User:Chrisjahn21/sandbox

Live Esports Events

Lead Section

Esports are any video game played competitively, online or in person. Esports growth has been immense over the past decade growing to 205 million viewers by 2018 (link). Esports growth follows the commercial success of the video game industry, one of the largest media industries in the world.

Esports Competitions
Esports competitions have been a thing since video games were created. The design of video games lends itself to friendly and more serious competition. Esports grew larger as technology improved. When LAN events became possible, people were eager to gather and play video games together. Competitions grew from this, especially as FPS games grew in popularity.

Live Global Events
There have been many large esports events in the past decade as esports popularity grows. League of Legends 2016 World Championship has 21,000 people watching live alongside 48 million people online. The 2018 Overwatch League Grand Finals hosted 22,400 people in the Barclays Center and the following year had 12,000 in the Wells Fargo Center.

Drawbacks of Live Events
Stadium capacity is sometimes almost halved when building stages for esports. To accommodate the stage and large screen, stadium seating and floor space is used reducing the potential seating. Esports events are usually sold out despite this.