What is E-Sports?

by Han
published by Rinie Wednesday 27 May 2009

The Pinnacle Of E-Sports

E-Sports in General

Source: Wikipedia, Lowyat.net

Electronic sports, abbreviated e-sports or eSports, is used as a general term to describe the play of video games competitively. Other terms include competitive gaming, cybersports, cyber athletics (used by the CPL) and V-Sports (used by the GGL)




These games which are considered electronic sports normally belong to the first-person shooter, real-time strategy, or sports game genres. They are played competitively at both amateur and professional levels. Professional levels are played competitively at the professional league and tournament.


The Cyberathlete Professional League announced on March 13th, 2008 that they would cease tournament operations and canceled all 2008 events. The CPL cited the current fragmentation of the sport, a crowded field of competing leagues and championships, and the current economic climate as reasons for ceasing operations.


On 25 August 2008, the CPL announced that it was acquired by an investment group based in the United Arab Emirates. The investment group has stated that it plans to create a new company called "CPL, LLC" which will be located in the United Arab Emirates and will host video game tournaments around the world.


The easiest way to play an electronic sports match is over the Internet. General online play is subject to the lessened ability to detect cheating and the more unpredictable network latency not being the ideal environment for high level competition; however, due to its convenience, even players who are used to LAN games use Internet games for fun and practice.


Usually teams or clans as they are called; will need to contact each other prior to matches. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is very popular for doing this due to the ability for each clan, league, or other gaming related organisation to set up its own chat channel on the network, making them easy to find. IRC has become so popular among gamers that the largest IRC network is Quake Net, a network originally created for players of the first-person shooter Quake and now used by players of many different games. The matches are then carried out on the server according to the rules of the leagues the teams are familiar with.


The largest online gaming network on the PC is Battle.net, used to play Warcraft and StarCraft (two of the three oldest and biggest competitive games with Counter-Strike) online. It has over 12,000,000 active users with an average of 200,000 online at any given moment with peaks up to 400,000.


There are a number of titles that have a professional gaming scene. The top players can make a living playing the games on the marketing value they gain as a result. Hundreds, thousands and even millions of dollars in prize money are turned out each year for competitors in these titles.


The main medium for electronic sports coverage is the Internet. Electronic sports websites generally focus on professional tournaments and the top level amateur games, leaving the other games to be covered by the leagues themselves or smaller game-specific community websites if at all.



E-Sports in Malaysia



Unfortunately, E-sports is growing slowly in Malaysia, as the lack of sponsorships and attention is given to this industry. Also, the idea of having the ambition to become a professional gamer would sound silly to many parents, thus forcing players to play the game only part-time. The lack of tournaments and revenue also contributed to the lack of growth of E-sports.


Besides that, the lack of media coverage indirectly caused the lack of attention of the general public towards E-sports. When the newspapers report about E-Sports, they utilize at most 2-3 pages for that section. The media usually interviews highly successful gamers or make a report at major events only. Thus, the lack of coverage by the media attributed to the lack of interest of the general public towards E-Sports. If the media could pay more attention to this, there is a chance that E-Sports might grow in Malaysia.


However, for avid gamers out there, there is still hope for Malaysia. Last year, our (former) Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi took some time off his hectic schedule to meet the Kingsurf dota team and wished them luck for the up coming Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC). It is refreshing to see that a leader of that stature actually paid attention to the progression of E-Sports in Malaysia, and his words would have certainly been an inspiration to all gamers out there.

He Actually Pay Attention!

The future of E-Sports for Malaysia looks bright, with many gamers already making a name for themselves on the international scene. It can be improved if the necessary media coverage, sponsorships and public awareness are given to the local E-Sports industry.