Too Cool for Summer: eSports Thus Far

The summer of 2015 was a monumental one for eSports, with three major tournaments happening within the same month across three different disciplines. The stigma of competitive gaming is being washed away as major media players like ESPN and PCGamer are now expanding to include eSports as part of their online coverage.

 “This is the golden age of eSports,” said Grubby, the former double-WCG winner turned ASUS streamer. So what made this summer in particular so ground-breaking?

 

Stadiums booked AND filled

In 2014, the idea of an eSports tournament being held in a stadium was still a novelty, but in 2015 it became imperative. Over the summer five major events were held in stadiums, from CS:GO’s ESL One Cologne in the LANXESS Arena in Germany, to Dota 2’s The International 5 in KeyArena in Seattle, USA. We’re not talking small-time stadiums; the KeyArena in Seattle is in fact the largest indoor stadium in Valve’s home city.

Community blitz scaling this summer

The eSports community played a phenomenal role in driving the scene forward this summer. The International 5’s record-breaking eSports prize pool of $18 million USD was almost exclusively crowd-funded through the purchase of in-game items.

ASUS-sponsored ESL One Cologne not only marked Fnatic’s first major title for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, it also became the most-watched CS: GO Tournament of all time. 27 million unique viewers tuned in to the online streaming platform Twitch, marking an increase of more than 230% from the previous year.

eSports organizers in 2015 and particularly this summer, have caught on to the importance of crowd satisfaction, with current events putting on all manner of additional activities for visitors to enjoy. Autograph signings are becoming commonplace, with ESL One Cologne and TI5 both having scheduled sessions for fans, as well as airbrush tattoos, CS:GO pins, Dota 2 plushies, and a Secret Shop.

At ESL Cologne we set up a touchscreen-operated ASUS slot machine that gave away prizes such as a ride in ASUS’ branded show cars which included a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, and an Aston Martin. At TI5, Valve even brought members of the audience to join the immensely successful all-stars game played out on ASUS ROG G751 gaming notebooks.

Storylines

Over the last decade or more, veteran eSports fanatics including ourselves have hoped and wished that the mainstream community would appreciate the incredibly dynamic and vibrant eSports scene. Thanks to the storylines of this summer, “the real world” may be here to stay.

When 16-year old Pakistani teenager SumaiL won over $1.3 million in prize money at TI5, heads across the globe turned. The rising star was featured on the likes of Bloomberg and became the youngest gamer to surpass $1 million in eSports earnings in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Meanwhile, ESL One Cologne graced the cinematic stage, with the tournament broadcasted live in selected cinemas as part of the eSports in Cinemas initiative.

TI5, ESL Cologne, and the 2015 World Championship for League of Legends have raised the bar of what both a visitor and a viewer expect from eSports. Over the course of this summer, viewership has increased, prize-pool records have been broken, and mainstream media interest has been sparked. Moving into autumn we can expect even more mainstream coverage as we show the outside world what eSports looks like from the inside.