How to Watch eSports- Part 1: Why Watch eSports?

In my past couple of posts, I've been talking about League of Legends, not just as a game, but as a spectator sport. In my case, I don't have to many friends who watch the game regularly (two or three, at the upper end). There are very few people that I can talk to about the general tactics and strategies of the game and even fewer with whom I can discuss particular players or teams.

For me, this is a problem. I want everybody to enjoy League of Legends, or at the least, appreciate what it has done, and what it can do. If they can't do that, I want them to be able to say what drives them away so I can take that information, and factor it into the next scheme so as to drag in more fans.

Now, I enjoy watching League because it offers the complexity of the decisions that playing the game does without the stress or harassment that might afflict a player. The complexity and pace of League make most real sports boring, in baseball or football, action is much slower. In basketball or soccer, there are many fewer pieces of information to track.

Not only do the mental hoops that I have to jump through entertain me, but I also learn from watching pros play. I play the same game they do, I play on the same map with the same options. And while they can have faster reflexes than me, since a large part of the game is tactical decision making, I can make more informed decisions, and I can reason out where I misplayed and where I played properly.

But eSports doesn't have to be about learning tactics. It can just be pure entertainment, it can be a distraction, it can be relaxing. eSports are just the same as a normal sport, but have the stigma of video games attached to them.

As I mentioned before, the biggest problem with eSports (and League near the lead among them) is the sheer amount of complexity in the game. If you don't know what the characters do, it is a lot harder to follow the combat and the relative outcomes.

Of course, the upside to that downside is that once you get past that barrier of understanding, the game becomes very fascinating. While most professional sports teams don't switch players regularly, nearly every single game of League will have a new roster of champions duking it out, so while the players behind the screen are the same, the in game strategies and tactics will always vary, at least by a small amount every time the loading screen comes up.

That means that all I need to do is build stairs that lead up the barrier so that new players, or even non-players can understand a high-level game and have an understanding of what is happening on Summoner's Rift.