E-sports

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E-sport [ ˈʔiːʃpɔʁt, ˈʔiːspɔʁt ] ("electronic sport", also e-sport, e-sport, e-sports, e-sports and e-sports ) is the sporting competition with computer games . As a rule, the competition is held in the multiplayer mode of a computer game. The rules of the competition are specified by the software (computer game) and external competition regulations, such as the regulations of the competition organizer. E-sports are played on both personal computers and game consoles . The contestants are called e-athletes; There can be several disciplines per computer game . Most computer games are played either as individual sports or as team sports. In individual computer games, there are competitions at both the individual and team level.

In addition to mastering the actual computer game, players need various motor and mental abilities to be successful in competition. In terms of motor skills, hand-eye coordination and reaction speed are particularly important for the player . Spatial orientation skills, overview of the game, understanding of the game, tactical orientation, perseverance, forward-looking and lateral thinking are among the mental requirements. Only in a few countries (e.g. South Korea, USA, Brazil, China, France) is e-sports recognized as a sport by the established sports associations. The German Olympic Sports Confederation does not classify e-sports as a sport. Nevertheless, “traditional” sports clubs and teams are increasingly also hosting e-sports departments.

In e-sports, more than 780 million US dollars in prize money has been paid out to date (as of December 2019).

history

The history of esports goes back to the 1950s, when the first games such as the Nim game , the tic-tac-toe game OXO , checkers or chess were developed for computers. Tennis for Two , developed in 1958 by the American William Higinbotham , is often regarded as the first computer game to offer new possibilities beyond well-known games. The history of e-sports is closely linked to the history of video games , as the first computer games were designed for competition.

etymology

The term eSports was first used in the late 1990s . The word is a suitcase word from the adjective electronic and sport. The adjective form electronic has been used since the beginning of the 20th century and is derived from the Greek word élektron ( ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον ). Electron means amber , since electricity was first observed on this fossil resin . The word sport was borrowed from the English sport in the 19th century , which was created by Prokope from disport and borrowed from Old French .

Origins (1972-1994)

In the first worldwide popular video game Pong , which was published in 1972, it was also possible to compete against each other. In the same year took place on October 19 at the Stanford University campus in the game Spacewar! an organized competition called the Intergalactic spacewar olympics was held. The winner won an annual subscription to Rolling Stone magazine . With the use of highscore tables at the end of the 1970s, the possibility was created to record achievements in an arcade game for a longer period of time. First in arcades , later on PCs and game consoles, the players fought for a place in the leaderboard.

In 1980 Atari held a space invaders competition in the USA for three months with over 10,000 participants. On November 10, 1980, William Salvador Heineman ( now Rebecca Ann Heineman after gender reassignment ) won the tournament in New York. On February 9, 1982, Walter Day published the Twin Galaxies National Scoreboard , a highscore list that included over 100 arcade games. A year later, the US National Video Game Team was founded in the USA . It was composed of leading players from the Twin Galaxies National Scoreboard. The US National Video Game Team was the first professional video game team and toured the US in the summer of 1983. Twin Galaxies' events were partially broadcast on American television and some results made it into the Guinness Book of Records . In 1984 a world championship was also played. The American team played against teams from Italy, Japan and Great Britain, among others. In 1988, Netrek became the first video game that allowed teams to play against each other over the Internet. An early attempt to establish a national competition in Germany was the Atari VCS Bundesliga, which was founded in 1982 by Armin Stürmer on his own initiative. However, this non-professional association of clubs quickly lost its importance after Atari officially discontinued its support in 1985.

Even Nintendo hosted 1990 World Cup in the United States. The winners received golden Nintendo modules . The winner of the Nintendo World Championships 1990 , also known as Nintendo Powerfest 1990 , was Thor Aackerlund. In the mid-1990s, Blockbuster Video organized computer game world championships together with the American magazine GamePro . Players from the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Australia and Chile took part in the tournaments. In 1994 the world championships were played on the Super Nintendo and the Sega Mega Drive . Competitive games were NBA Jam , Sonic the Hedgehog 3 , Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters , ClayFighter and Virtua Racing .

Network-based e-sports (1995–1999)

Participants of the LAN party DreamHack in Sweden Jonkoping

The increasing spread of the Internet and falling hardware prices with a simultaneous increase in computer performance made it possible for more and more players to play against each other via networked computers in the LAN and on the Internet. With the advent of LAN parties in the mid-1990s, up to 2000 players competed against each other in large halls. With the proliferation of Internet connections, these local limitations were lifted and global competitions became possible.

In Europe and North America, the spread of the Internet and the resulting easier communication between computer players led to the formation of e-sports associations. The first major European esports leagues emerged at the end of the 1990s, and they often functioned across Europe from the start and were not limited to nations. The Electronic Sports League (ESL), which emerged from the German Clan League (DeCL) founded in 1997, and the ClanBase , founded in 1998, developed into the largest European e-sports leagues.

At the same time as this development, the first e-sports teams emerged, which are mostly referred to as clans in the e-sports scene . In Germany, the Ocrana team, founded in 1996, and the SK Gaming , pod virtual gaming and starComa clans, founded in 1997, are among the first clans to celebrate success over a longer period of time and some of them are still active today. In Austria, Infernum and plan-B, the first clans were also founded in 1996/97. In 1997 the first e-sports tournament organized by the American CPL took place. At the same time, Britain's most famous clan, 4Kings, was formed. The most important esports games of this time were Doom and Quake .

After the Asian crisis , broadband connections and private PCs were subsidized in South Korea . In addition, after the economic crisis, many South Koreans founded Internet cafés there , which are called PC Bang . Because of the high tariffs on game consoles , computer games were primarily played on the PC in South Korea. Therefore, at the end of the 1990s, South Korea offered a good infrastructure for network-based esports. In 1998, the real-time strategy game StarCraft was published by Blizzard Entertainment and became the most popular computer game in South Korea. In 2000, the Korean e-Sports Association was founded as a national umbrella organization in South Korea.

Outside South Korea was at this time online - tactical shooter Counter-Strike for major e-sports title. The increasing spread of the Internet led to a growing organization in e-sports and with the increasing number of players and competitions, the professionalization in e-sports increased and there was ever higher prize money.

E-sports worldwide (since 2000)

The 2004 World Cyber ​​Games auditorium in San Francisco.

The first World Cyber ​​Games (WCG) were held in Seoul in 2000 . Three years later, the players fought for the first Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) in Poitiers, France . These cup competitions have taken place annually since then. Also in 2003, at the World Cyber ​​Games , Halo was used for the first time in a game console competition. The ESWC added the first console games to its program in 2004. Both tournaments have the status of a World Cup or Olympic Games in e-sports.

Although could with the introduced in Japan in 1998 game console Dreamcast already the Internet are used, the breakthrough of online gaming with game consoles came with the launch of Xbox Live in 2002 on the Xbox from Microsoft . The game Halo 2 , released in 2004, took on a leading role there and shaped console esports for years.

The growing success of the IRC network QuakeNet also contributed to the success and spread of esports. In addition to the leagues, the teams also operated their own channels.

Ceremony at the World Cyber ​​Games 2007 in Seattle.

In 2005 the CPL World Tour was the biggest esports competition. In ten international metropolises and the finals in New York, the Painkiller discipline was played for a total of 1,000,000 US dollars . The American television station MTV broadcast the final, which was won by the American Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel . The Dutchman Sander “Vo0” Kaasjager was named Most Valuable Player of the World Tour and earned the most prize money on the tour with 252,000 US dollars.

The e-sports competition Championship Gaming Series (CGS for short) took place for the first time in 2007. The CGS used a new point system that offset points from all disciplines. With prize money of over USD 1,000,000 at the 2007 CGS World Championship and cumulative player salaries of over USD 5,000,000, the 2007 CGS was the most highly endowed tournament in esports.

As part of the 2008 Summer Olympics , the Digital Games were supposed to be an e-sports tournament of the Global Gaming League in Shanghai . The finals in China never took place. The reasons for this were not made public. A year earlier, in 2007, esports became part of the Asian Indoor Games in Macau, China , organized by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) . Medals were awarded in the three disciplines NBA Live , Need for Speed ​​and FIFA. In an earlier announcement, six competitions and the game Winning Eleven were scheduled for the Asia Indoor Games. Also at the Asian Indoor Games 2009 in Vietnam's Hanoi E-Sports was a competitive sport. With Counter-Strike, Starcraft: Broodwar and DotA Allstars , computer games that did not simulate a real sport became a discipline at the Asian Indoor Games in 2009. After merging the Asian Indoor Games and Asian Martial Art Games, e-sports became part of the Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games , which were held for the first time in Incheon , South Korea in 2013 .

Spectators at the World Cyber ​​Games 2008 in Hanover.

Over 200,000 esports-related jobs have been created in South Korea, and with over 10 million South Koreans, one in five South Koreans has played StarCraft at some point. Final games of the biggest StarCraft leagues in South Korea drew up to 100,000 spectators. In Germany, the finals of the ESL Pro Series were followed by up to 5,000 viewers on site and by over 40,000 viewers via IPTV . In Austria almost 2,000 spectators came to the finals of the ESL Pro Series. The final League of Legends World Championship 2013 was watched by over 10,000 spectators at the Staples Center in Los Angeles . The tickets were sold out within an hour. With the Dota 2 tournament The International and the Riot League of Legends World Championship, two competitions were held in 2013 with prize money of at least 2,000,000 US dollars. Since 2014, The International has received over 10 million US dollars in prize money every year. With this prize money, the tournament has since become the most highly endowed competition of its kind in e-sports. Riot, Valve's competitor in the area of multiplayer online battle arenas , organized the first international tournament with the 2014 World Championship. The group stages were held in Singapore and Taipei . While the final took place on October 19, 2014 in the Seoul World Cup Stadium in front of more than 40,000 spectators. Riot thus continues to pursue the goal of hosting e-sports tournaments in large sports arenas. In addition, the final game was shown live on ESPN3, just like The International 4 before.

There are no exact figures on the number of e-athletes worldwide. The number of e-athletes in Germany fluctuates from source to source and ranges from almost 1,500,000 to over 4,500,000 organized e-athletes. In Europe around 22,000,000 players are assigned to esports. The Global Gaming League (including the Clanbase) stated to have over 1,500,000 members. Around 1,250,000 players took part in the World Cyber ​​Games 2005 and, according to its own statistics, over 4,400,000 players are registered in the Electronic Sports League, of which over 1,900,000 are active. The organizers of the Electronic Sports World Cup assume that in 2007 over 500,000 players took part in their qualifying tournaments.

Game operation

Professional e-athletes

Professional e-athletes are often called progamers or pro-gamers (short for professional gamer, in German professional gamer ). Unlike amateur -E-athletes E-Sports is professional e-athletes professionally or acquisition of own livelihood as employment exercised. The skills ( English Skill ) of professional players raises up from the average player in the field of hand-eye coordination, game understanding, tactical understanding and team-oriented disciplines the ability to team play strongly. There is next to amateur e-athletes who similarly high performance yield and also Progamer call. Competition organizers also use this term, with the strongest classes often having words like Pro in their names. The best known example of this is the ESL Pro Series .

The winners of the Malay World Cyber ​​Games 2006 in the DotA discipline with their winner's checks.

As in other sports, professional e-athletes maintain or improve their skills through special programs and training sessions. Training camps, in which strategies are studied and trained offline, as well as competition preparations take place, are called boot camps. Many of the first generation professionals are from Korea. There are now professional e-athletes in Europe, North America and other parts of Asia.

One of the first professional e-athletes was Quakeworld and Quake II player Dennis "Tresh" Fong . He achieved his first success in 1995 at the Doom 2 tournament Deathmatch '95. His numerous prizes include a 1987 Ferrari 328 GTS from John Carmack . The best-known progamers from the very beginning are StarCraft player Lim Yo-hwan from South Korea and Quake player Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel from the USA , both of whom had their international breakthroughs in 1999. When Lim-Yo-Hwan was active, it had an Internet fan club with over 600,000 members. The Dutch painkiller player Sander "Vo0" Kaasjager earned prize money worth almost 250,000 US dollars in 2005 alone. In various tournaments in 2005, e-athletes competed for prize money of over 5,000,000 US dollars. Top players in South Korea earn up to $ 230,000 annually. The Spanish e-athlete Carlos “ocelote” Rodríguez stated in an interview with the Spanish ABC that he earned between 600,000 and 700,000 euros in 2013 through salary, merchandising, prize money, advertising contracts and streaming.

As in other sports, there is commercialization in esports . Sponsorship and advertising are important sources of finance in esports. In addition to companies with a technical background, there are mainly advertising companies that already sponsor traditional sports. Professional e-athletes often receive a monthly salary from their clan. In addition, there are prize money and donations from sponsorship contracts, which are also the main sources of income for the players. There are e-athletes who appear in advertising campaigns and advertise products as testimonials . In e-sports, promises to pay salaries or tournament prize money that are not kept are still common.

Women are underrepresented in esports and have often been exposed to sexism in the past . There are also e-athletes with disabilities who practice the sport professionally. The Korean Seung Hyun Park, who played under the name Space WarCraft III, was able to win competitions against players without disabilities despite illness from muscular dystrophy .

Teams

Organized teams and clubs are traditionally called clans in esports . The term comes from the computer game Quake, in which player associations could officially register as a clan. Over time it has established itself as the name for associations of computer players. In the case of MMORPGs , the terms guild , alliance and alliance have established themselves . Much of the clan is legally seen a collection of individual persons , but there are clans that as a club , to persons or corporation firmieren. According to the German eSport Association, there are around 40,000 clans in Germany in 2005. There are now also traditional sports clubs that host e-sports teams. In Germany, these include 1. FC Nuremberg , Bayer 04 Leverkusen , FC Schalke 04 , Hertha BSC , RB Leipzig , Werder Bremen , VfB Stuttgart , Borussia Mönchengladbach , Eintracht Frankfurt and VfL Wolfsburg from the Bundesliga , from the 2. Bundesliga of SV Wehen Wiesbaden , VfL Bochum , Hamburger SV , SV Sandhausen , 1. FC Köln , SV Darmstadt 98 , Holstein Kiel and FC Ingolstadt 04 also SV Waldhof Mannheim from the Regionalliga Südwest (as of early December 2018). International examples are Galatasaray Istanbul , FC Valencia , Manchester City , Sporting Lisbon , FC Santos , PSV Eindhoven , Ajax Amsterdam or FC St. Gallen .

E-sports as a popular sport

Since the mid-2010s, more and more popular sports clubs have been founded in Germany. The tasks of such associations are above all to provide information on the subject of e-sports, youth work, addiction prevention, imparting media skills, political lobbying at local and regional level and the function of socializing their own members in the form of club houses. In addition, the club members take part in competitions, organize their own events and organize LAN parties.

Examples of such clubs are Dortmund eSports eV, eSports Nord eV, Magdeburg eSports eV or Leipzig eSports eV The latter was recognized as non-profit in December 2017 through youth work as the first e-sports association in Germany.

Disciplines

In esports, the most popular computer game genres are real-time strategy games , first-person shooters and sports simulations . In these genres there are individual computer games that are played against each other professionally and in sporting competition. Most professional e-athletes stick with one computer game or one genre. The degree of professionalism of the individual disciplines is mostly dependent on the number of active players, the support of computer game manufacturers, sponsors and competition organizers. The most popular computer games in esports as of January 2014 are Counter-Strike: Global Offensive , Dota 2 , League of Legends and StarCraft II . Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2 and League of Legends are mostly played in teams and in a 5v5 mode. StarCraft II is primarily practiced as an individual sport. Due to technological progress and computer games that are constantly being adapted, disciplines in e-sports are subject to high dynamics.

equipment

E-sports cannot be practiced without equipment. The basic requirement is a computer or game console that is compatible with the respective computer game. In the case of computers in particular, professionals usually use very powerful computers so that the game can be played in the best possible way. In addition to a high data transmission rate, a low packet cycle time is important for Internet access . There are also special peripheral devices that are used depending on the game genre. For e-athletes, there are powerful computer mice , keyboards , headsets or gamepads that are designed for long-term heavy use. There are additional aids for mice such as mouse bungee , mouse skatez or special gaming mouse pads that improve the accuracy of the mouse movement. Companies such as Fanatec, Schenker Technologies, Speed-Link Raptor Gaming or Razer have specialized in the field of e-sports . On the software side, communication tools such as TeamSpeak are used.

training

The training is based on the special requirements of the games. It is trained both online and offline. Training camps that take place offline are known as boot camps in esports . In offline training of teams, tactics for an upcoming competition in particular are trained and perfected. In most cases, a player in the role of team captain also takes on the role of coach. There is currently no specific trainer training in e-sports. Nevertheless, there are a few trainers in professional teams. In individual disciplines that are played in a duel between two players, the players often look for permanent training partners in order to develop strategies and tactics.

The training structures are underdeveloped compared to other sports. A study by Dr. Jörg Müller-Lietzkow showed in 2006 that only 50% of e-athletes practice compensation sport. The Alternate Attax team was the first German team to run its own training facility and enable its players to play indoor football or badminton on the site to compensate.

Clan wars

The direct competition between two teams in e-sports is traditionally referred to as a clan war. In the course of the professionalization of e-sports, the less martial term match is used more and more. A clan war can take place either online over the internet or offline during a LAN party. Depending on the computer, a connection between the opponents is made possible by a game server or by hosting a competitor. A distinction is made between clanwars in league operations and so-called funwar (also friendly war), which correspond to a friendly game . The abbreviations CW (for a clan war that is included in the rating of a league) and FW (fun war) are common.

Competition organizer

Due to the lack of a globally or nationally recognized umbrella organization, players and teams compete in leagues and tournaments from various organizers. These can overlap in time. This can result in a player participating in multiple tournaments and leagues during one season. The Electronic Sports League (ESL) is the largest league of its kind with over 1.9 million active players and over half a million teams. Various ladder, leagues and tournaments are offered within the ESL. The ESL Pro Series is considered the e-sports Bundesliga in Germany . The best-known esports leagues for console players are the PlayStation LIGA , the Consoles Sport League and the EXG - European Xtreme Gamers . In addition to independent leagues, the manufacturers or publishers of computer games often act as competition organizers for their own disciplines.

A ladder (borrowed from English for “ ladder ”) is a ranking list in esports that, like chess, is usually determined according to the Elo system . Even in the early days of network-based esports, ladder systems were used, among other things, in the ClanBase to identify the best Quake II players. A ladder is often used to qualify for professional leagues and tournaments. Tournaments in e-sports are mostly played in the double-elimination system . In some cases, the knockout system and combinations of the knockout system and round-robin tournament are also used. International tournaments usually have more prestige and prize money than their league counterparts. The best known esports tournaments are the World Cyber ​​Games . Due to the lack of an e-sports world association, there are no official world championships and there are several competition organizers who refer to their tournament as the world championship. During the time when the German eSport Association existed, the winners of the ESL Pro Series were recognized as German champions by the association. The winners of the ESL Pro Series Alps (Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein) are called Alpine Champions .

Amounted to

Cheating within a computer game is known as cheating . Cheating involves manipulating configurations, using hidden commands from game developers or using additional programs to gain an advantage. If a cheater is found guilty of penalties or direct expulsion from the league or tournament. The game developers are working on a variety of means to prevent competitive cheating. For example, the server administrator can disable cheats using an option or command. This only protects against cheats built into the program. Independent programs such as ESL Wire , PunkBuster , or Valve Anti-Cheat try to prevent cheating and make it detectable in the event of cheating.

In addition, there are cases of fraud outside of the games. One form is so-called account sharing, in which players can be represented by other e-athletes in online tournaments. As in other sports, there is match-fixing in esports. In a betting scandal , eleven StarCraft players were banned from the Korean e-Sports Association after they were accused of gaining the desired outcomes (previously bet on) by disclosing internal information and deliberately losing games.

Another betting scandal became known in early 2014. Manager Noh Dae Chul forced his League of Legends team to lose in order to bet against them and use the winnings to cover his debts. The player Cheon "Promise" Min-ki survived a suicide attempt, seriously injured. He wrote a suicide note on the Korean website Inven, through which the fraud case was exposed. He was apparently depressed because of family problems and wanted to put an end to his life because of the forcibly ended career.

Both video game publishers, associations and organizations demand and promote fair play in esports. Professional e-athletes are encouraged to behave ethically and to adhere to the rules of competitions, associations and teams at all times, as well as to show fairness . It is common practice and is regarded as good etiquette if, after a defeat, gg (for good game, English for good game) is written by the loser and the winner.

In July 2015, the Canadian CS: GO player Kory "Semphis" Friesen confessed to having consumed the amphetamine Adderall during ESL One Katowice 2015 and suspected other players of substance abuse. The Electronic Sports League then announced, in cooperation with the National Anti-Doping Agency, to carry out random doping tests at ESL One Cologne 2015 for the first time .

With the International e-Sport Federation, an e-sport association is a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency .

In the meantime, cases of fraud in e-sports also have an impact on real racing careers. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic , the FIA Formula E Championship was also interrupted in March 2020 and a virtual eSports competition was started to bridge the gap . In the fifth race, the racing driver Daniel Abt was not at the wheel himself, but instead had the Austrian eSports professional Lorenz Hörzing drive in his place. The deception was noticed and all previous points were denied by the Formula E organizer. In addition, Abt had to donate 10,000 euros to a charity. Shortly afterwards, Abt was suspended by Audi Sport with immediate effect.

E-sports as the basis for real activities

Since 2008 the GT Academy has hosted a combination of esports tournaments and racing driver school, and by 2014 more than 5 million participants had taken part in the GT Academy via their PlayStation , and 16 participants had started an international motorsport career.

The program consists of four different phases. Phase one is only completed virtually on PlayStations, the participants compete  against each other as players in the  Gran Turismo racing simulation . Phase two is then supplemented by practical exercises. In the Race Camp, the focus is on training. Phase four consists of the driver development program, with qualification for a driver license and entry into real motorsport.

Research on esports

Due to the increasing relevance of e-sports in society, research on e-sports has been accelerated in Germany for several years. The research center for eSports law was founded at the law faculty of the University of Augsburg in 2019. At the University of Applied Management in Ismaning it is possible to acquire a Bachelor of Arts in eSports Management . Other universities offer modules and research work. The European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) offers the module E-Sports: Economics & Management as part of the master’s program in International Business Administration . With Esportionary , Germany's first think tank was founded in 2019 that deals exclusively with e-sports. The esportwissen.de project was launched at the renowned German Sport University Cologne in cooperation with the AOK Rheinland / Hamburg, among others , in order to be able to work more intensively in the research field of e-sports.

In addition, more and more study, bachelor and master theses as well as dissertations are being written at German universities on the subject of e-sports.

Associations and Organizations

With the increasing popularity and professionalization of e-sports, national and international associations and organizations were founded with the aim of promoting e-sports in a variety of ways. The first national e-sports association is the Korean e-Sports Association (short: KeSPA), which was founded in 2000. The KeSPA is an official member organization of the Korean Olympic Committee . In Germany, the German eSport Association (DeSpV for short) was established at the end of 2003 and the Deutsche eSport Verband e. V. (short: DeSV). The two associations merged on December 11, 2004 to form the German eSport Association (ESB for short) . One of the goals of the ESB was the recognition of e-sport as a sport by joining the German Sports Federation , which on May 20, 2006 merged with the National Olympic Committee for Germany to form the German Olympic Sports Federation (DOSB). The association has been inactive since 2011, so as of January 2014 there is no German e-sports association. With the establishment of the eSport Bund Deutschland in November 2017, a new attempt was made to establish an umbrella association for eSports in Germany. In January 2020, the eSports Player Foundation was established, which will act as a counterpart to Deutsche Sporthilfe in e-sports. In Austria, the eSport Association Austria (esvö for short) was founded at the end of 2007 . Its aim is to promote the coordination, promotion, dissemination, representation and further development of e-sports and the people involved in it. Esvö is funded by the Federal Ministry for Health, Family and Youth .

On August 11, 2008, the International eSport Federation (IeSF for short) was founded during the eSports Symposium 2008 in Seoul . The founding members are the national esports federations of Belgium (Belgian Electronic Sports Federation) , Denmark (eSport Danmark) , Germany (Deutscher eSport-Bund) , Netherlands (Nederlandse Electronic Sport Bond) , Austria ( eSport Verband Österreich ) , Switzerland (Swiss E-Sports Federation) , South Korea ( Korea e-Sports Association ) , Taiwan (Taiwan eSports League) and Vietnam (e.Sports Vietnam) . As of January 2018, the IeSF has 46 member nations. In 2013, the International eSport Federation joined the World Antidoping Agency WADA and had the goal of joining the Sportaccord from 2014 . This goal was not achieved at the SportAccord Convention 2014 in Belek. It was announced to aim for membership in 2015. The intention was repeated on April 15, 2016. On April 23, 2014, the IeSF became an official member of the Trim and Fitness International Sport for All Association . On April 21, 2015, the International Association of Athletics Federations announced a partnership with the IeSF as part of the social program Athletics for a Better World . On April 15, 2016, the IeSF announced that it was seeking recognition from the International Olympic Committee and had submitted a corresponding application on February 19. A first assessment is to take place in December 2016.

In April 2019, a European e-sports association was announced with the Berlin Declaration .

Media and public

E-sports are portrayed both negatively and positively in public. Politicians and the media often use the negative connotation term killer game for the first-person shooter often played in esports . This suggests that e-sports are primarily about dealing with virtual weapons or killing virtual opponents, rather than the sporting competition. In connection with esports, the media also frequently report on the possible and actual negative consequences of excessive computer games and internet addiction. At the same time, all the major print and TV media reported positively on the performance of German e-athletes. Increasing acceptance of e-sports in the media is evident in an article in Spiegel Online in 2006 , in which Counter-Strike was described as a popular sport .

reporting

Recording of screen-shot - the eSport Bundesliga for DSF

In the US there was with Starcade (1982-1983 on WTBS), in the UK with Games Master (1992-1998 on Channel 4 ) and Australia with A * mazing (1994-1998 in the Seven Network ) television broadcasts , where the competition with computer games was in focus. On July 20, 1986 published Japan the film Takahashi Meijin vs.: Game King Mori-Meijin in which Toshiyuki Takahashi and Kiminobu Moori compete in the Shoot 'em up Star Soldier .

Most of the coverage of e-sports takes place online. In addition to the websites of the clans and players, independent journalistic offers have emerged. Readmore and Fragster are the largest e-sports news sites in German-speaking countries until 2014 . Fragster closed in 2014. In English-speaking countries this position is taken by esportsheaven , in Sweden by rakaka and fragbite . These websites report on a daily basis about events and tournaments in esports. Computer games in esports often have a spectator mode that interested parties can use to watch the players compete.

On March 15, 2007, the English-language magazine eSports, which only deals with e-sports topics , was published for the first time in the USA . After only one issue, the magazine was discontinued. Half a year later the magazine Pro Gam3r appeared for the first time on the occasion of QuakeCon 2007, but it was discontinued after three publications.

With GIGA eSports there was a television program in Germany that reported on current e-sports events and developments on Saturdays and Sundays. In addition, GIGA eSports broadcast the iFNG (Intel Friday Night Game) of the Electronic Sports League on Fridays. With GIGA 2 there was also an IPTV channel that was mainly dedicated to e-sports. On November 16, 2007, all GIGA 2 services were discontinued. Shortly thereafter, the ESL TV project was launched again. Occasionally other e-sports events in the international language area are broadcast. At times, the World League eSport games were broadcast on German sports television in the program screen-shot - the eSport Bundesliga . Starting in October 2008, the virtual soccer Bundesliga pairings were broadcast live on bwin.com via video stream. Since 2011, programs with exclusive e-sports content have also been shown on the public television channels on ZDFkultur and EinsPlus . In the shows FTW - For The Win! (ZDFkultur) and Germany's best gamers (EinsPlus) were broadcasted games from the Electronic Sports League Pro Series. Another provider of e-sports broadcasts is GameSports, which has offered several audio streams every day since 2003. Video streams are offered for larger events. With the streaming provider Twitch , advertising-financed e-sports events can be followed. The games of individual e-athletes are followed by over 10,000 viewers simultaneously and part of the advertising income from the streams goes to the e-athletes, so that they are a relevant source of income. On average, 45 million people watched a total of 12 billion minutes of game broadcast on Twitch each month in 2013, the majority of which can be traced back to esports.

The American Major League Gaming has announced that 85% of its viewers are male and 60% of viewers are between 18 and 34 years old. TV coverage was a big part of the success of esports in South Korea. Orion Network Media (ON Media), which belongs to the CJ Group, broadcast Prediction 98 Cyber ​​France World Cup on the Tooniverse television channel for the first time in FIFA 98 in 1997 . In South Korea there are three television channels with GOMTV , OnGameNet , MBCGame and GameTV that report exclusively on video games and e-sports. Successful players enjoy a similar status in South Korea as pop stars . In the USA, the now discontinued Championship Gaming Series was broadcast by the American television station DirecTV . In the target group of men between 18 and 24 years of age, more viewers in the United States watch the final of the Major League Gaming Championship than the Rose Bowl . In Japan, the program eSportsMaX ( Japanese e ス ポ ー ツ MaX ) has been broadcast weekly on the Tokyo MX television channel since April 2014 .

In 2015 the documentary All Work All Play: The Pursuit of eSports Glory was dedicated to the everyday life of the players, the photo art project Teen Spirit by Joscha Steffens shows portraits of eSports players.

In May 2018, Timo Schöber's Screen Athletes was the first comprehensive non-fiction book on e-sports in German-speaking countries.

Recognition as a sport

Due to certain rules and the distinction between different disciplines, e-sports have typical characteristics of a sport . E-sports are mostly categorized as brain teasers. In contrast to other sports with sports equipment , players in e-sports are often subject to a license to use the respective computer game.

Situation in Germany

E-sports are not recognized as a sport by the German Olympic Sports Confederation . In the ZDF sports report from August 14, 2011, previous reasons against recognition are given with reference to the self-motor activity of a sport:

"Under the validity of the current statute regulation, I see no perspective for the e-sports association, if it were also non-profit, that is another reason that has hitherto opposed the admission to become a member of the DOSB."

- Herrmann Latz, legal advisor of the German Olympic Sports Confederation

Harald Pieper, former head of the press department of the German Sports Confederation (DSB) and the successor organizations of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) justified non-recognition from the statutes of the DSB. As a prerequisite for the recognition of a sport, the DOSB has stipulated in its admission regulations that its goal and end in itself must be "a separate, sport-determining motor activity". Such self-motor performance is lacking, as is the case with brain games, in e-sports. This is also the case with chess , which however enjoys a special status. Its organization in the DSB is, due to the founding membership of the German Chess Federation, a "historical exception".

In autumn 2018, the DOSB divided e-sport into eGaming / virtual sports (e.g. Counter-Strike ) and sports simulations (e.g. FIFA ). In 2019, the DOSB commissioned a legal opinion from a former Federal Fiscal Court judge that states in 120 pages that e-sports are not sports due to the lack of physical activity from the point of view of long-standing jurisdiction . The President of the eSport Bund Deutschland, Hans Jagnow, criticized the report because, after the decision, some precision sports and intellectual sports in the DOSB, which are defined by the type and not the extent of the movement, would also not be permitted, but may remain because they one enjoy historical special status. He sees this as a violation of the principle of equality . By not being recognized as a sport, the charitable status of clubs is not recognized and no special funding or tax reductions can be awarded. Also, no special entry requirements and residence permits for e-athletes can be issued. The athletic coach of the German national soccer team Yann-Benjamin Kugel , who also looks after the e-athletes of 1. FC Köln ( SK Gaming ) of the virtual Bundesliga , said that you only have to look at the load profiles and heart rate to see that the body cooperates. According to him, there is no other sport that demands such a quick reaction time as e-sports. The football clubs Schalke 04 and VfL Bochum have their own e-sports department.

Even at the Federal Institute for Sports Science , e-sports are not viewed as sports. Sports scientist Carmen Borggrefe points out that criteria such as increased heartbeat, high coordination requirements, ability to react or the amount of training required and the existence of competitions would also apply to other areas of society such as music. In all sports, on the other hand, it is about the communication of physical performance, in e-sports this is not the case.

According to e-sports representatives, the fact that e-sports is not recognized in Germany is partly due to the low level of technology acceptance in Europe, but also to the negative perception of computer games described in the section above. In addition, the description of this sport is not easy, since, according to specialist literature, sport cannot be clearly or precisely delimited. It is a slang term used worldwide. For example, many people understand sport as sweat-inducing physical exercise that is not available in e-sports. In a report requested by the Pirate Party Berlin on the requirements and effects of the recognition of eSport as a sport, the Scientific Parliamentary Service of the Berlin House of Representatives came to the conclusion that eSport [...] should not be considered a sport in the legal sense under the current legal situation and therefore not a sport is recognizable . In the 2017 federal election campaign, the FDP demanded that e-sports be recognized as a sport. In the 2018 coalition agreement of the SPD , CDU and CSU, the parties are calling for e-sports to be recognized as a sport in Germany. Later, however, they referred to the autonomy of associations such as the DOSB in recognition.

In October 2018, the German Motor Sport Federation , as one of the first associations organized in the German Olympic Sports Confederation , recognized SimRacing as a motor sport discipline.

In August 2019, the DOSB published a legal opinion commissioned by it, which does not regard e-sports as sport from a legal perspective. E-sports organizations, politics and science questioned the objectivity and the scientific nature of the report, in some cases massively:

In a position paper in June 2020, the CDU / CSU parliamentary group announced that it would want e-sports to be included in the tax code. This was limited to sports simulations. This approach was criticized, among other things, because e-sport as a whole was not recognized and the position of the DOSB had also been taken over.

International location

In Asia , esports is viewed as a sport in many countries. The first European country to recognize esports as a state sport is Bulgaria. In Brazil, esports is also recognized by the government. Overall, esports is recognized by established organized sports associations in over 60 nations and is partially funded by the state. On April 17, 2007, the American team CompLexity announced that the United States government had recognized e-sports as a sport as part of an application for a visa for their Swedish player Marcus Sundström . There are state-recognized e-sports in the Netherlands (Nederlandse Electronic Sport Bond) , South Korea (Korea e-Sports Association) , Sweden (Swedish E-Sport Association) , Bulgaria (Bulgarian Federation for Electronic Sports) and Great Britain (UK Electronic Gaming Initiative) Associations. In China, esports has been recognized by the All China Sports Federation (ACSF) and the China Olympic Committee (COC) since November 28, 2003 . In 2013, the Canadian League of Legends player Danny “Shiphtur” Le was the first e-athlete to receive an athlete's visa in the USA . The aim of the international eSport Federation, the International eSport Federation, is recognition as a sport.

Social interest and economy

The prize money increased from $ 3.25 million in 2010 to $ 121.1 million in 2017. [67] Of the 16- to 24-year-olds in a survey in Germany in 2017, 56% said they knew e-sports. For 25 to 34 year olds it was 55%, for 35 to 44 year olds 39%, for 45 to 54 year olds 23% and for older 11%. [68] Most fans are between the ages of 21–35, with a share of 48%. 10 to 20 year olds make up 23% of the fans and 36 to 50 year olds 25%. [69]

In 2018, 37% of people surveyed said they knew what esports is in a survey. In addition, 28% have heard of esports before.

See also

Portal: E-Sports  - Overview of Wikipedia content on the subject of E-Sports
Commons : esports  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: e-sport  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

literature

  • Simon Kerzel (Hrsg.): E-Sport - Perspectives from Science and Economy. W. Hülsbusch, Glückstadt 2012, ISBN 978-3-86488-026-1 .
  • Malte von Below: Usage research eSports - motives for the professional use of video and computer games. VDM, Saarbrücken 2008, ISBN 3-8364-6261-3 .
  • René Meyer , Sven Letzel: Multiplayer Games. X-Games, Haar near Munich 1996, ISBN 978-3-8272-9004-5 .
  • TL Taylor: Raising the Stakes: E-Sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming. MIT Press, Cambridge 2012, ISBN 978-0-262-01737-4 .
  • Timo Schöber: Screen Athletes: The Phenomenon e-Sports , BoD, Norderstedt 2018, ISBN 978-3752830774
  • Timo Schöber, Jens Junge (Ed.): ESports Mosaic: Introduction to the diverse aspects of eSports , Flying Kiwi, Dollerup 2020, ISBN 978-3940989390

Web links

Individual evidence

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