TECHNOLOGY AND ENTERTAINMENT

 
  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.

 Contents:          

 1.Over the Internet
 2. Over a local area network
 3. Electronic sports history 
 3.1 Arcade era
 3.2 Internet era 
 3.3 Player contracts & Professional electronic sports titles
 3.4 Counter-Strike 
 3.5 FIFA 
 3.6 Halo 3 
 3.7 Quake 4 
 3.8 Super Smash Bros. Melee
 3.9 StarCraft 
 3.10 Street Fighter Series 
 3.11 TrackMania Nations 
 3.12 Warcraft III 
 4. Other competitions 
 5. Media coverage 
 6. Professional Leagues 
 7. References

  Over the Internet:
 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 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 Quakenet, 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.
 Popular online leagues include Cyberathlete Amateur League, CyberEvolution, Major League
 Gaming,  ClanBase, and the Electronic Sports League.
 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. Having over
 12,000,000 active users with an average of 200,000 online at any given moment with peaks up to
 400,000[citation needed].
 This service provided by Blizzard Entertainment is especially important for Warcraft III for which
 it features integrated ladders and advanced anti-cheating. The best of the one-one ladders compete
 in seasons stretching over a period of months, after which the top finishers gather at offline
 events to compete for a seasonal championship and tens of thousands of dollars in prize money.
 The largest online gaming network on consoles is Xbox Live, with over 7 million subscribers.

 Over a local area network

 Playing over a LAN has a number of advantages: the network conditions are much better suited   to
 playing computer games than on the Internet, and when the competitors  are in the same building it
 is a lot harder to cheat without someone knowing (at professional events  administrators will
 normally be present to ensure fair play). It is also a much more social atmosphere. Due to the
 advantages of LAN many gamers organize LAN parties or visit LAN centres and major tournaments
 are always conducted over LANs.

 Electronic sports history

 3.1  Arcade era
 Video games have been played competitively since their inception. Twin Galaxies is known for
 keeping  track of high scores on Many "classic" arcade games, and they created the U.S.
 National Video Game Team in 1983. The team ran a number of competitions, including the 1987
 Video Game Masters Tournament for Guinness World Records.
 Nintendo held their World Championships in 1990, touring across the United States, with the
 finals in Universal City Studios, California. There were 90 finalists, and the champions were
 Jeff Hanson (11 & under), Thor Aackerlund (12–17), and Paul White (18 & over). The Nintendo
 championships are notable for the gold cartridges distributed to all of the finalists, which
 now fetch high prices on eBay.
 Blockbuster Video ran their own World Game Championships in the early 1990s, co-hosted by
 GamePro magazine. Citizens from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and
 Chile were eligible to compete. Games from the 1994 championships included NBA Jam and
 Virtua  Racing. 
 The first ever televised eSports event has been noted as the Australian gameshow A*mazing, 
 which would show two children competing in various Nintendo games in order to win points.

 3.2  Internet era
 Formal  events  have grown  dramatically  since   the first  tournament  in 1997.  At  the 
 "Red Annihilation" tournament in May of that year, Quake co-creator John Carmack promised his
 own red Ferrari 328 GTS convertible to the winner, Dennis Fong aka "Thresh". In June of that
 year Angel Munoz launched his league for computer gamers, known as the Cyberathlete 
 Professional League or CPL. Since then, the attendance and size of the venues for these events
 has grown and thousands of spectators typically connect over the internet to watch the final
 matches.  In 2005 the CPL moved to a World Tour format. 2005 CPL World Tour focused on 
the one-on-one  deathmatch game Painkiller and had a total prize purse of $1,000,000. The 
 winner of the CPL  Grand Finals event, Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, went home with the grand
 prize of $150,000,  while Sander "Vo0" Kaasjager took home the MVP trophy for having the
 most tournament wins. 
 In the year 2000, the first World Cyber Games event was held in Seoul, Korea. There were
 competitions for Quake III, Starcraft, FIFA 2000, and Age of Empires II. The competition
 initially had 174 competitors from 17 different countries with a total prize purse of $20,000.
 In 2006, the prize purse had risen to $462,000, and the event had grown to 9 different
 competitions and 700 qualified participants from 70 different countries.
 In 2003, the first Electronic Sports World Cup event was held, with a total of 358 participants
 from 37 countries, and a prize purse of € 150.000. By 2006, the event had grown to 547 qualified
 participants from 53 countries and a prize purse of $400,000. The event also featured the first
 competition with a game specifically made for it; Trackmania Nations.
 The year also saw the launch of Major League Gaming, console gaming competition.In 2006, Major
 League Gaming was the first televised console gaming league in the United States, with their Halo
 2 Pro Series being broadcast by USA Network.
 2006 saw the first season of the World Series of Video Games event, a spin off of the CPL World
 Tour format. The WSVG held world championships for Counter-Strike, Warcraft III, and Quake 4.
 The WSVG also held American championships for Halo 2, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, &
 Project Gotham Racing 3.

 3.3  Player contracts & Professional electronic sports titles

 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 most popular tournaments are those run by the Cyberathlete Professional League, the World
  Cyber Games, the World e-Sports Games, the Electronic Sports World Cup, The Championship
  Gaming   Series and the Major League Gaming. The prize money for these events is mostly
  provided by the   large technology corporations who sponsor the events; these companies also
  tend to sponsor  eSports teams. A team sponsorship usually includes travel expenses and 
 sometimes free hardware specific to that company.

  3.4  Counter-Strike
 
 Counter-Strike – Tactical Team FPS (5vs5, PC) 
 Played all around the world with hot spots in the North America and Europe,there are a few dozen
 professional teams that gather at just as many tournaments all around  the world every year. 
 Without a uniting body in competitive gaming many of these claim to be the game's "World -
 Championship" tournament. While none of them stand out enough to justify this claim, six 
 tournament finals are generally identified as being the "biggest". The six "Major tournaments"
 are listed below and are led by WCG (World Cyber Games) and the CPL(Cyberathlete
 Professional  League). Counter-Strike is seen as the competitive game with the biggest  user
 base with a rough  estimate of players online at any given moment ranging between 120,000
 and 140,000.  Examples of professional teams are: SK Gaming, wNv Teamwork, Fnatic, 
 MeetYourMakers and Complexity. Teams can be observed playing professionally in the CGS,
 Championship Gaming Series, the first Professional league to offer every player a payroll of
 $75,000 each year.

 3.5  FIFA

 FIFA Football – Sports (PC) 
 FIFA Football is a part of the World Cyber Games since its beginning in 2000 and also at every
 regional WCG Tourney like the SEC or the Pan-American WCG. In 2003 a FIFA  tournament was 
 also held at the CPL Europe and is therefore the only sports game that has ever been part of a 
 Cyberathlete Professional League competition.
         
         
  World League eSport Bundesliga Kick-Off Event (picture)

 Germany has the biggest FIFA Football community with two professional  leagues (Electronic - 
 Sports League EPS and the World League eSport Bundesliga which is aired on the national TV--
 broadcaster Deutsches Sportfernsehen). Besides Germany, South Korea is  a strong FIFA
 Football nation with 3 World Cyber Games titles. There are also leagues in South Korea like the 
 Ongamenet FifaLeague that are televised. In 2006 prizes with a value of over a quarter million
 US-Dollar were handed out to professional FIFA gamers.
 

 3.6  Halo 3

 Halo 3 – Tactical Team FPS (Xbox)
 
 Halo 3 has a national professional scene in the United States of America.  See Major League
 Gaming for more information.

 3.7 Quake 4

 Quake 4 – DeathMatch FPS (1vs1, PC)
         
 Played professionally in western society, there are a dozen professional players signed to a
 few professional teams and a number of players marketing themselves through other means. As of
 2008, Quake 4 has fallen out of favor in competition for the previous  game in the
 series Quake 3. Four "world championships" took place using  Quake 4 in the 2006 season.
 Most notable are those of the Electronic Sports World Cup and the World Series of Video Games
 as the game had a top tier status with these organizations, the game had  the smallest status of
 all games played at the World Cyber Games and KODE5.
 So far only the Electronic Sports World Cup has announced that they will be using Quake 4 again.
 It is generally expected that the World series of Video Games will do the same and its also seen
 as a potential candidate for a top status game at the World Cyber Games.
 Quake 4 is seen as the smallest of all professional games, with online users measured at any 
 given moment seeing very fluctuating results and is generally estimated  in a three number range. 
 An undisclosed amount of those users are not players but bots, and the total user base should
 fall between 1/200th to 1/1000th of other professional gaming scenes. The most well known 
 Quake 4 player is Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, runner-up of  the World Series of Video Games 
  finals, who is ranked 6th in the Quake 4 world rankings.

 3.8  Super Smash Bros. Melee

 Super Smash Bros. Melee – Versus Fighting (1vs1, 2vs2, GameCube)          
 Super Smash Bros. Melee has a national professional scene in the United States of America. It was
 sponsored by Major League Gaming from 2004 to 2006. It is currently sponsored by Evolution 
 Championship Series.

 3.9  StarCraft

 StarCraft: Brood War – Real-Time Strategy (1vs1, 2vs2, PC) 
 This game has found a home in South Korea, where many play it professionally  as a spectator
 sport.   It is the most popular professionally played PC game due to its immense popularity in 
 South Korea,   for these league attract tens of thousands of fans and are viewed on TV nationwide
 in millions .   StarCraft is the very first game to have been accepted into the World Cyber Games
 tournament  and   has a tournament at their events since inception. It also enjoys significant 
 competitive popularity in the west as well. See also: StarCraft professional competition

 3.10  Street Fighter Series

 Street Fighter – Versus Fighting (1vs1, Arcade, PS2) 
 Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Capcom vs SNK2, Super  Street Fighter II Turbo
 are amongst those games in the series played at a professional level. Popular tournaments have 
 taken place at Evolution Championship Series in the USA, and Tougeki – Super Battle Opera in 
 Japan.  Many smaller communities are sprouting up across the world in order to  expand and
 develop the  professionalism of the game and to form a more integrated fighting games community.

 3.11  TrackMania Nations

 TrackMania Nations Forever – Racing (1vs1vs1vs1, PC) 
 TrackMania Nations ESWC released in January 2006, and was the first game to be conceived for a 
 competition (Electronic Sports World Cup). The game permits players to create their own tracks. 
 Except ESWC, the Electronic Sports League, Electronic Tournaments and the FuturTech Gaming
 League  organize competitions on this game. In April 2008, a new version of the game, called 
 TrackMania   Nations Forever, released and added new features to the original game. The ESWC
 committee decided  to use this new version for ESWC 2008. This game is downloadable free of 
 charge and counts around  8,000 players at least on any moment. On esports, the game is most
 popular  in Europe, especially in France, where the game was created.

 3.12  Warcraft III

 Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne – Real-Time Strategy (1vs1, PC)          
 Played professionally all around the world with hot spots in South Korea, China , France and
 Germany, there are a few dozen "professional" teams. The game lacks a uniting body and has no
 definable world championship. Some of the biggest Warcraft III tournaments include the six 
 "Major tournaments" listed below as well as events organised by Blizzard Entertainment, tele-
 vised Korean leagues, several tournaments held in China. Warcraft III  is seen as the
 competitive game with the second biggest playerbase, with the number players online at Battle.
 net ranging between 70,000 and 100,000 at any given moment. It must also be noted that the 
 Chinese scene, which has over three million players, uses their own clients. for online compet-
 ition due to a poor connection to the outside world. In Korea, Warcraft III has significantly
 less popularity than Starcraft, which is the most popular.
 Wiki articles about Warcraft III competitions include a historical overview of "world
 championships" as well as a ranking based on them and a number of player biographies such as:
 Zdravko "Insomnia" Georgiev, Xiaofeng "Sky" Li, Dae Hui "FoV" Cho, Jang "Moon" Jae Ho,
 Fredrik "MaDFroG" Johansson and Manuel "Grubby" Schenkhuizen.

 Other competitions

 In September 2006 FUN Technologies held the first WorldWide Web Games for a $1 million prize.
 The competition had 71 contestants and featured the casual games Bejeweled 2, Solitaire, and 
  Zuma. The champion was 21-year-old Kavitha Yalavarthi of Odessa, Texas.

 Media coverage

 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. Mainstream coverage in North America and Europe has increased, and more mainstream news
 websites are starting to regularly provide some coverage of the major events with occasional
 television coverage.

 In South Korea, electronic sports and events are regularly televised by Ongamenet and MBC Game.
 The most frequent games in South Korean electronic sports are the real-time strategy games 
 StarCraft and Warcraft III. The South Korean scene is often cited as an example of popularised
 electronic sports by those who would like to see a similar level of popularity       in the west.
 In Germany, GIGA Television's majority of shows are covering e-sports.   ESL TV was transformed
 into GIGA II in June 2007 but the concept failed and ESL TV was reintroduced          in autumn 2007. 
 ESL TV features e-sports only.
 In the UK, XLEAGUE.TV broadcasts on SKY channel 208, showing both features on  eSports and 
 broadcasting matches from its online leagues and tournaments, which for  the purpose of 
 television shows, are shot from its studio rather than played online.
 In France, Game One propose some e-sport matches in a show called "Arena Online" and is a 
 partner of the Xfire Trophy, an invitational tournament. They broadcasted matches on games 
 like Counter-Strike,  Counter-Strike:  Source,  Command  &   Conquer 3:  Tiberium Wars,  and 
 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

 Professional Leagues

   World Cyber Games (International) 
   International Gaming Tour (International) 
   Major League of Gaming (International) 
   Pro Gaming League (North America) 
   ClanBase EuroCup (International) 
   Total Gaming League (International) 
   Electronic Sports World Cup (International) 
   Cyberathlete Professional League (International) 
   Championship Gaming Series (International) 
   World e-Sports Games (International) 
   Major League Gaming (North America) 
   NGL One (Europe) 
   ESL Extreme Masters (Europe) 
   ESL Pro Series (Germany)
         
   References

   1. TG Daily - Xbox Live user tally reaches seven million 
   2. NES Player
   3. GamePro Magazine, June 1994
   4. CPL: Game Informer 
   5. GameSpot, September 11, 2006

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