Last weekend ESPN 2 ran the final showdown between Arizona State and UC Berkeley of a collegiate video game tournament called Heroes of the Dorm, a college tournament featuring teams competing in Blizzard’s upcoming MOBA style game: Heroes of the Storm.
Heroes of the Storm belongs to a burgeoning genre known as MOBA (Multi-player Battle Arena) which features mega-popular titles such as: DOTA and League of Legends. I had never heard of Heroes of the Storm before, nor do I have much experience with MOBA style games, so I was intrigued about the prospects of such an event being held on national television. So armed with the desire to see the scope of gaming expand to new heights, as well as a couple of strong drinks in my system, me and my buddy Sean (who is much more familiar with this genre than I) tuned in to watch this virtual match.
Is Heroes of the Storm, or MOBA games in general, the correct gateway to the wide world of e-sports?
It didn’t take too long for a harsh reality to set in for us. Even though the production was top-notch and the commentator team was enthusiastic and very knowledgeable about the game, watching Heroes of the Dorm was kind of boring and therefore it wasn’t long till we went back to playing Street Fighter.
To be fair, reactions to the Heroes of the Storm finals were generally positive, although there were quite a few comments on Twitter along the lines of what the hell is going on on ESPN2? One intrepid person even vowed that they would leave the country if highlights from the game managed to make it onto any top ten plays of the day lists on ESPN. Perhaps the most negative reaction came from ESPN Radio host Colin Cowherd, who declared:
“Here’s what’s going to get me off the air. If I am ever forced to cover guys playing video games, I will retire and move to a rural fishing village and sell bait. You want me out? Demand video game tournaments on ESPN because that’s what appeared on ESPN2 yesterday.”
Perhaps the retirement of Cowherd is not far from the horizon considering Twitch.tv, by far the most popular online home for watching people playing games, was purchased by Amazon late last year for close to $1 billion. So it is clear that there is a market out there that wants to watch videogames being played, but is the general public ready for e-sports on a wider scale?
This is a screen from League of Legends. Honestly, does it look much different than the screen above from Heroes of the Storm?
While I think it’s very exciting to see a video game receive coverage on a national television channel, I have to wonder if is the right choice to introduce competitive gaming to a new audience.
The problem with broadcasting a game like Heroes of the Storm to a wider, non-traditional gaming audience is that the non-traditional gaming audience doesn’t immediately “get it”. A game like Heroes of the Storm, as fun and as high-quality a game as it may be, (and I freely admit that I have never played the game) is that it has a high learning curve, not only to learn how to play, but to watch and understand what it is that you’re seeing as well. Showing a game like Heroes of the Storm on television is simply not a good way to introduce e-sports to a wider audience. Quite frankly, I thought watching Heroes of the Storm on t.v. was kind of boring, namely because a game like that requires at least an intimate knowledge of the fundamentals of the MOBA genre to truly appreciate the action they are viewing.
Anyone can have a basic understanding of the action of a regular sport. For example, the scoring objective of football at its most basic can be understood to be a person carries a ball over a line and people celebrate. The viewer learns quickly that ball over line is good and then continues to watch in hopes of seeing the ball cross over the line repeatedly. Watching a regular sport is a user-friendly experience because it does not require an intricate knowledge of every rule of the sport in order to receive some enjoyment from their viewing experience. In order to have e-sports be accepted by a wider audience we need to find a game or a genre that has a similar learning curve.
So what then, would be the best way to bring competitive world of e-sports to the masses?
May I submit for your consideration; fighting games.
Even though there are vastly more people playing and watching live-streams of MOBA’s like Heroes of the Storm, I believe that the fighting game genre has to be the best candidate for e-sports to gain the attention of the general public because it takes less of a time investment from the viewer to gain enjoyment of the viewing experience.
It doesn’t take an understanding of the technicalities of fighting games to appreciate a good ol’ fashioned sock in the jaw.
Since fighting games naturally share some the fundamentals that I previously outlined for regular sports, I believe that the fighting game genre would be much easier for a novice viewer to watch, and become emotionally invested in the action. Just as someone who has never watched soccer before can grasp the idea of putting a ball into a net to score, the novice e-sports viewer should certainly be able to grasp the idea of one character in a fighting game defeating his opponent. And just as the novice soccer viewer doesn’t need to have an extensive knowledge of the technicalities of the sport in order to garner some enjoyment, the technicalities of a fighting game, such as frame data, or terms like “footsies” don’t have to be fully understood to enjoy viewing the competition. Plus, martial arts speak in the universally understood language of punches and kicks, which is something that games like Heroes of the Storm or League of Legends can’t immediately match.
Fighting games also have a fantastic community surrounding them. Shoryuken.com has been the undisputed leader in fostering the growing popularity of fighting games, as well as keeping the fires of competition lit during genre’s dark days prior to its revival following the release of Street Fighter IV. The site showcases a number of different events around the country with knowledgeable commentary teams that do a good job of explaining what is happening on-screen. They even broadcast Level Up’s Wednesday Night Fights, a weekly show called which feature different games being played competitively by high level players.
Finally, fighting games have their own equivalent of a Super Bowl each July in Las Vegas called Evolution, which features world championship tournaments across a wide variety of titles. Thousands of fans from all over the world fly to Las Vegas each year, not just to compete, but to watch and be a part of the experience. They aren’t tied together because of a school or bonds like that. Instead, they arrive at Evolution each year to share their love and excitement for fighting games. That passion carries through to those of us who can’t be there and watch the event live each year. Evolution has consistently provided memorable and thrilling moments that can understood by a uninitiated viewer, and with millions already watching the competition through live streaming broadcasts carried by Twitch.tv and IGN, it would be more of a natural fit if live coverage were extended to a channel like ESPN.
Hopefully the negative reactions from the Heroes of the Dorm finals won’t completely sour T.V. execs on the idea of carrying e-sports, even though I think some of those reactions are justified.
MOBA’s don’t have an iconic figure like Ryu from Street Fighter
E-sports can make for compelling programming, however if T.V. executives and video game executives are truly interested in making e-sports a success on television, then they need to have the courage to look beyond the sheer numbers of how many people are watching what genre. Ultimately, if e-sports are to succeed among the general public, then channels like ESPN must first have an understanding of what makes sports compelling to watch in the first place.
Written by The Watchman
He’s also an actor, a reporter, a pro wrestling connoisseur, and some say he’s a cat whisperer.
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