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The esports landscape is widely controversial since many question whether it is a legitimate sport. It seems intuitive that e“sports” should be a sport, yet many countries, such as Germany, are very vocal in opposing esports being a sport. So what influences the support of Esports? And what does the landscape look like now? Among the mist, let’s take a glimpse at the growing industry. 

1978 marks the birth of esports tournaments, but, truly, it was the 2000s that gave it its spotlight. Games such as Counter Strike Global Offensive, Dota 2, and League of Legends were the trend for tournaments and were often broadcasted for the public’s viewership. This was also the era where earning money as a “gamer” became more possible, and the term “Professional Gamer” started to garner more recognition. Alongside prize pulls and the fame of championship winners, the number of companies that invest in the growth of teams started to increase, and soon, the esports scene reached a state of competitiveness never seen before. 

Naturally, just as every sport has a unique take on who is the best player of their game, the question of who is the best gamer also probes much attention. In the League of Legends scene, Lee Sang-hyeok, also known by his in-game name “Faker”, is often debated to be the best of all time. Bringing his unique game style and his wide champion pool, not only was he able to attain great success in winning championships, but he was also a fan favourite to watch, hence further growing his international fame. Similarly to Dota 2, with a large pool of champions to choose from, constant meta and patch changes and player preferences, introducing a competitive platform for all of these factors to flourish led to a rapidly growing industry. It grew so fast that the age for talents being scouted dropped significantly, and teams started to introduce their academies in hopes of finding a gem that could bring their game to the next level. 

The evolution of sports is something that can happen at different speeds, and in the case of League of Legends, it is as if it happened overnight. As the professional scene started to develop further, the limits of meta-research created specific patterns that teams started to follow, and this caused games to become more repetitive. Where champion selections are starting to become more predictable due to consistency, the audience count started to decrease as what used to be a versatile game became one that lacked differentiation. Even though players with large fan bases like Faker and renowned teams like T1 and Gen G still retain their viewership count to some extent, we see that the relevancy of esports is partially determined by the versatility it provides, which is dictated by the patches the game developers update. 

Taking a look into the dominant countries and regions for esports, Korea, China, North America, and Europe have always been the titans which produced the best results in tournaments and talents. With teams like T1, Cloud9, TSM, Team Liquid, G2 Esports, LGD gaming, and many more,  there isn’t a lack of large figures in the esports world especially since teams compete in multiple games but with different rosters. 

As we know, esports is the professional league of games, but since games can be played on different platforms, there are different types of esports. Though the most common is PC esports, we shouldn’t ignore the existence of console and mobile esports. In Malaysia, mobile esports is the most common circuit that we are involved with, and to some extent, it also restricts the viewership and attention that professional gamers receive. PCs naturally have better processing abilities compared to mobile devices, hence the games played are typically more appealing, whether it be due to the graphics, the diversity, or how smooth the games run. 

Looking at League of Legends as an example, Riot Games published a mobile version of League of Legends called Wild Rift, and in a matter of a few months, there was the establishment of a professional league for Wild Rift players. However, the game wasn’t as widely received as League was due to many comments towards the mechanics that could be displayed on a mobile device as well as its graphics to some extent. Many other games have done the same such as PUBG releasing PUBG mobile and Call of Duty releasing Call of Duty mobile, and while these games have attained a greater degree of success in the esports scene partially due to having a longer presence, if Malaysia wants to break into the esports scene and hold a stand in this competitive but rapidly growing industry, we definitely need to recognise it and support its development alongside diversifying our presence into PC esports as there are far greater possibilities in game development through a PC or console rather than a mobile device.