E-SPORTS

                                          -BY S SANJAY RAM

ABOUT

E-sports or electronic sports is a form of sport that is played online, A set of games that often involve a multiplayer system is under eSports. There has been a lot of development in e-sports due to the advancement of technology, E-sports was started in late 2000 where participation of professional gamers who played video games and these were streamed online for viewers and just like any other sport these were sponsored by companies or big industries as it was a new form of sport, and it could reach a large audience.

In 2010, the video gaming industry had a boom in sales due to the participation of live streamers or professional players in E-sports, which led video games to announce their tournaments. It was estimated that E-sports had a viewership of 454 million with overall revenue of 1 billion us dollars!

E-sports has many genres of video games such as battle arena, first-person shooter (FPS), fighting, real-time strategy and the most popular genre in today’s time ‘The Battle Royal’. Video games like Counterstrike, League of Legends and Dota were very famous games.

RECOGNITION

Popularity was one of the key factors due to which online video games were considered to become a sport, as in the early 2000 s, E-sports were criticized for not being sport due to comparison with outdoor sports like Soccer and Football in the United States as E-sports didn’t have a large audience. Even after tournaments and events were popular whenever the topic of E-sport came journalists on Television denied considering it as sports.

But the perspective of E-sport was changed after the conduct of the World Championship by the International E-sport federation which received a positive response from the audience.

In 2017, finally, E-sports got the attention it wanted and to be considered as a sport was due to the discussion of the Olympic Committee (IOC), the summit was held in October 2017 though no official confirmation has come from the committee, the perspective of people changed.

E-SPORTS IN INDIA

E-Sports came late in India as it was not recognized as a Sport, though many games which were in E-sports were available in India, no official tournament or Event was held, so there was not a big market share of online games in India. But it changed by the famous battle royal game ‘PUBG’ or Player Unknown Battlegrounds which played Sports become a sport in India as the key factor popularity was received. Many tournaments were held, and many YouTubers became live streamers. Soon online games became popular as it was more accessible because many games were available on all platforms.

PUBG BAN

The infamous Ban imposed on PUBG was a shock for many youngsters as it was a part of the second digital strike by our government on China including 116 other mobile applications.

Many youngsters used to play PUBG and soon became a household name but unfortunately due to Tencent ownership of PUBG led to Ban it. PUBG was banned due to section 69A in the Information technology Act or the national security act as allegations were imposed that PUBG is a threat for the nation as they have user’s Data.

CONCLUSION

In my opinion, E-sports has a very good future as it also requires what a Sport requires which is Accuracy, Precision and Discipline, some people have made this a Profession, a way of livelihood. Though there is scope in Online gaming and Streaming, to survive in this field people must be as focused, consistent, and unique which every field requires. Many streamers have become as successful as a celebrity, People should see the potential in E-sports, as the gaming industry now has become more popular than in many sports leagues.

PUBG Ban is a controversial topic, some people have supported the ban some have not, in my opinion, Nation always comes first, though we don’t have any proof that PUBG is stealing user’s data, also it seems like a pre-planned agenda by boycotting PUBG and announcing a similar game!