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E-Sports were first brought to my attention as a bizarre offshoot of the slowly bubbling world of gaming that didn't even feel real when I first heard about it. A collection of people who play games really well being flown around the world to play those same games on stage in-front of crowds of thousands where they call themselves athletes? It kind of felt like some- elaborate long con. Of course, at the time I was used to the common conception of athlete being someone who pushed themselves to the physical limit of their body in a specific field, not... not what E-Sports is doing and has done. It felt a little inappropriate to compare the two, and it still does today. And the distinction between traditional sports and Esports is only becoming more clear as the illusion of the E-Sports bubble is beginning to burst in a very ugly fashion.
You see, what is one of the most commonly accepted factors about traditional international sports teams? That they have a lot of money at their disposal, of course. Money to travel around the world, money to enter competitions, money to pay their talent a salary to keep fit and trained for the next match or event- and this is usually money that appears to be healthy sourced and kept up to date. And this always felt like a pretty safe assumption to make given how long these sports have been going on, the size of their regular events and seasons and the lavish, seemingly stable, lives that their top athletes live. In many parts of the world, striking it big in sports is the only feasible way to escape the dire living conditions you are subjected to and make something of yourself. Why wouldn't the same be true about ESports?
Well, in short- because E-Sports is more held up by spit and sandpaper then the iron-wrought bonds of the sports industry. For all of it's life Electronic Sports has aped it's more active cousin, making plays at stars with lavish over-excessive lifestyles, hosting grand arena events, spending ungodly amounts of money in marketing such that the everyday man was more likely to get excited and pay attention. But there does seem to be a barrier to entry with a lot of E-Sports games- because gaming tastes seem to be pretty temperamental. We haven't yet reached that stage where families of people become inducted from an early age to all be rapid fans of League of Legends, such that they plan and watch it passionately in all their free time. We don't really have any societally accepted 'cult of E-Sports' like there are 'Cults of Football'. So E-Sports was never in that one-to-one position it always wanted to be.
But what's the one thing worse than lacking the perception you want to have on the world? Lacking the funds that you play at having. Which isn't all true; of course insane amounts of money had existed around E-Sports and was being shot about as though out of a giant cannon onto the world around- but it was never earned funds. Rather the E-Sports industry was being thrust aloft on the back of venture capitalists and funding groups that saw themselves as getting on the groundfloor of the next international sporting sensation. They were opportunists worming their way into the opportunity of a lifetime, sinking in hundreds of millions for an inevitable return of hundreds of billions once the E-Sports scene was every bit as big as Basketball or Football. Afterall, games are the most profitable form of entertainment- so they would obviously manage to reach the same accolade in spectator sports, right?
No! Of course not! Why would you even- sports and TV have been bunk buddies since the inception of broadcasting, from the radio to televised broadcasts, we've been watching people play every kind of outdoor activity from the safety of the indoors since before the time of most of our grandparents. Why is that important? Because TV, and the advertising world which shapes itself to the standards of TV, feel safe with spending their money on Sports; and if you watch any popular sporting even you'll know that it's the advertisers keeping the lights on. Concessions, merchandise, outside funding is great for buying those Lamborghini's for the top percentile, but the daily wages are paid for in the blood of the advertising agencies. And gaming has never managed to make itself advertiser friendly.
It really dates back to the divide between 'new' and 'old' forms of media, terms that have pretty much lost all meaning in the several decades since gaming's inception. Old media found the threat of rising new media as an encroachment on their territory, thus began the scapegoating campaign that alienated a whole generation to gaming. Unruly children? Must be the games. People aren't attending church as often as they once did? Must be because they're home playing games. A horrific gun-related tragedy has taken the lives of people? Must be all that time with a controller in his hand, training him how to kill! And to this day the shadow of that perception still remains, such that violent video games are judged more harshly than films with comparable levels of violence.
And guess what, all those popular E-sports games: LOL, DOTA, COD, Valorant; they're all pretty violent given their focus on competition against others. Of course, not even Call of Duty is violent and bloody enough to induce 'poor taste' censors anymore, but that doesn't matter. Unless they can find some sort of way to generate significant income and revenue without mainstream advertisers, preferably by becoming mainstream, the E-Sports industry doesn't really have that much of a future outside of it's gaming niche. Most every big E-Sports team that was once the belle of the ball five years ago is scaling back significantly or teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. It's getting to the point where FaZe may have to call up that favour which enigmatic billionaire Bruce Wayne owes them after they went on that adventure for his caped friend.
As if to underline how dire the situation is: Snoop Dogg is leaving FaZe. That's right, he's bailing from his position on the board and as part of the roster effectively immediately, forever scarring the team he contributed so much to- what do you mean you didn't know Snoop was a part of FaZe? Sure he was, for about a year. Which goes to show you how dire things are. If old world celebrities are smelling the roses and leaving you behind in the dust, you've way too far gone with the wind. At this point, following this trajectory, by 2024 the single best E-Sports team in the world, by default of being the only remaining team, will be Moist E-Sports. And you know what? That's a world I don't even feel bad about approaching.
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