The Viability of E-Sports: Part 2

It is difficult to overstate the impact that players like Grubby and Day[9] have had on the North American and European e-sports communities. Grubby's arrival in the Warcraft 3 scene was as sudden as it was revolutionary, becoming the one player from anywhere outside of China or South Korea who could consistently challenge the best players in the game. Grubby began what would become one of the most storyed rivalries in Warcraft 3 with South Korean player "Moon" and Chinese legend "sKy", and he was able to win the World Cyber Games Warcraft 3 tournament (essentially the e-sports equivalent of the olympics) three different times for the Netherlands. Grubby's massive popularity in the scene lead to the development of a documentary called "Beyond the Game", which was released in cinemas throughout the Netherlands.

We'll assume that all of the budget went into the actual filming and nothing was left for the poster.

The impact of this documentary has been massive - Europe, and especially countries like the Netherlands, Sweden, and Finland, has become an absolute power house in the world of e-sports, with Sweden in particular being nicknamed the "Korea of Europe".

So if Grubby was the impact player in the European scene, Day[9] was the same for North America. The difference between the two is that Day[9], real name Sean Plott, only ever won the World Cyber Games American Qualifier once, and then flopped on the grand stage of the World Cyber Games themselves. His play in Starcraft: Brood War was never comparable to the level Grubby achieved in WC3. Instead, Day[9] made his biggest impact when Starcraft 2 was released and he began an online stream called the Day[9] Daily.

If this makes Day[9] look like a presidential candidate, it's because he's essentially the most important man in North American e-sports. 

The Day[9] Daily is a webcast that airs every Monday through Friday (with select breaks taken around holidays or various other events). It's aim is simple: to improve the play of Starcraft 2 fans around the world. There are segments for beginners as well as for pros, and the most popular one, Funday Monday, is beloved in the e-sports community in general, attracting people who don't play Starcraft 2 frequently to participate each week. 

If this all sounds kind of cutesy, and simplistic, that's because it is. There's some quality of Day[9] that is absolutely infectious, and his charisma has made him an ambassador of e-sports around the world, but predominately in North America. He has accrued partnerships with companies like Red Bull and has been featured in Forbes magazine as one of the 30 Under 30 in 2012.  Thanks to Day[9], big media companies are beginning to realize that e-sports is viable in North America.

And now, finally, in perhaps the longest route I could have taken us to get there, we arrive at the big question: are e-sports a viable means of both entertainment and profit in the world today?

Well, given all the information I've spewed out and you've very kindly sifted through, I think the answer should be that e-sports are not only viable, they are highly sustainable and profitable. If single players like Grubby and Day[9] can expedite the growths of communities as wholes, then I think it stands to reason that growth is relatively easy in this field and people are willing to accept e-sports as serious. Companies like Blizzard Entertainment, Riot, and Valve, all giants of the gaming industry (and Riot only a giant because of it's e-sports game League of Legends) have invested millions into the scene with the profits they've made on their games. Athletes can be signed by companies to contracts that are in six figures (as long as they are high profile enough), and gamers from ages fourteen to forty can have significant impacts on the scene and their own life. 

If you are still wondering about the viability of pro-gaming and e-sports for the athletes who participate them? I'll leave you with this: two months ago, Valve hosted a tournament called The International 3 for a game called DotA 2. Teams of five competed against each other after months of qualifying for a life-changing prize pool: the winning team took home 1.4 million US dollars.

Not bad for a gamer, no?

A sample of the crowd at TI3, and the lucky winners, Swedish team The [A]lliance.