Sports fans turning to E-sports during lockdown

E-sports such as team gaming has been growing in popularity anyway but it seems that the industry is getting a big boost from the fact that there are no real live sports being performed globally at the moment, and people need to scratch that itch somehow.

Normally these events would take place in an arena, where thousands of fans line up to watch the various teams compete live, these events would be simulcast to millions around the globe simultaneously and obviously this was a growing draw as video games continue to dominate the market.

One of the hottest events at the moment is Overwatch, where being good at the game gets taken to an entirely different level. The best of the best at these games make huge salaries, and train at the game the same way that an athlete would train at a particular physical sport. These people have coaches and train several hours every day.

Personally I wonder if they even consider the game to be fun anymore

For people who don't enjoy video games, this is tough to fathom but for fans of games out there, this is just as exciting as a soccer or football game is to traditional sports fans.

Esports events continue to happen during the coronavirus lockdown but now the teams do not gather in an arena but this is coordinated over the internet. Obviously this can be somewhat problematic because the greater distance that is being dealt with, the more opportunity there is for lag. There have been some complaints from elite players but for the most part it seems to be carrying on due to the fact that the league has their own global fiber "backbone" ... whatever that means. I guess it means it is really fast.

This has been so successful from a revenue standpoint that sports games manufacturers of basketball and baseball are contemplating doing the same thing. They already had live esports tournaments and broadcasts but these were significantly less popular that the first person shooter genres.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade... and that is precisely what the esports world is doing right now.

Never heard of Overwatch? Well, if you want to see how immensely popular this game is you can catch 20 hours of footage from tournament games over the weekend livestreaming on Youtube. It's worth a look