MLG Looks To ESPN Model To Expand eSports Coverage

[SternLX]

All I have to say is... AWESOME!

Good read: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/07/09/major-league-gaming-looks-to-espn-model-to-expand-esports-coverage/

[Hamma]

This was indeed a great read. I look forward to seeing what they come up with.

This article was also very interesting:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2013/04/26/cliff-bleszinski-offers-some-keys-to-success-in-esports/

He brings up some very valid points on why many people still don't get eSports. Football, baseball - long histories and fairly easy to understand. Personally? I don't know what the fuck is happening in a League of Legends match.

[DirtyBird]

Foreign Gamers Get Same U.S. Visas as Professional Athletes
http://mashable.com/2013/07/12/league-of-legends-visa/
Players traveling to the United States for the official League of Legends annual tournament in Los Angeles this fall will be awarded the same type of visas traditionally given to professional athletes, according to Riot Games.

This is the first time that foreign professional gamers have been given visas by the United States to play in the country.

"This is groundbreaking for eSports; now we can start looking at international players when they come over," said Riot Games eSports manager Nick Allen in a filmed interview with Gamespot. "It's a much easier process because they're actually recognized by the government. This is a huge thing."

[SternLX]

He brings up some very valid points on why many people still don't get eSports. Football, baseball - long histories and fairly easy to understand. Personally? I don't know what the fuck is happening in a League of Legends match.
LOL, I'm the same when it comes to watching LoL matches. Much like Cliff Bleszinski stated, StarCraft II I can follow. COD:BO2 I can follow... LoL... not a clue.
I have a feeling eSports in order to be more popular for viewers will need to begin to use games that are more Mainstream and easy to follow plus do all that ESPN type stuff.

[Hamma]

Foreign Gamers Get Same U.S. Visas as Professional Athletes
http://mashable.com/2013/07/12/league-of-legends-visa/

Damn that's pretty badass!

[Assist]

The issue with League of Legends, DotA 1/2, Smite, etc is that there's huge differences between heroes that unless you have knowledge of the game simply doesn't make sense. 100+ heroes, 10 chosen per game, multiple ways to play each hero makes the games incredibly diverse. The micro-management of your character in moba's is almost as huge as it is in Starcraft2, except you only control one character wheres in Starcraft2 you control the whole group. It'd be like trying to drive a car by yourself compared to having 5 different people driving one car. It's a lot easier to control what happens by yourself.
I personally don't follow LoL anymore, because it's the watered down version of DotA, but I assume it's still the same ripoff of DotA in that hero selection is the most important part of the game. After that step of the game, it's really about which team makes fewer mistakes. Positioning is the name of the game, and that's where DotA takes the cake over League IMO, because there's more to positioning than just where the enemy heroes are(which you can't always see due to fog-of-war). In DotA you can "Deny" allied creeps and structures, which reduces the amount of XP the enemy's nearby get, and more importantly the amount of potential gold they can get.

Outside of the heroes the game is very simple. Symmetrical map with 3 lanes(top, middle, bottom), 3 towers(tier1,2,3), and then neutral creeps(NPC mobs for XP). Every 30 seconds creeps for each side spawn at the base and run towards the enemy base down the lanes. The number of creeps and the strength of the creeps are based on the number of towers that your opponent has remaining in their respective lanes.
These types of games are perfect for eSports because of the simple design yet complex strategies. No match is ever the same and yet it's always familiar. It's very much like how Football(soccer) and the NFL are. Same field, same concepts, completely different outcomes every game. Like the NFL, everyone knows the general goal of the game, but it can be confusing if you don't know the rules.


/rant
Personally I don't see eSports getting much bigger than it currently is. Game designers are to the point now that they want to make games for eSports, but most gamers and nerds really don't care about eSports. They play games because they are fun and when a game is made for eSports than it unintentionally overlooks some of the fun, IMO. Most players are getting an hour break from the wife, school, kids and just want to do something enjoyable for that hour. Going into an intense competition in some game where you're going to be raged at if you accidentally hit the wrong key isn't all that enjoyable for most people.

Take a look at what WoW Arena used to be and what it is today, it has just died out. Shooters these days are lasting about 3? years as an eSport if that, look at how poorly CS;GO is compared to CS 1.6. Starcraft 2 compared to Brood War. I think there's a fine line for these eSports games that they're crossing over to get these 'Pro' players into the game and they end up neglecting what the every day players want, which is a fun game experience every time they sit down. The reason I think LoL and DotA will stick around as eSports is just like how CS1.6 and BroodWar used to be. Tons of people play these games, from the computer noob to the computer nerd. They all played the same maps regardless of how good or bad they are. It was fun watching someone on Lost Temple in Brood War, it was fun watching some team on de_dust. I just think some of these new eSports games that are coming are really trying to mold players to compete in the eSports, rather than just having the eSports as an option that is there if the community wants it. If the game is well designed, and tons of casual players are into it, then it'll have the eSports community but you cannot force the eSports on the community by designing the game for it.
I hope someone comes out with a game that is very well balanced, competitive per server, and has a large draw on gamers rather than attempting to create their own niche. But I don't think it's coming soon. Instead everyone is going after the eSports community, which isn't localized to one server and therefore alienates the every day players community on individual servers.