Professional Games and Live Tournaments broadcasted on Social Media

 

Spectator sport is one that is characterized by the presence of witnesses or watchers at its matches. Almost all mainstream sports ranging from Basketball, Baseball, and American Football are all spectator sports. Numerous sports bars abound with fans cheering on for their favorite team or player. Just recently FIFA World Cup 2014 culminated in Brazil to a staggering 3.4 million total in attendance. It can also be said with certainty that the NFL Super Bowl is North America’s biggest TV event every year. Millions upon millions of people watch the Super Bowl live or through their TV screens and companies pay millions of dollars in advertising during this time-slot.

                Various reasons have been offered to explain this phenomenon why people like to watch professionals play. Some have suggested that it gives average players an insight on how the game/sport can be optimally played, but this does not cover sports that require pure skill to win. Nevertheless, this desire to “spectate” has carried over into the realm of  “Esports” or videogames. Videogame matches have been broadcasted for Tournament events like World Cybergames, IGN Pro League, Major League Gaming and Intel Extreme Masters to name a few. These cover a wide variety of games including Counter-Strike, Defense of the Ancients, League of Legends and Starcraft 2.

                Like its mainstream counterparts, businesses have been funneling sponsorship dollars into professional gamers as well as into the tournament prize pool. And there is only one reason for it, millions and millions of people are watching these matches. In October of 2013, 19.2 million viewers tuned in live to watch the Boston Red Sox claim the World Series title for baseball in a match against the St. Louis Cardinals. In that same month, 32 million viewers tuned in to watch South Korea’s SKT Telecom T1 win a decisive 3-0 victory against China’s Royal Club and win the League of Legends World Championship series, taking home the Summoner’s Cup.

               

            Not only is this unprecedented but the demand for streaming online tournaments is strong. The vibrant community of players interact and share video clips or highlights of the matches on their Social Media sites like Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter. Fans of teams can even comment and share their thoughts and ideas actively even while the match is being broadcasted on streaming sites like Twitch.tv and Youtube. This is likely a trend that will continue for professional Esports and thus big businesses have taken notice. Google’s Youtube has recently bought Twitch, the most popular streaming site for Esports Tournaments, for $1 billion dollars.

                As the older generation of “traditional” sports fans fade, a new generation of highly opinionated, deeply involved gamers and spectators will dominate the social media space offering in-depth game analysis, discussing strategies and creating their own content.

Source:

http://www.statista.com/statistics/264441/number-of-spectators-at-football-world-cups-since-1930/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWjTnukgSu8

http://qz.com/195098/last-year-71-million-people-watched-other-people-play-video-games/

http://gamertheory.com/story.aspx/82/eSports+The+Next+Great+Spectator+Sport/

http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/mlg/about

http://consumerist.com/2014/06/10/competitive-gaming-the-next-big-spectator-sport-that-you-probably-dont-know-about/

===========================

Brendon Martin Borgonia