EPT
One of the biggest eSports events of 2013 occurred this weekend: DotA2′s third annual premier tournament, The International. It was the biggest and best of them thus far, featuring incredible games, amazing storylines, screaming crowds, and brilliant organization. The event was well attended by hordes of die-hard DotA fans, but hundreds of thousands of viewers also tuned in online to witness the grand spectacle. As such, there were likely newcomers to DotA2, MOBAs, or eSports overall who turned on the stream to discover what this hugely-watched, multimillion dollar affair was all about. And, most likely, they were COMPLETELY OVERWHELMED.
DotA is not an easy game. Nor is any game with an eSports scene because if they were easy, there’d be no reason for competition. Yet even watching eSports games can be confusing. While every gamer knows a depleted health bar means death, they might not understand what skills are used to secure the kill or why the death is relevant in the flow of the game or where the health bar even is there are so many graphics on the screen holy shit I DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON. If your first spectated game is a bad/weird/otherwise atypical (see TI3′s record breaking contest between DK and iG), then you might be turned off even if a typical match would be something you’d love.
Playing eSports titles always involves a barrier of entry and watching them also requires a good deal of knowledge just to understand what’s going on. However, once you’re prepared, eSports are as fun to watch as traditional sports (if not more… golf). This post is dedicated to those who have never watched an eSport event in their lives, but are interested in taking the plunge. Here’s what you need to properly enjoy your eSports viewing experience.
Watch A Once-Off Tournament
There’s no better way to get into eSports than by watching a short but massive tournament. While there are leagues that stretch for months with important rematches and ranking dynamics and ongoing rivalries, there’s no way to easily follow them without watching from the very beginning. If you’re new to eSports, there’s no desire to take that road because the most interesting games (the finals) are often ages away. In contrast, a once-off tournament like EVO, The International, or an MLG gives you all the excitement up front and completely resolves soon afterwards. Even if there were tons of qualifiers preceding the tournament, once the main event begins it’s as if everything starts from scratch. Teams are introduced, preliminary and group stage matches are played, finals are won, and then it’s over. You can get wonderful eSports experience over 3 or 4 days, if not under 10 hours. Plus, if you watch a shorter tournament, it’s more likely that casters/analysts will be explaining rules and concepts you didn’t know. That is, unless you…
Play The Game
If you’re jumping into an eSports event for the first time, you probably don’t have the time to install/buy the game and play it a decent amount. Instead, someone will probably post the stream link or you’ll see its viewership on Reddit or Twitch and start watching on a whim. While tuning in without playing the game is just fine, you should absolutely do so if you get the chance. Playing a game is the fastest and easiest way to understand the rules, comprehend player choices, and parse the graphical effects on the screen (which can often be a blur to the uninitiated). If you’ve spent some time with the game, watching others play it is far more enjoyable; things tend to be more fun when you aren’t perpetually confused. Playing the game will give you the useful perspective of just how difficult the tasks performed by the players are. If you’ve ever watched Starcraft 2‘s INnoVation flawlessly micro widow mines while constantly producing units, then tried to do it yourself, you’ll know what I’m saying. Knowing the difficulty of the actions a pro accomplishes goes a long way in establishing the WOW factor that makes eSports so great. But if you really don’t have the time to play yourself, you should…
Watch With Someone Who Does
The impetus for watching the eSports event may be another person in your life who is already a big fan and trying to find others who will watch as well. Or perhaps you know someone that plays the game that you can call to say “Hey, I want to watch this.” Either way, your experienced friend can probably fill in your knowledge gaps for the in-game moments you don’t understand. In fact, another human’s explanations will likely be far more coherent and straightforward than the information you collect in your own gaming experience (which will be very different from professional play). Regardless of whether or not your friend is “good” at the game, even a little bit of extra knowledge and help can clear up an otherwise obscure viewing experience. Not only that, but having a good time with your friend will add to the fun of the event itself, particularly if his/her cheers or groans are compelling you to do the same. You find that yelling at the screen will be second-nature if you initially…
Investigate The Past
Most pro-gaming scenes have a long and storied history, particularly if they’re leading to a massive, ultra-hyped event such as The International. Teams will have rivalries, historic weak points, unexpected prosperities, statistical anomalies, favored Heroes/Champions/Fighters/Characters/whatever, and controversial opinions or tactics. Knowing where the crowd’s love or hate comes from is a great way to build some of your own and determine where, when, and why you root for a given team. For example, knowing that Na’vi attended every International’s Finals or that iG was last year’s champion can change your perspective on the event from mild interest to a roller coaster of emotions (okay, that’s an exaggeration, but it helps a lot). Another example of essential history hails from League of Legends: knowing that half of Curse used to be on CLG makes CLG v. Curse matches a big deal for the teams’ fans. It’s also good to go waaaaaay back and watch some “classic” eSports moments to discover the origins of certain lingo or iconic eSports moments. If you hear someone reference EE HAN TIMING or Daigo Umehara or something important to the scene, it’s nice to be in the know. And speaking of emotions…
Find “Your Team/Player”
There’s no better way to enjoy a tournament than by finding a player or team to favor throughout the event. Those who more immersed in the eSports scene may already be fanboys for a given entity, but if you’re just starting to watch eSports you can figure out your own loyalties. Whether you root for the favorites or the dark horse or the underdogs, having something to cheer for will help you enjoy any competitive event, including and especially eSports. So jump on the Cloud 9/Team Liquid/Woogjin/TPA/Alliance/iG train and ride it as far into the tournament as you can. Sure, you may have to swap allegiances halfway through if your team falls out of the event, but that’s the benefit of having relatively little investment: you can be mercurial as hell. It may feel a bit like bandwagoning, but who cares if it gets you excited to watch your team’s sick plays? Last but not least…
Buy Into The Hype
Look, at some point everyone that gets into eSports thinks “Yeah, but aren’t they just clicking buttons on a computer to make graphics move? Is this really anything?” This is pretty natural: we aren’t really conditioned to think of non-physical competitions as very legitimate. The beauty of eSports is that it’s totally legitimate, but it does initially require you to dismiss that nagging doubt. ESports is one of the many endeavors for which you need to take a leap of faith if you don’t get it at first. You’re not going to enjoy an event (even if you want to) if you’re thinking about how “those guys are just sitting in soundproof booths doing almost nothing.” So there may be some time where you have to wing it and explicitly tell yourself to buy into the hype. Luckily, there’s no better venue at which to do this than a huge eSports event like TI3. When you first stop comparing DotA to the Olympics, you’ll simply see the roaring crowds and screaming casters. You’ll see the deflated defeated and the ecstatic victors. You’ll see the detailed analyses, in-depth strategies, and incredible effort that goes into each match and each moment in between. And you’ll see gaming perfection, a quality of play that you’ll rarely see anywhere else (and never while playing yourself). When you come back to that Olympian comparison, suddenly you’ll understand why eSports is growing every day. You’ll know why gaming professionals are just as impressive as pro athletes and why eSports tournaments are just as fun to watch as the Super Bowl. By then, you’ll be an eSports fan, and you’ll never look back.
You can read this post and many more at the N3rd Dimension.
). 
