E-sports

Has anyone of you heard about e-sports? No, don't answer yet – I bet scarcely one. People nowadays, with all that electronic bunch surrounding us are somehow unaware what is going on. Perhaps it's about the fact that e-gaming is not that advertised among polish society, who think that computer games are just computer games and no-one can play it and master him in disciplines. And, to top it off, earn money.

How do the e-sports occur? How is it possible to play video games to compete the first place? E-sports are organized just like normal olympic disciplines. That is: from basic qualifications played on free-to-all servers are chosen players especially skillful and potent. Then some internal matches are played so that the true masters can finally show up. The duels for mastership are those best known and become almost legendary.

There are plenty of games played via Internet, which some of them serve similarly to disciplines. Let us consider some: First Person Shooters(Quake III Arena, Counter-Strike, Unreal series), strategies(Warcraft III, Starcraft) and fighting games(Tekken series, Virtua Fighter, SoulCalibur), races(Need for Speed series) etc. I have mentioned those best known and most famous, but no doubt that there are more genres. Note that console games like Need for Speed or SoulCalibur don't have to be played in the Internet. But that's the point I'm going to cover in a while.

So, there are many ways you can have your Gamer's Cup, whether you're strong in tactics or reflexes(sorry – there's no way you can use your browns this time). Choose a game and master it to your limits, competing with others on-line and then show how good you are on servers. Simple?
Actually, not at all. E-gaming has never been as easy as it looks and each of these so-called masters is spending about 10-16 hours before the screen, playing and improving their tactics endlessly.

There are masses of movies on YouTube showing international duels. But there's more about the stuff. I mentioned that not all the duels have to occur on the server – and that's true. When we're talking about console games, the party is moved to sponsored gaming centers. It happens often, that duels are played on convents, special arranged meetings dedicated to gaming. These are places where fans can finally meet their friends and opponents – which is itself a great occasion to meet new people and learn something about a favorite game.

I have also mentioned that you can earn money while playing e-sports. And the prizes are worth considering – the championship in the Warcraft III is ten thousands of dollars.
A pleasant fact about e-sports is that polish players are not the worst in the job. In fact, Poland is best-known for their excellent Counter Strike players who compete quite the elite of the world.
The next peculiar thing about it is clans. Clans are groups of players united with the aim of improving their skills. Not everyone can attend every clan because they vary in skills of their members. Some are just clans of newbeginners while other seem to gather only experts in the matter.

What are e-sports? Are they one of these popping-out-from-nothing things which are themselves condemned to be forgotten? I don't think so. E-sports have already become part of our life(perhaps the main reason for it is that international groups can make neat profits from it). They are another sign of oncoming times, but the original ideas remain the same: Promoting fair-play, tightening relations between countries and giving youngsters a chance to show their talents. And that's the essence of pure sports.

Cheers,
Jacek Pająk