Al Jazeera International, one of the largest growing premiere news outlets, just released a story on the growth of eSports. They cover a number of games but make a special mention of DOTA 2 and StarCraft 2, including reference to a documentary called "The Hax Life."
In the documentary "The Hax Life", a film that revolves around Starcraft players in Korea, a player describes how each pro-gamer must execute up to hundreds of actions per minute (APM) on the keyboard and mouse to win a game. "[APM] is an average rate on how quick your fingers move. It is a rate that shows how quick you can draw your picture in the game with a keyboard and mouse. To win a championship, it should be at least over 200, or in the lower 300s," he said.
ESports players are beginning to get the same legal footing as other professional athletes as well. The US issues the same visa to pro-gamers as they do to players of other professional sports. South Korean Starcraft player Kim Dong-hwan was given a five-year P-1A visa to play in the US. Canadian LoL gamer Danny Le managed to attain the same visa. Even a university in Illinois offers athletic scholarships to gamers.
On July 29 2014 23:13 Ovid wrote: The network with reporters being held because of links with terrorists in egypt has recognised us!
Don't be hating on AJE. Unless you're really taking the claims of the Egyptian court system at face value
Anyway, it's pretty interesting, and a bit sad, how the e-sports spotlight has shifted over the past few years. I still remember this Economist article back in 2011 that hyped up SC2 like crazy
It is nice, but it has has nothing to do with "scoring professional status". Professional status is a registered sports organisation with all documents approved by country goverment. Like KeSpa does for example.
Ran across the article today. Best-written "here's what esports are" article I've read yet. Especially in explaining the money side of things. Then again, it is AJE.
On July 30 2014 02:23 FlowOfIdeas wrote: Al Jazeera..well at least terrorists are recognizing esports.
User was temp banned for this post.
They show Al jazeera on alot of middle eastern food places in Europe. Its just an arabic news outlet.
This reminds me of a picture of a guy sporting a turban at gsl :D Alot of the arabic people i know are very competitive - makes sense they show some interest.
This is cool news, I always considered Al Jazeera as a trustworthy and important news channel. In the Netherlands they also tried to promote e-sports, in some important shows around here, but they always felt a bit awkward.
To everyone who's mentioning the legitimacy of AJE: you must not know a damn thing about the media or how the world works... Please open your eyes and see how this actually is helpful, regardless of what political feelings you have to share.
Meh. This isn't the first time, these stories pop up sporadically every few month or so in newspapers/tv. I don't think we need mainstream acceptance or anything like that for ESPORTS.
On July 30 2014 08:47 StarStruck wrote: It changes nothing in reality. You would need stories like this running everywhere to actually gain anything.
Nah man, you're wrong. This article automatically puts SC2 into super star status. All players will soon sign multi million dollar contracts and the World Cup is going to replace soccer for SC2.
The CBC here in Canada ran a few news stories about E-sports around the time of TI4. My ears certainly perked up a little bit on my drive to work when I heard them talking about Twitch, Dota 2, and Esports on the radio. The prize money of TI4 alone is enough to grab some attention, but they went in depth to talk about streamers and how you can make a living of playing games or being an "e-sport personality."
Meh. This isn't the first time, these stories pop up sporadically every few month or so in newspapers/tv. I don't think we need mainstream acceptance or anything like that for ESPORTS.
Like Fmod was saying here, this isn't the first time I've seen/heard these types of stories in the main stream media. But they do seem to be appearing more frequently. Certainly doesn't hurt the scene any.
On July 30 2014 08:47 StarStruck wrote: It changes nothing in reality. You would need stories like this running everywhere to actually gain anything.
Nah man, you're wrong. This article automatically puts SC2 into super star status. All players will soon sign multi million dollar contracts and the World Cup is going to replace soccer for SC2.
SC1 and SC2 are full of professionals wether anyone writes about it or not. There are thousands of us who believe and live it every day. That being said, exposure is always nice.
I don't think that this article makes eSports professional. The people that work for hours every day to give thousands of people constant content, on the other hand, definitely do. Nevertheless, good article although I think it missed a few important points which have been mostly pointed out in this thread.
EPT
