20 years ago, competitive gaming for many was trying to beat that one other high score on Space Invaders in your local arcade or tense Quake LAN parties with your mates. Today, competitive gaming is a booming industry valued at nearly $1bn by the end of this year, and set to nearly double that by 2021.

With the rise of technology and growth of video gaming as a whole, this statistic is no surprise. We’ve all watched as games went from coin-fed arcade cabinets to 100+ hour RPGs being played on a Nintendo Switch on a plane, but this has been a gradual and well-anticipated progression. What wasn’t anticipated by many, especially those less familiar with gaming, was the rise in broadcast eSports tournaments, capped off most recently with this weekend’s Overwatch League Grand Finals on prime-time ESPN. Continue reading “Do eSports Belong on Mainstream Sports TV?” →