The ESWC was founded on the conviction that digital games are not only culture and leisure, but can also be considered real sports, along with their champions being as genuine as athletes. The Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) is one of the largest global and multi-gaming competitions. At its peak, there were 78 countries and 800,000 participants taking part in the WCG. Despite the tournament originally being for mainly computer games, consoles and mobile games were later added to its roster, increasing diversity in competitions by an insanely large amount. Competitions have taken place in various locations all over the world, from China, the USA and South Korea to Germany, Italy and Singapore. ![]() ![]() The World Cyber Games (WCG) is an international eSports organization with the intent to hold annual global competitions. The year 2000 saw the launch of both World Cyber Games and the Electronic Sports World Cup. (Wikipedia, n.d.)ĮSports was finally awoken from its slumber at the beginning of the new millennium, with the rise of both popular tournaments, and the games that would form the base of the eSports world. Television shows featuring eSports during this period included shows such as the British “GamesMaster” and “Bad Influence!” and the Australian game show “A*mazing”, which would focus on two young children competing in various Nintendo games in order to win points. This event was co-hosted by GamePro magazine, and citizens from the USA, Canada, the UK, Australia and Chile were all able to compete. Blockbuster Video also ran a World Game Championships in the 1990s. At this event, 132 finalists played in San Diego, California. It would then be held a second time in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System called the Nintendo PowerFest ’94. The competition’s finals took place at Universal Studios Hollywood in California. This championship tournament toured 29 cities across the United States of America. The Nintendo World Championships was another event that took place in the 1990s. With its asymmetrically balanced races, each with their own unique units and capabilities, StarCraft offered near to limitless strategic potential, flourishing and becoming one of the main driving forces of the eSports world, though it would not reach its peak in popularity until after the year 2000. While first-person shooters focus more on reflexes and instantaneous reactions, RTS games focused more on careful thought and long-term planning, being compared to being a modern version of Chess. ![]() (Edwards, 2013)ĭuring that time, most eSports focused on First Person Shooters, sports games and arcade-style games, but the late 90s also saw the release of the extremely successful Real-Time Strategy game “StarCraft: Brood War”. By the next year, the CPL was already offering $15000 in prize money. Later that year, the Cyberathelete Professional League (CPL) held its first tournament. Just a few weeks after the Red Annihilation tournament, however, the Cyberathelete Professional League, the leading major gaming league was founded by Angel Munoz. The winner of the tournament received the Ferrari of lead developer, John Carmack. For example, the 1997’s Red Annihilation tournament for the First Person Shooter game “Quake” is considered to be the first real instance of eSports, along with drawing over 2,000 participants. In the 1990s, eSports was truly born, and along with it came the first proper eSports competitions.
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