When I was a student I would have never imagined getting a scholarship for being competitive at eSports.
I know those players are talented. But man, had that been a thing when I was in high school I would have probably invested a ton of time into it instead of the sports I actually played.
In some ways, I’m glad it wasn’t a thing yet because I was able to become a somewhat good athlete. And chances are, I never would have gotten far as an eSports competitor considering how wide a pool that it draws from.
But occasionally, I wonder, would I have been at all good if I were just 15 years younger? It’s an amusing thing to witness after my parents told me for so long that my video games were a “waste of time” lol.
Would’ve just told them “okay boomer” back then had I known how things would evolve.
Esports is a load of bollocks. None of those guys look like normal gamers at all. Plus they’re only great at one or two games. A true gamer can play hundreds of different games well.
Also, I think your title should be “Do you think you were born too early for Esports?”
Guess I played competitive Counter Strike online in like 1999? It just didn’t go anywhere and was just for fun. One guy at my college went to a LAN and won something, but it was like a $100 prize lol.
I also played Street Fighter III with some guys who played in a couple of tournaments around 2001. But again, you won like a trophy only.
Also, how does one game become an eSport, and another game… not at all? How do you “design” for an eSport, and should you even try?
I feel like I can point to multiple examples of…
games that were expressly designed to become eSports… but didn’t
and
games that had no idea they would become eSports, that was not a consideration at all during the game’s design, but somehow they did, sometimes in a massive way
So… what does it all mean? Why and how are we still playing Counter-Strike after TWENTY ONE years?! I remember playing that in 1999 on a then-new cable modem connection and feeling like a god versus modem users!
I think I could have done well at EA NHL games back in the 16-bit era, if there were tournaments. In general though, my game time has always been divided among several games (and usually single player ones) so that doesn’t leave much room for mastering individual ones.
I still watch competitive Broodwar. In fact I just supported the Patron set up to continue offering English commentary for the Korean tournaments.
The last 3 seasons have been amazing, some of the best games or series ever played.
It doesn’t have the huge following of the mid 2000s, but it’s still broadcast in Korea, and gets good crowds (before covid).
It works as an esport because it’s so mechanically demanding, allows for individual style, and there’s a lot of information an audience can take in easily about what is happening.
Yea, I once watched a video on it - the amount of effort these players put into inputing everything so fast is really impressive. I’ve never even attempted to play a game like that other than Super Smash Bros. Melee - and while that can be complicated, it’s still quite a bit less so than something like Broodwar. I got arthritis just watching them lol.
I also just so happen to suck royally at RTS. It’s a genre that just seems so hard for me to wrap my brain around. It’s a bummer since turned based strategy games like chess, Fire Emblem, and Advanced Wars are some of my favorites. But once you add a real-time element to them, my head turns to mush. Even a hybrid system like Ogre Battle is complicated to me - it’s hard for me to move around the map and anticipate where all the characters are.
Pikmin games are the closest I’ve come to any degree of mastery over RTS. But I’d argue they’re very easy to complete compared to games typical of the genre. The depth comes from the speed by which you can complete the game rather than needing to out-think opponents or enemy AI. It’s more about staying organized.
The great thing about Broodwar is that expectation and deception are key in high level play.
The double bluffs, and tricky surprises they can pull off in best of 5 game series are awesome.
There’s a reason it’s been described as the hardest competitive game. There’s the mechanics, game strategy, and series mind games and planning. All of which are needed to win the top tournaments.
I haven’t actually played much RTS consistently since a couple of years after Starcraft 2 came out. And that experience was pretty humbling, as my hands and brain weren’t up for the total overload needed to be freaky good at it.
I have been playing a bit of Overcooked with my wife, and I realise I’m approaching some elements like an RTS.
Where are the bottlenecks? Can I do this thing 3 steps ahead? Total overkill .
I hear you on the strategy games, and it reminds me of some discussions with friends about being able to think to win, or input to win. And I totally understand that mechanical difficulty isn’t for some people, even if they’re looking for a very challenging experience.
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