watch and understand, and can appeal to a lot of people? Let's look at another point, why do you think that we see so many video game advertisements on ESPN? Sports watchers are gamers nowadays, and vice-versa. A lot of those people are CoD players. CoD just so happens to be easy to watch and have an idea of what's going on. It plays at the perfect speed where commentators can both explain what's going on and throw in sufficient color to make it interesting, AND the playerbase is already very established. Movement isn't crazy like quake, tribes, or titanfall, so it's really easy for the lay watcher to see and understand the lanes that a person can be moving through, and they don't have to worry about wallruns and double jumps and shit that they don't understand.

On network TV specifically... Fighting games are not the future. MOBA is not the future. FPS is very questionably the future because "OH MY GOD THERE ARE GUNS AND PEOPLE SHOOTING EACHOTHER, PLS BAN THIS FROM TV NAO"

I think that the demographic is there to watch all of these things on TV both in the US and abroad, but frankly there are too many things that can go wrong and too many people who can voice opposition to it. I still think that Twitch should be the main avenue via which eSports are broadcasted, and it's available free and on-demand to everyone in the world provided they've got some sort of internet connection.

This whole x-games thing is cool, and I'll be watching, but I don't think our future is on network television. I wish everyone would just focus on streaming everything online, it's a more readily available and easy-to-consume format than TV can ever be. TV is a dinosaur anyways, if we want eSports to be the future we have to embrace the future, which is specifically NOT TELEVISION

/rant

Have you ever watched an LCS series? They are super exciting to watch. My friends watch them and keep up with the LCS and challenger series and they dont even play the game.

 

[RiBBz22]

I understand this. But remember that most of the people who are playing LoL/DOTA are not exactly big TV watchers. People that play CoD? They are much more likely to be TV watchers. They go hand-in-hand.

Anyways, I don't know what sort of game would be good on TV. Fighting games, while they have a clear indication of who is winning, happen WAY TOO GODDAMNED FAST for most people to follow. Commentators honestly have trouble keeping up with the action 90% of the time, and can barely accomplish play-by-play simply because by the time they're halfway through a sentence, 3 more things have happened. Starcraft, League, and DotA are on the exact opposite end of the spectrum. It's hard for a spectator to watch and understand who's winning, and you need extremely strong commentary teams to keep people interested without essentially reacting "YEAH LEAGUE OF LEG-ResidentSleeper"

What's the middle ground? What kind of game can we put on TV that is neither too fast nor too slow, is easy to watch and understand, and can appeal to a lot of people? Let's look at another point, why do you think that we see so many video game advertisements on ESPN? Sports watchers are gamers nowadays, and vice-versa. A lot of those people are CoD players. CoD just so happens to be easy to watch and have an idea of what's going on. It plays at the perfect speed where commentators can both explain what's going on and throw in sufficient color to make it interesting, AND the playerbase is already very established. Movement isn't crazy like quake, tribes, or titanfall, so it's really easy for the lay watcher to see and understand the lanes that a person can be moving through, and they don't have to worry about wallruns and double jumps and shit that they don't understand.

On network TV specifically... Fighting games are not the future. MOBA is not the future. FPS is very questionably the future because "OH MY GOD THERE ARE GUNS AND PEOPLE SHOOTING EACHOTHER, PLS BAN THIS FROM TV NAO"

I think that the demographic is there to watch all of these things on TV both in the US and abroad, but frankly there are too many things that can go wrong and too many people who can voice opposition to it. I still think that Twitch should be the main avenue via which eSports are broadcasted, and it's available free and on-demand to everyone in the world provided they've got some sort of internet connection.

This whole x-games thing is cool, and I'll be watching, but I don't think our future is on network television. I wish everyone would just focus on streaming everything online, it's a more readily available and easy-to-consume format than TV can ever be. TV is a dinosaur anyways, if we want eSports to be the future we have to embrace the future, which is specifically NOT TELEVISION

/rant

To be honest I think that streaming can co-exist with TV and the future could be a mix of both. Gaming is just getting more and more momentum, and I feel like at some point the gaming population will be enough of an audience to warrant television coverage at least on a smaller more dedicated network. I can definitely see a 24 hour gaming network at some point in the future.

 

[MidTierHarley]

Why Call of Duty?
Simple.

Massive following (obviously not as much as LoL or DOTA2 but this is where fighting games in America lack)
Easier for people to just watch and understand what's going on (LoL and DOTA2 are much slower paced)

Even with this knowledge, I doubt me ever going back to Call of Duty.
I promise coL is going to win anyways.
Smh.

But this and the E-Sports arena in China are massive steps in the right direction.

coL and Optic are the favorites Optic almost beat them at the Cod Championship it could have gone either way.

 

[Compbros]

Have you ever watched an LCS series? They are super exciting to watch. My friends watch them and keep up with the LCS and challenger series and they dont even play the game.

I watched and I didn't get it so I couldn't get excited for any moments. There were times where the crowd was getting hype and I thought "why, what happened"? I've looked up "best" or "hypest moments" and even had the commentator announce why it was good and I'm still like "oh, okay".


Edit: I have the same problem with Killer Instinct. Without looking up the cause for breakers, counterbreakers, enders, etc, I find it hard to just jump into.

 

[FinalBoss_FGC]

coL and Optic are the favorites Optic almost beat them at the Cod Championship it could have gone either way.

I only like TeePee on coL, he's a sweetheart <3 Even tho I outgun him all day
But OpTic is my favorite. Clayster hella slays.
OpTic could win it tho. They got Proofy now.

 

[FinalBoss_FGC]

I understand this. But remember that most of the people who are playing LoL/DOTA are not exactly big TV watchers. People that play CoD? They are much more likely to be TV watchers. They go hand-in-hand.

Anyways, I don't know what sort of game would be good on TV. Fighting games, while they have a clear indication of who is winning, happen WAY TOO GODDAMNED FAST for most people to follow. Commentators honestly have trouble keeping up with the action 90% of the time, and can barely accomplish play-by-play simply because by the time they're halfway through a sentence, 3 more things have happened. Starcraft, League, and DotA are on the exact opposite end of the spectrum. It's hard for a spectator to watch and understand who's winning, and you need extremely strong commentary teams to keep people interested without essentially reacting "YEAH LEAGUE OF LEG-ResidentSleeper"

What's the middle ground? What kind of game can we put on TV that is neither too fast nor too slow, is easy to watch and understand, and can appeal to a lot of people? Let's look at another point, why do you think that we see so many video game advertisements on ESPN? Sports watchers are gamers nowadays, and vice-versa. A lot of those people are CoD players. CoD just so happens to be easy to watch and have an idea of what's going on. It plays at the perfect speed where commentators can both explain what's going on and throw in sufficient color to make it interesting, AND the playerbase is already very established. Movement isn't crazy like quake, tribes, or titanfall, so it's really easy for the lay watcher to see and understand the lanes that a person can be moving through, and they don't have to worry about wallruns and double jumps and shit that they don't understand.

On network TV specifically... Fighting games are not the future. MOBA is not the future. FPS is very questionably the future because "OH MY GOD THERE ARE GUNS AND PEOPLE SHOOTING EACHOTHER, PLS BAN THIS FROM TV NAO"

I think that the demographic is there to watch all of these things on TV both in the US and abroad, but frankly there are too many things that can go wrong and too many people who can voice opposition to it. I still think that Twitch should be the main avenue via which eSports are broadcasted, and it's available free and on-demand to everyone in the world provided they've got some sort of internet connection.

This whole x-games thing is cool, and I'll be watching, but I don't think our future is on network television. I wish everyone would just focus on streaming everything online, it's a more readily available and easy-to-consume format than TV can ever be. TV is a dinosaur anyways, if we want eSports to be the future we have to embrace the future, which is specifically NOT TELEVISION

/rant

There are several points I'd like to address.
MOBAs will never be TV worthy because games can take a god damn hour. #NoMoreNeedBeSaid
You saying "very questionably the future" is ridiculous, there's more violence on CSI than any FPS (except Gears of Wars)
eSports will be the future. But we can not abandon the present to prep for the future? That doesn't make sense.

I completely agree with 3rd paragraph, tho.