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September 4, 2014 at 16: 44
The esports industry: from a case of beer to a million dollars
The blog of the Mail company.
Ru Group
Hi!
My name is Nikita Bokarev, I am a creative producer of the Mail game direction.
Ru Group.
Today I will tell you in colors about such a phenomenon as esports.
Of course, the topic is huge and there is not enough textbook to cover it in its entirety, so I will tell you about the most significant, from my point of view, events and phenomena from the moment of the birth of esports to the present day.
In the world: Korea, Europe, the United States and China The fate of esports in each part of the world has developed differently.
We can say that the main forces for the development of the industry were applied by South Korea, which chose high tech as the main "national idea".
For its popularization, certain symbols and directions were needed, so the Koreans made computer sports the most important in the country, a topic around which the population united.
It happened in the 2000s, and even then they invested a lot of money in esports and brought it to a very high level.
It happened in the 2000s, and even then they invested a lot of money in esports and brought it to a very high level.
Those who participated in competitions and won, immediately received large fees and new opportunities.
This was originally a state initiative, to the point that the first tournaments were opened personally by the country's leadership, with great pomp and pathos.
In just a couple of years, South Korea has become the main organizer of world competitions: it has become extremely prestigious to come and win something at competitions in this country.
European esports developed both along the classical path (the organization of offline tournaments) and along the path of online.
The fact is that even then, Westerners had an order of magnitude better ping than in other countries, and already in 1997 – 1998, Scandinavians were playing Quake and other games on the Internet with might and main.
The Swedes and the rest of the Vikings were engaged in the development of all sorts of online leagues, online competitions, platforms, services and everything that allowed players to fight within certain communities.
There were about five of them in Europe, and each of them decided which games got into tournaments (and, accordingly, into esports), and which ones did not.
By the way, one thing that is useful to immediately understand: in general, there is no single concept of "esports".
He's gone.
Each participant of this circus arranges for himself an esports game with blackjack and the rest.
For example: I am South Korea and I want to make a World Cup.
I say: it will have StarCraft, Counter Strike, DOTA and LoL.
So I created my own esports.
There is no international classification, there are no internationally recognized disciplines, there is no register of games – this is not an Olympiad for you.
In the States, the phenomenon of esports in general developed in its own unique way.
In America, there was a CPL – CyberSport Professional League, whose participants played exactly 15 games on consoles.
Of course, all this was done with great fanfare and scope: for example, for the first place, the player received not just a prize, but a ready made Ferrari.
Undoubtedly, the red one.
In the early 2000s, Koreans made a big fuss in the field of esports, launching a major project World Cyber Games.
It was the first incredibly cool World Championship with one important feature: the qualifiers were held in 200 countries.
If before that, it was possible to come to a major championship in the same, for example, Korea by invitation (some Korean miraculously noticed you and called you to compete), then with the advent of World Cyber Games, qualifying tournaments began to be organized within different countries.
Some competitions were held, the national team was selected, which then went to the final to defend the honor of the motherland.
It was the WCG that gave an impetus to the unification of various ideas about esports in the world.
Before that, everyone, as I have already told, did what they wanted.
Koreans used esports as a tool for working with their own population; Europeans developed the industry online; Americans made a show; well, the Chinese used the phenomenon to unite the country and demonstrate their national achievements in a winning light.
Only the champions of their countries, 200 teams from all over the world got to the tournaments in China.
It was very large scale and spectacular.
In the CIS countries As for us, a new type of business appeared in the CIS countries in 1997, which everyone liked very much and developed quickly.
The essence of it is that you find a certain room, put the assembled computers in it — as much as you want — and rent them out.
It was called the "computer club".
The first computer club was opened in 1997 at the Shabolovskaya metro station in Moscow and was called "Orki" — a memorable place for me, because, in fact, I once started my activity there as a pro gamer.
This business model quickly became very popular.
People realized that this was pretty easy money: we didnot have much Internet at that time, and everyone wanted to try it terribly, people were coming in a wave,.
Of course, it was enough to go to the club once to understand that this is a completely different level of the game and a very special thrill.
So you are sitting at home in proud solitude, and here you are playing on the grid with twenty live people!
Then no one played on the Internet, for the sake of "multiplayer" they dragged their entire computer to a friend's apartment.
And here there was not only an opportunity, but also a choice: with whom to play, what to play, when to play.
The topic exploded: clubs began to appear like mushrooms in the forest.
Accordingly, together with the clubs, tournaments in the CIS began to develop.
At first, they were held simply at the expense of enthusiasts.
For example: I play Counter Strike, I like this game, I want to do more for it than just play it.
I gather people, I tell them that on such and such a date in such and such a place we are going to play, the fee will be so much.
Actually, the amount collected from the contributions was the prize fund.
This is how the Russian esports of the "noughties" looked like.
At that time, no one was dreaming of some kind of world tournaments – they thought that it was just such a fan, no one was seriously looking at it.
The explosion occurred in 2001, when the first season of World Cyber Games was officially announced with the final in Seoul.
What did that mean?
In all countries, there is an opportunity not only to be the coolest guy in the city, but also to win the qualifying, become the champion of the whole country and go to the final in Korea.
The main sponsor of the World Cyber Games was Samsung.
This was the first time when such a large sponsor was attracted to the organization of a large event and when the company invested a lot of money in esports.
Samsung had its own interest in this venture.
Then, in 2001, the company began to actively promote its mobile games for brand new phones with color screens.
They themselves developed toys for their own platform and sold them, including through gamers.
Thus, Samsung bent its own line: if World Cyber Games were dedicated to" client " games, then the Korean company tried to promote mobile ones.
In fact, they even succeeded in something: at some point, separate mobile games competitions appeared at the championship.
Samsung was closely involved in the tournament and in addition to its mobile path: it helped organize qualifying competitions in countries with its representative offices, invested a lot of money, to the point that the prize funds amounted to tens of thousands of dollars per team: the first place – 50 thousand, the second 40 thousand, the third 30 thousand.
For that time, these were unrealistic amounts.
As for the Russian representative office of Samsung, in 2001 it did a lot of useful things: it did a great job with the gaming community, controlled the qualifiers, and also did a very significant thing — it covered the cities with a polygraph about the choice of the national champion.
For the first time, such an unexpected thing for that time as gamers and esports appeared on outdoor advertising.
The effect was amazing: it was very cool to feel like a part of a grand event, to know that this is YOUR competition.
With the advent of World Cyber Games, people have a new motivation to develop a promising direction.
Everyone rushed to train and play, another 100,500 clubs were opened to accommodate everyone, qualifying competitions began in the cities.
This is how the first, even approximate structure of what later became Russian esports as we know it now was born.
World Cyber Games has announced competitions for three games: StarCraft, Counter Strike and Quake.
Actually, we mostly played in them.
Qualifiers were held in every major city, the city's team came to the final in Moscow, where the first mega final took place, where we found out who is the best player in StarCraft, the best player in Quake and the five best guys in Counter Strike.
All this had a certain media coverage, which expanded incredibly after they told about esports on TV.
It was like this: around that time, Leonid Parfenov, a well known person, I think, to everyone, and his friend Sergei Loshak were looking for new topics for the program "The Other Day".
They wanted to find something interesting that no one had talked about yet.
Actually, they found World Cyber Games and decided to shoot a story about how Russians are preparing for the tournament, fly to Korea and perform.
It so happened that the Russians took two gold medals at that competition, in Counter Strike and Quake.
The plot turned out to be interesting: how simple St. Petersburg guys play, go to the institute, drink beer, how a simple Novogireevsky dude from Moscow also trains before the finals.
When the guys returned, it was a real celebration: our team won!
And then, in addition, the program "The other day.
Esports", which was shown on NTV several times.
What did it give?
A new era has come: people were shown on TV a guy from Novogireevo who won 20 thousand dollars playing Quake.
Everything.
At that moment, everyone's roofs were blown off, because thousands of people realized: "It's me!
Here I am, wait, I'm already coming!"
And everyone began to play with double inspiration, organize competitions, turn it into their life's work, collect leagues, open computer centers.
A new process has begun, the formation of a new scene, such a mini industry within the gaming industry.
Publishers did not deal with this side of the issue at all, they were interested in selling boxes with new games, so the organization of sports events fell heavily on the shoulders of enthusiasts.
All this was formed thanks to very difficult work with sponsors, who at that time, in 2002-2003, did not understand at all what it was and why it was needed.
Gradually, the results began to appear.
In particular, a series of Asus tournaments has started in Russia.
The company gave money and launched tournaments every three months: qualifiers in the CIS countries, the final in Moscow.
That is, in addition to the World championships, new stable competitions with decent prize money have appeared in the calendar of cyber athletes.
And this is not counting a couple of dozen small tournaments!
People made their own schedules and prepared for the fight no worse than Rocky Balboa.
More tournaments, good and different In other parts of the world, of course, they did not sleep either.
So, the Electronic Sports League was launched in Europe.
She gathered all the adequate European enthusiasts who worked for the idea, and created a very large union of intelligent people from almost all European countries.
It was they who launched the ESL online service, which, by the way,is still working.
The first international online competition series appeared on this platform.
Of course, we took it very well.
In addition to the fact that in the life of Russian pro gamers there were four major championships and about twenty small ones during the year, so now they could play online competitions for money or quotas.
All this was unrealistically cool, and in addition, it gave a decent boost to the development of the esports audience.
The most important thing is that not only hardcore fans, but also another audience began to slowly come to it.
Due to the launch of ESL, a kind of "packaging" of existing teams according to their skill level began.
What does it mean?
Let's say I play Counter Strike, I love this game, I dream of becoming a champion.
I came to an esports competition, played one match with the champion, he took me out with a score of 16: 0, I ran away, cried and never touched the game again.
This could have been the case before the advent of ESL; subsequently, this service minimized the chances of such a scenario.
Now I could play with an opponent with approximately the same win loss ratio as me.
The matchmaking system based on rates was laid: ESL launched a gradation based on the statistics of your wins and losses, which is used by any modern game project.
Of course, this lowered the bar for entering the sport, and many players came to the industry who were quite comfortable competing.
They did not build any far – reaching plans these people just played for the rating, watched professional matches and got their fan.
In America, meanwhile, the CyberSport Professional League was thundering with all its might, Garena was launched, and the Championship Gaming Series appeared, a league that was made in the format of a TV show.
It looked like this: a major American channel regularly published digests, which told about all the competitions in the five CGS cyber disciplines, played in a stunningly beautiful studio.
The second season of the show was broadcast on a separate channel.
Roughly speaking, with this launch, the United States took a step along the path chosen by Korea, which, for example, has three channels entirely dedicated to StarCraft.
Yes, TV channels that play StarCraft around the clock.
The Americans did the same, but still remained in the format of a TV show.
Meanwhile, in Russia, enthusiasts have reached the officials: by the forces of the Russian Computer Sports Federation, esports was included in the official register of sports in 2004.
Even earlier, in 2002, a landmark event took place in the capital: NetLand was opened — the Samsung gaming center on the fourth floor of the Children's World.
It was a fantastically expensive and beautiful room with its own entrance, separate zones, a bunch of staff, an original layout (tables with computers were not along the walls, but an amphitheater, while the highest row was intended for selected pro gamers).
It was a completely new level: NetLand showed that a computer club may not be a basement.
A little later, somewhere in early 2006, another iconic gaming center, Club4Game, was opened, which your humble servant also had a hand in creating.
At the same time, we launched the National Professional Esports League, which operated in cooperation with partners.
Summing up the intermediate result of my story: what did we have at that time?
There have already been a lot of different competitions in a variety of games in the world.
Enthusiasts moved projects that were interesting to them, so tournaments dedicated to anything at all, even Mario, began to appear.
The prize fund varied: I found championships where we played for a case of beer, but at the same time there were other processes.
At the same time, the Electronic Sports World Cup was gaining momentum in Europe — a major tournament with decent prize money, which gathered the color of esports from all over the world.
The scene itself was popularized: people began to learn not only about the competitions themselves, but also about those who participated in them year after year.
We started buying tickets to tournaments with the participation of these players, coming, taking autographs, recognizing them on the street.
At this cheerful moment, I will pause so as not to overload you with information.
In the next post, read about the crisis of esports, the wars of MOBA games, the appearance of broadcasts and other interesting events.
If you have any questions about what has already been told, ask them in the comments.
esports, wcg, computer clubs
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Comments (31)
bazil11
September 4, 2014 at 17: 15
+2
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In netland there was a huge number of inadequate personalities, drunk to death, more or less calmly it was possible to settle only in the Comfort zone) Oh, I remembered my school years =_=
PS.
It also seems to me that it would make sense to mention TI, because this is quite an interesting phenomenon that has, so far (if I'm not mistaken), the largest prize pool :)
naum
September 5, 2014 at 07: 22
–3
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I went to the article to see the discussion of The International, and it's not even in the article.
Just like that.
donRumatta
September 5, 2014 at 09: 12
+1
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After all, WCG is WCG, and TI is another LAN)
vayho
September 4, 2014 at 17: 17
+5
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Now esports is experiencing a certain boom, it seems to me that the crazy money at LoL and Dota tournaments has also pulled up other games.
When I come home, I often watch a couple of hours of Dota or Hearthstone streams.
I notice recently in the top of twitch and CS.
This trend only pleases me.
bazil11
September 4, 2014 at 17: 37
+1
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I am very sorry that I constantly miss the starlader streams that go during working hours, because they do not pour all the matches later on YouTube :( There is a suspicion that they have everything on twitch, but they will not get their hands to check in any way =)
track13
September 5, 2014 at 00: 23
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It seems that you can buy a ticket and then watch it with commentators and whores.
And inexpensive.
jimmy webs
September 4, 2014 at 17: 37
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It is gradually recovering from the crisis.
Oh, what were the plans before 2008…
But everything has developed as it has developed and, in my humble opinion, is developing in the right (albeit slightly different) direction.
bazil11
September 4, 2014 at 17: 44
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MOBA is quite a worthy development of the tactical and" wanker " problems of CS and Q3 (namely, mobs are now coming to the top, replacing SC2 and QL) + strategic component, in the form of a macro.
I myself spat for a long time from the first dota, a couple of years ago I was dragged into the HON, then the Volvo gave the betka Doty2, now more than 1500 hours have been played in D2 + the same, if not more, viewed in the form of streams and waters.
And this is considering that before that there was about 1.5 k in ks16, no less in kvach and starcraft for a couple :)
13alex
September 4, 2014 at 17: 20
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I didnot know that you work for emails :) at least somewhere the right people are at the head of the directions, and not just MBAs.
P.S. and the coolest thing now, after so many years, is to realize that those who are now squeaking — "tanks are cool, cs is your shit, the old man is sad" - they were not even in the plans then, when for us it has already become the meaning of life, the meaning of developing further.
bazil11
September 4, 2014 at 17: 36
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I understand that Simba is the author of the topic?
jimmy webs
September 4, 2014 at 17: 38
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That's right.
Why didnot I tell you about forZe and other zero teams — that's the only question
bazil11
September 4, 2014 at 17: 40
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He will have time, I think:)
Registered: September 01, 2014
GamesMRG
September 4, 2014 at 18: 01
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Yeah, read all the stories about International and other present\future in the following posts
GamesMRG
September 4, 2014 at 18: 01
+2
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And yes Simba, it's me.
Only very old players know me by this name.
Since 2004, I have subscribed to smb
4utep
September 4, 2014 at 19: 07
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Hello :)
Framework
September 5, 2014 at 09: 59
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Just in tanks, esports is a little more than completely depressing…
darthslider
September 4, 2014 at 17: 58
+5
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By the way, who is interested in Moscow next weekend (September 13-14) will host the DreamHack stage, they will play Dota2, Starcraft 2 and Point Blank.
Admission is free.
Aingis
September 5, 2014 at 02: 59
+2
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dreamhack.ru/2014/ru/
adidas
September 4, 2014 at 18: 05
+4
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Dota 2 is now, for me, going through its best times.
Streams of games from famous players (the same Dandy, for example) and all sorts of Versuts, not to mention TI games, collect a fairly large number of people.
In the summer, we were going to watch the international with friends and discussed it, probably in the same way as football fans of the 2014 World Cup.
Smi1e
September 4, 2014 at 18: 29
+2
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It is very sad that QL has lost a lot of ground over the past 3 years.
ID openly merges the esports direction.
I hope that the imminent arrival of the game on Steam will change things and will be an impetus for the emergence of a new audience and tournaments.
And we havenot heard anything about UT at all.
Although recently there was an encouraging statement about the intention to breathe new life into the famous series.
danfe
September 4, 2014 at 19: 43
+5
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To my great regret, FPS as an esports genre has generally begun to stagnate since the time of Quake 4;
I once tried to think about this topic.
Nothing has changed since then. :-(
Apparently, the whole point is that it is stupidly easier to earn money on conditional dota and lola.
track13
September 5, 2014 at 00: 28
+3
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Imho they are also more spectacular.
What is there to comment on in kvak (judging by q2)?
"He took the rail and armor, does not give it to the enemy and looks for an opponent for a minute"?
And in the same dota there is always something to say, the benefit is 5x5.
pushist1y
September 5, 2014 at 10:51 am
+1
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Duels and old cards really had a rather slow and measured game.
Now in QL with a huge number of new maps in the form of hubs with a bunch of teleports, even in duels, dynamics are more than enough, but there is another problem without watching a couple of dozen matches on this map (or without playing on it yourself for a couple of days), it is absolutely impossible to understand what is happening — shooting is coming from all sides almost simultaneously.
On the other hand — there is always TDM, look, for example, at the CPL Cologne 2002 matches that forZe won (Here is a record of one of them, if possible, find old demos), it can be played in different ways, but forZe then, together with iC, blew up the tournament with an exorbitant game speed.
But even if you play TDM slowly and steadily, there is always something going on.
Another problem is that there are no real ways to observe the game, except from the eyes of one of the players, and accordingly, in 4x4 you see only some part of what is happening, while in genres with a top view the whole game is visible.
VBKesha
September 5, 2014 at 00: 17
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UT was ruined by the 2003 version and then they never pulled it back.
But this is IMHO.
PavelMSTU
September 4, 2014 at 19: 18
0
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Are there tournaments for games "not for reaction"?
For example, according to the Heroes?
or the springiness?
GamesMRG
September 4, 2014 at 19: 34
+1
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Heroes of Might and Magic 3 was almost one of the first esports disciplines = ) It was in the late 90s.
There were no major tournaments for them, but they found their audience.
As far as I know, tournaments on the 3rd part of the heroes are held to this day.
Tournaments can be held for any game, there would be a desire = )
ilfate
September 4, 2014 at 19: 36
+2
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Well, Hearthstone hosts all sorts of tournaments.
Of course, not such scales.
Well, the reason is that the games "not for reaction" entertainment is an order of magnitude lower.
STATZeg
September 4, 2014 at 19: 25
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thank you for the article!
Nostalgia overcame )
We played in Netland at one time )
I'm really looking forward to continuing!
danfe
September 4, 2014 at 19: 51
0
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In the" golden years " of esports in Russia, perhaps the main news site was cyberfight, which is now almost dead.
There was a good article about its history on the progamer last year.
corwin7
September 4, 2014 at 21: 25
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No player or clan was mentioned.
No Asmodeus for you, no Boxer…
Kolegg
September 6, 2014 at 04: 35
0
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Meanwhile, Kas became the "world champion in esports"... journalists, they are such journalists…
www.m24.ru/videos/14993?attempt=2
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