In this article Chris talks about the unique challenge that eSports must overcome.

Can eSports transcend to the same status as a traditional sport? This is a question I give a lot thought. Looking at the blistering speed it is growing at the simple answer is yes, but how will eSports handle generation gaps? Better than Counter-Strike did between 1.6 and Global Offensive I hope.

Let’s evaluate where eSports is today

If we look at Riot’s League of Legends World Championship this weekend, selling out the Staples Center -- a renowned stadium -- and keeping in mind that eSports has sold out stadiums and convention halls throughout the world, you could say we’re already there.

Multi-million dollar prizes are on the line, a number exceeding $10,000,000 in total this year (across all eSports) and players are earning 6 figure salaries.

Viewerships are already beating out the likes of ESPN. The International 3 achieved a concurrent viewership of more than a million across live-streams, not including the broadcast on Swedish TV station TV6. Riot has announced viewerships of 900,000 concurrent for its WC semi-finals and threw out figures like 18 million uniques for the All-Stars tournament earlier in the year.

They aren’t the only ones either, organizers MLG (NA), Dreamhack (EU) and IEM (International) are also hosting events in arenas and convention halls, broadcast to millions several times throughout the year.

When eSports is brought to convention centers, it sells out entire halls, to an extent that they need to stop people coming in, as happened at PAX and Gamescom. It would be easy to argue that eSports has already achieved as large a following as some traditional sports.

So where’s the argument?

StarCraft became a national sport in South Korea, broadcast on national television. It was so popular that Korean airliners and telecoms companies sponsored the teams. The Korean air force started its own team, Air Force ACE, for renowned (and just retired) pro-gamer Lim "BoxeR" Yo Hwan when he began his military service. eSports was much more than just a game in South Korea; it was a thriving industry, commonly known in popular culture.

Then StarCraft II was released, the pro-gamers made the leap of faith from the old, aging game to the new. StarCraft II didn’t click with the Korean public, MBC Game (Korean eSports channel) closed, tournament organizers hesitated and now the StarCraft teams and players are struggling to remain relevant in a changing eSports climate.

It gets harder to keep people’s interest when competing against shiny new graphics and game mechanics. StarCraft is one example of this, another is Counter-Strike version 1.6 (known as 1.6), which had a better competitive scene than any other Counter-Strike until recently. Suffice to say 1.6 isn’t played anymore.

Another element that comes into play here is marketing. It is true that a lot of the money in eSports comes from sponsors, but even more comes from the developers/publishers themselves. Yes, they do it to support the community, but they also need to see a return on investment.

It doesn’t make sense for the developer to keep pumping money into an eSports title that isn’t going to sell versus their new game, as was the case with StarCraft and Counter-Strike. Though neither of these games received large prizes from the developers, the money going into the newer game makes it a lot more attractive to pro-gamers.

When the viewers and players move from one game to another, new challenges in broadcasting arise; you need to convince people to watch the new game and there is a noticeable bump in the road.

This movement from one game to another is not seen in any other sport, it’s unique to eSports and it is something we will have to face, something we have overcome in the past to varying degrees.

While StarCraft II hasn’t captivated the Korean eSports audience like its predecessor, another game has, League of Legends.

League of Legends has only existed as an eSport for three seasons (In North America and Europe) and has already grown to become as large as StarCraft was in Korea. It’s just as big in the West, everybody is playing, talking about and watching the game; it’s massive.

With League of Legends and DotA 2 amassing audiences so soon in their lifecycles, they have a lot of years to continue pushing eSports forward, giving time for another game to come along and become the next League of Legends, the next Call of Duty (literally, probably) or StarCraft and continue carrying the torch.

By selling out the Staples Center, mainstream media are catching on to the eSports gig. We can see articles about professional gamers popping up on sites like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. When a team lifts the Summoner’s Cup this weekend, I doubt you’ll be able to surf the web without reading about it.

Both League of Legends and DotA 2 are claiming new ground for eSports in the West, major sponsors like MasterCard, American Express and Nissan are getting on-board; their rivals will soon follow.

Gaming has grown into a giant of the entertainment industry and will only continue to grow as it penetrates further into popular culture; eSports will follow.

In reality, eSports hasn’t even tapped into the whole of the gaming community never mind beyond that. There is still a lot of growing to do.

Still the unique challenge persists

Every time the community is forced to switch from one generation of game to the next people will be left behind, the rehabilitation period for those who make the leap of faith will delay development of the scene. In the eSports world players, commentators and organizers must learn to adapt to a constantly changing environment.

In 4 or 5 years from now, will Riot have made LCS into a sustainable standalone entity? Something that doesn’t get left by the wayside when Riot moves its budget elsewhere, the players and organizations that rely on it with it.

In many ways, Valve has already created a sustainable product; as I discussed in my eSports business models article, Valve has setup a community Workshop and sells eSports items including pennants and tournament passes, where creators can share the revenue of sales. Even if Valve stops development the game continues to grow.

Ultimately these measures will only prolong the life expectancy of the game as an eSport for a few years, if DotA 3 or League of Legends 2 comes the community divides and over time the older game becomes irrelevant, or if the new game doesn’t catch on then it could just fade into history.

That’s the challenge, can we build up an eSports structure when games ultimately only have a life expectancy of 10 years at best, as seen with both StarCraft and Counter-Strike.

Looking at the immediate future we can look forward to a period of growth for eSports. Beyond that, will we see titles like Titanfall and its ensuing sequels take up the mantle, will Riot produce another hit eSports title, or will we be left with another gap between titles as in the FPS genre.

It will be interesting to see how eSports adapts to a new crowd of gamers coming in from the next generation of consoles, expect to see the likes of Fifa and Madden mixed in with your League of Legends and DotA 2. 

Chris Rainey, Columnist