|
On August 01 2011 09:41 FishStix wrote:
Oh also, nothing about W:ET or RtCW? Team-based FPSs had a hayday... (more than just CS and Quake)
I played ET for two years, but I have to say it hasn't really contributed anything to esports' growth – same goes for Call of Duty which even has a bigger community. Nothing ground-breaking. I think there was this girl playing for a top ET team from the US and she took her clothes off for some "hot gamer girls" site, but I doubt it's relevant for this post, lol.
// added
Shortly afterwards, EG adds the first Japanese players: Yusuke 'Momochi' Momochi and Yuko 'ChocoBlanka' Kusachi.
|
Respect your perseverance in writing.
|
It's amazing how much we take for granted in eSports. Especially western eSports- with all the recent focus on just SC2. There is a long history here with lots of ups and downs.
Tells you that we aren't really in uncharted territory here, and there is a lot of history out there to be learned from.
|
Fatal1ty was my idol for some time, he made me aware that you could make money playing games.
|
My goodness, that sure took me a while to read! Thanks for compiling all of this, there were some parts of ESPORTS history that I did not know of (surprise surprise)- very good read.
|
nice! I remember when DR.Thresh won the FERRARI
awesome!
I think it was before Quake World, not sure now...
|
Wow that was quite the post. I hope the sequel is equally long :D.
|
Good write up. Another big thing on this is the pro-gamers of the era before 1990.
Everyone should go watch movies like The King of Kong, and Chasing ghosts. It shows how games were played at the top level before player vs player games came out. It also shows how the same kind of ingenuity that we use to come up with builds was used back then. Top level gaming has evolved since then but its still the same core thing.
Pretty entertaining movies about the root origins of pro gaming
|
Korea (South)1897 Posts
|
United States1681 Posts
This brought tears to my eyes. I can't believe I was there following from the first CPL's. The internet bubble was one hell of a roller coaster for us grandpa gamers.
|
I find it strange that you didn't mention DotA with a single word anywhere. It wasn't as large as CS but it is still running in Asia and has had a pretty large scene for many years now. With MYM, SK and similar companies having teams in it.
Starting somewhere around 2005 DotA has had tournaments (can't find good sources after Dota-Allstars closed down). Now a days China dominates while at the start Europe/Russia was the strongest with some decent teams in the US.
If I recall correctly it has been at a few DHs, some other European LANs, but mostly online. Then there are other large tournaments such as SMM and ESWC in recent times.
It has declined in EU/NA in favour of LoL/HoN while still staying strong in China, Malaysia, Singapore and that general area of Asia. Probably due to the low system requirements, the easy LAN modes and custom servers in those regions. A quick look at garena still shows decent activity (even though it isn't the only or even largest platform for DotA).
This could be used as a tie in with the recent surge of LoL/HoN tournaments taking the place of DotA ones and a bit more.
|
Great history lesson for everyone not knowing our roots. 
On August 01 2011 10:38 GrapeD wrote:
Good write up. Another big thing on this is the pro-gamers of the era before 1990.
Everyone should go watch movies like The King of Kong, and Chasing ghosts. It shows how games were played at the top level before player vs player games came out. It also shows how the same kind of ingenuity that we use to come up with builds was used back then. Top level gaming has evolved since then but its still the same core thing.
Pretty entertaining movies about the root origins of pro gaming
Don't think I would say that Billy Mitchell and the other arcade masters at Twin Galaxies had much to do with esport. They took world records in games in the same way people can get themselves into the Guinness book of records. They competed against the games and the clock. Esport is about playing against other players, competing with each other.
Everyone should however watch The King of Kong. It's probably my favorite documentary.
|
Great write-up, very comprehensive summary of Western esport history. There are some terms that you should clarify, such as "mibr" and "mio." I don't blame you for not going into detail on the history of how esport developed in Asia, but Sky wining his first WC3 WCG should be worth a mention since it really opened the door to mainstream China, the guy is one of the biggest reason why WC3 boomed in China and it already is the next big esport nation for sure with SC2 coming out there. Taiwan's government approved TeSL organisation and them broadcasting games on live general cable TV is also a pretty big deal, but I don't know when that first occurred since I didn't live here then.
I still remember my copy of PC Gamer mentioning Thresh winning a Ferrari, man it's been so long since then already.
|
On August 01 2011 11:16 Batch wrote:Great history lesson for everyone not knowing our roots. Show nested quote +On August 01 2011 10:38 GrapeD wrote:
Good write up. Another big thing on this is the pro-gamers of the era before 1990.
Everyone should go watch movies like The King of Kong, and Chasing ghosts. It shows how games were played at the top level before player vs player games came out. It also shows how the same kind of ingenuity that we use to come up with builds was used back then. Top level gaming has evolved since then but its still the same core thing.
Pretty entertaining movies about the root origins of pro gaming
Don't think I would say that Billy Mitchell and the other arcade masters at Twin Galaxies had much to do with esport. They took world records in games in the same way people can get themselves into the Guinness book of records. They competed against the games and the clock. Esport is about playing against other players, competing with each other. Everyone should however watch The King of Kong. It's probably my favorite documentary.
Not quite accurate.
They competed against each other. Indirectly, of course, but they definitely competed against each other in order to obtain higher scores. That was the whole point of the documentary you mentioned. Yes, they competed against a machine, but the end-goal was to get the high score, thus, bumping the previous holder down.
|
On August 01 2011 11:27 bubblegumbo wrote:
Great write-up, very comprehensive summary of Western esport history. There are some terms that you should clarify, such as "mibr" and "mio." I don't blame you for not going into detail on the history of how esport developed in Asia, but Sky wining his first WC3 WCG should be worth a mention since it really opened the door to mainstream China, the guy is one of the biggest reason why WC3 boomed in China and it already is the next big esport nation for sure with SC2 coming out there. Taiwan's government approved TeSL organisation and them broadcasting games on live general cable TV is also a pretty big deal, but I don't know when that first occurred since I didn't live here then.
I still remember my copy of PC Gamer mentioning Thresh winning a Ferrari, man it's been so long since then already.
mibr = team name (can be gained from the context, though)
and mio seems to mean million (easily gained from context)
|
Baltimore, USA22256 Posts
|
On August 01 2011 11:16 Batch wrote:Great history lesson for everyone not knowing our roots. Show nested quote +On August 01 2011 10:38 GrapeD wrote:
Good write up. Another big thing on this is the pro-gamers of the era before 1990.
Everyone should go watch movies like The King of Kong, and Chasing ghosts. It shows how games were played at the top level before player vs player games came out. It also shows how the same kind of ingenuity that we use to come up with builds was used back then. Top level gaming has evolved since then but its still the same core thing.
Pretty entertaining movies about the root origins of pro gaming
Don't think I would say that Billy Mitchell and the other arcade masters at Twin Galaxies had much to do with esport. They took world records in games in the same way people can get themselves into the Guinness book of records. They competed against the games and the clock. Esport is about playing against other players, competing with each other. Everyone should however watch The King of Kong. It's probably my favorite documentary.
They were the starting origins of competitive gaming. Maybe not in the sense of competitive gaming now but without them that base that started people competing against each other in gaming wouldn't be there (or wouldn't be the same).
|
Super happy about your post!!
I did an interview with ESFI today where I expressed my frustration that people don't bother to learn eSports history. (I hadn't seen this thread yet.)
Thank you and well done!
|
Thanks for the writeup. It's an interesting read. Very imcomplete. Missing lots of information about early SC:BW tournaments, and referring to a FPS event in 1997 as the first e-sports event seems silly. There were e-sports events before that. Even if OP is coming from the FPS centric point of view, it's still interesting.
|
epic post is epic. brings back all the good old memories of the CS days.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
