How Did Computer Games Become a Sport?

If you take a look at the history of video games, you will see that they were a competitive activity right from the beginning. The first commercial video game – Pong – was a game inspired by table tennis, played by two players: one human and either another human, or the computer itself. From here to eSports becoming an official sport there was a long and adventurous way.

The pioneer age – 1970s – 1990s

In the beginning, before the internet became the global phenomenon we know today, game competitions looked very much different. The first ever such competition – the “Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics” with the grand prize of a Rolling Stone subscription – was organized for the students of the Stanford University. The first large scale video game competition was the Space Invaders Championship organized by Atari in 1980, attracting over 10,000 participants from all over the United States.

Popular publications like Time Magazine and Life have begun to cover these events, high scores reached on games like Donkey Kong and Pac-Man have been included into the Guinness Book of World Records, and televised shows have started to be aired.

The Golden Age – 1990 – 1999

With the internet entering more and more households, PC games played online have become the new trend. The first internet team game ever created was Netrek, a cross-platform title that could host 16 players, setting a trend for the future of online games. In the same period Nintendo has organized a global gaming event, the Nintendo World Championship, with teams from a series of countries eligible to compete.

The Modern Age – Post-2000

In the wake of the 21st century competitive online gaming has become an increasingly followed phenomenon. By 2010 over 250 major professional tournaments were founded, including the World Cyber Games, the Intel Extreme Masters, and Major League Gaming. The coverage of the events has increased, together with the prize money offered by hosts has increased a lot.

Competitive video gaming has become the most popular in Asia, especially in South Korea, where StarCraft and WarCraft III games are routinely televised through dedicated cable channels. Today we can find e-Sports leagues all over the world, sometimes sponsored by hardware or game manufacturers. Maybe the best known such tournaments are the international Dota 2 League, and the StarCraft II league – even sports betting websites usually cover these, offering their users the possibility to wager on the outcome of specific high profile matches.

Other forms of competitive online gaming (although not an official part of the eSports world) are poker and other similar games, organized by companies (Australian online casino operators included) involved in providing online access to such real money games. These are usually organized online, within the organizations themselves, but sometimes they make it to the big screen as well – the best example would be the World Championship of Online Poker, organized by the Rational Group.