7 ms·

Good Game: The Rise of the Professional Cyber Athlete

99 points by austinz 12y ago

ahstilde 12y ago
McGrath provides an fascinating view into a unique individual. That is, he is using Scarlett to talk about e-sports, not the other way around. And I think this causes him to miss the whole story. Scarlett does not represent e-sports, unfortunately. The fact that she was able to climb onto a global stage, starting as a nobody, is undeniably incredibly. However, with "The Rise of the Professional Cyber Athlete" as its title, I expected the article to be about the rise of e-sports, not of a singular e-sports athlete. E-sports is on the cusp on exploding, and video-game live-streaming service Twitch.tv plus the increasing availability of the internet at all times (smartphones help) are a large part of the reason why. Dota2 and League of Legends (both MOBAs) lead the forefront when it comes to players and money, but Starcraft II (real-time strategy a la Age of Empires), while declining, is not going anywhere. Additionally, Hearthstone (Blizzard's online card game) has exploded onto the scene in the past year, proving to appeal to casual and competitive gamers alike with its free-to-play model and low learning curve. Rounding out the pack are the fighting game communities (Super Smash Bros, Ultra Street Fighter IV) and first-person shooters (Halo, Call of Duty, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive). Yes, console-based games have a harder time creating a high-level competitive scene, but it isn't impossible. Starcraft 1, Counter-strike: Source, and Super Smash Bros Melee have all been being played competitively since the turn of the century, almost. I'm rambling at this point... If anyone has any questions regarding the e-sports scene, from local grassroots tournament organization to being a high-level competitive player, to other Scarlett-esque people, please ask. I'm most familiar with Hearthstone and Super Smash Bros.
- wingerlang 12y ago
  I haven't even read the article yet, but the title "The Rise of the Professional Cyber Athlete" heavily implies a focus on not the sport, but the people that practices that sport. I wouldn't think that it only focuses on one specific person though.
- debacle 12y ago
  I think the problem with the console games has always been that the development of their scenes was not organic. MLG dropped Halo almost immediately (or possibly as a result of) after Microsoft stopped sponsoring it. Smash and Street Fighter on the other hand, have developed somewhat organically and Smash is starting to grow in spite of Nintendo (or at least Nintendo's decision making 5 years ago). I wish there was more Smash content on Twitch, because the game is incredible to watch.
  - ahstilde 12y ago
    Smash is very difficult to stream, with the two biggest factors being that it's not on a computer and the lack of built-in PvP in Melee and Project M. GIMR of VGBC is doing some very innovative things, though.
keerthiko 12y ago
Ugh. The article made the mistake of making it sound like the casters were amazed by the fact that Scarlett is female. This is the sign of someone who's clearly an onlooker and doesn't pay close attention the eSports scene. While there's definitely things such as GamerGate and such making the gaming scene look terribly unsavory for female participants, in truth the eSports community has long since fully welcomed Scarlett as a true gamer, girl or not. I dislike articles forcing this focus on her being a girl and somehow sticking out for it, much like women in tech hate being glorified just for being "a woman in tech." They have real skill and contribution outside of being an outlier for their gender. If anyone who knows what's going on is ever amazed she won it's because she was actually an underdog in the specific matchup, not because she's a female, let alone for being a "foreigner" (non-Korean). In fact, the amount of amazement for being a foreigner winning was pretty low by the time of the match the article writes about. I remember watching the game mentioned here last thanksgiving, and it coming down to the wire, and the audience didn't care that Scarlett was "a token female" or anything, we were just excited about the awesome match and that Scarlett pulled a miracle win. The casters were no different, all eye-popping was purely about the awesome decision making and creativity leading to an excellent game. Don't make the gaming community sound more sexist than it already does on its own. Scarlett may have faced difficulties or felt singled out in the past for it, but it certainly wasn't true in the fashion depicted in this article.
- Sephiroth87 12y ago
  Considering just this summer there was that "male only" Hearthstone tournament controversy, I'd say it's not just GG but the gaming community in general... eSports might be getting better at it, but it's definitely not there yet...
  - invesari 12y ago
    That tournament was run by IeSF - an organization that is grossly incompetent and disconnected from reality. They have very little traction in the eSports scene and are in no way representative of eSports as a whole.
    - 12y ago
gabemart 12y ago
The Scarlett vs Bomber game is on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIygo3bIVmo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIygo3bIVmo "Oh my god, Scarlett is going gas" at 1m30s
- omni 12y ago
  Here's the bit where Scarlett breaks the stalemate with the burrowed banelings, complete with caster excitement and audience reaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIygo3bIVmo&t=25m30s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIygo3bIVmo&t=25m30s
ozh 12y ago
This article is 10 years late, honestly.
- Thriptic 12y ago
  This. There was a similar article in the New York Times this week talking about how surprising it is that COD players are competing in million dollar tournament despite the fact that such large scale tournaments existed for games such as counter strike over a decade ago. Major starcraft tournaments have been occurring for even longer than that.
  - keypusher 12y ago
    The largest Counter-Strike prizepool so far was ~$500,000. And, while Quake, Starcraft, WC3, and original Counter-Strike certainly had tournaments and a devoted following, the scene has exploded to a much larger audience and larger prizepools in the last few years, primarily on the back of streaming services like Twich and games such as Dota 2 and League of Legends. http://www.esportsearnings.com/tournaments http://www.esportsearnings.com/tournaments
0x420 12y ago
I don't play Starcraft 2 much, or video games in general, for that matter, but I do enjoy occasionally watching SC2 casts, mostly out of nostalgia for the original game which I enjoyed quite a bit as a kid. I've seen Scarlett's games before and while I had gathered that she is a woman, I had no idea she was transgender - honestly, a pleasant surprise, because I'm a trans woman too. I enjoyed this article, and I found it refreshing that it wasn't invasive with regards to her gender identity, while still being explicit and not just sweeping it under the rug. I'm quite happy with this kind of representation - and I'm even happier to find out that I have this in common with such a highly-regarded player. One note to some of the commenters in this thread, though - please don't speculate on our biology like that, it's incredibly rude. She deserves to be celebrated for her accomplishments regardless of the gender assigned to her at birth.
brotoss 12y ago
Look, I'm a huge gamer. But I think calling them "athletes" is an insult to actual athletes. Totally fine with referring to Pro gaming as E-Sports, but calling them athletes is taking it too far.
- JoeAltmaier 12y ago
  How about bowlers then? Or archers? Pool? Its a fuzzy line; but I agree, this one goes over the line.
  - gadders 12y ago
    No-one calls Chess players athletes.
- pitt1980 12y ago
  yeah, if they're not risking serious brain damage, they're not a real athlete
- atom-morgan 12y ago
  So, what qualifies as an athlete?
  - jdhawk 12y ago
    An athlete (American and British English) or sportsperson, sportsman or sportswoman (British English) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed and/or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs.[1] Most professional athletes have particularly well-developed physiques obtained by extensive physical training and strict exercise accompanied by a strict dietary regimen. The word "athlete" is a romanization of the Greek: άθλητὴς, athlētēs, one who participates in a contest; from ἄθλος, áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, a contest or feat. It is the general term for all participants in any physical sport; its application to those who participate in other activities, such as horse riding or driving, is somewhat controversial.
    - 12y ago

99 points by austinz 12y ago

McGrath provides an fascinating view into a unique individual. That is, he is using Scarlett to talk about e-sports, not the other way around. And I think this causes him to miss the whole story. Scarlett does not represent e-sports, unfortunately. The fact that she was able to climb onto a global stage, starting as a nobody, is undeniably incredibly. However, with "The Rise of the Professional Cyber Athlete" as its title, I expected the article to be about the rise of e-sports, not of a singular e-sports athlete. E-sports is on the cusp on exploding, and video-game live-streaming service Twitch.tv plus the increasing availability of the internet at all times (smartphones help) are a large part of the reason why. Dota2 and League of Legends (both MOBAs) lead the forefront when it comes to players and money, but Starcraft II (real-time strategy a la Age of Empires), while declining, is not going anywhere. Additionally, Hearthstone (Blizzard's online card game) has exploded onto the scene in the past year, proving to appeal to casual and competitive gamers alike with its free-to-play model and low learning curve. Rounding out the pack are the fighting game communities (Super Smash Bros, Ultra Street Fighter IV) and first-person shooters (Halo, Call of Duty, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive). Yes, console-based games have a harder time creating a high-level competitive scene, but it isn't impossible. Starcraft 1, Counter-strike: Source, and Super Smash Bros Melee have all been being played competitively since the turn of the century, almost. I'm rambling at this point... If anyone has any questions regarding the e-sports scene, from local grassroots tournament organization to being a high-level competitive player, to other Scarlett-esque people, please ask. I'm most familiar with Hearthstone and Super Smash Bros.

wingerlang 12y ago
I haven't even read the article yet, but the title "The Rise of the Professional Cyber Athlete" heavily implies a focus on not the sport, but the people that practices that sport. I wouldn't think that it only focuses on one specific person though.
debacle 12y ago
I think the problem with the console games has always been that the development of their scenes was not organic. MLG dropped Halo almost immediately (or possibly as a result of) after Microsoft stopped sponsoring it. Smash and Street Fighter on the other hand, have developed somewhat organically and Smash is starting to grow in spite of Nintendo (or at least Nintendo's decision making 5 years ago). I wish there was more Smash content on Twitch, because the game is incredible to watch.
- ahstilde 12y ago
  Smash is very difficult to stream, with the two biggest factors being that it's not on a computer and the lack of built-in PvP in Melee and Project M. GIMR of VGBC is doing some very innovative things, though.

keerthiko 12y ago

Ugh. The article made the mistake of making it sound like the casters were amazed by the fact that Scarlett is female. This is the sign of someone who's clearly an onlooker and doesn't pay close attention the eSports scene. While there's definitely things such as GamerGate and such making the gaming scene look terribly unsavory for female participants, in truth the eSports community has long since fully welcomed Scarlett as a true gamer, girl or not. I dislike articles forcing this focus on her being a girl and somehow sticking out for it, much like women in tech hate being glorified just for being "a woman in tech." They have real skill and contribution outside of being an outlier for their gender. If anyone who knows what's going on is ever amazed she won it's because she was actually an underdog in the specific matchup, not because she's a female, let alone for being a "foreigner" (non-Korean). In fact, the amount of amazement for being a foreigner winning was pretty low by the time of the match the article writes about. I remember watching the game mentioned here last thanksgiving, and it coming down to the wire, and the audience didn't care that Scarlett was "a token female" or anything, we were just excited about the awesome match and that Scarlett pulled a miracle win. The casters were no different, all eye-popping was purely about the awesome decision making and creativity leading to an excellent game. Don't make the gaming community sound more sexist than it already does on its own. Scarlett may have faced difficulties or felt singled out in the past for it, but it certainly wasn't true in the fashion depicted in this article.

Sephiroth87 12y ago
Considering just this summer there was that "male only" Hearthstone tournament controversy, I'd say it's not just GG but the gaming community in general... eSports might be getting better at it, but it's definitely not there yet...
- invesari 12y ago
  That tournament was run by IeSF - an organization that is grossly incompetent and disconnected from reality. They have very little traction in the eSports scene and are in no way representative of eSports as a whole.
  - 12y ago

gabemart 12y ago

The Scarlett vs Bomber game is on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIygo3bIVmo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIygo3bIVmo "Oh my god, Scarlett is going gas" at 1m30s

omni 12y ago
Here's the bit where Scarlett breaks the stalemate with the burrowed banelings, complete with caster excitement and audience reaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIygo3bIVmo&t=25m30s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIygo3bIVmo&t=25m30s

ozh 12y ago

This article is 10 years late, honestly.

Thriptic 12y ago
This. There was a similar article in the New York Times this week talking about how surprising it is that COD players are competing in million dollar tournament despite the fact that such large scale tournaments existed for games such as counter strike over a decade ago. Major starcraft tournaments have been occurring for even longer than that.
- keypusher 12y ago
  The largest Counter-Strike prizepool so far was ~$500,000. And, while Quake, Starcraft, WC3, and original Counter-Strike certainly had tournaments and a devoted following, the scene has exploded to a much larger audience and larger prizepools in the last few years, primarily on the back of streaming services like Twich and games such as Dota 2 and League of Legends. http://www.esportsearnings.com/tournaments http://www.esportsearnings.com/tournaments

0x420 12y ago

I don't play Starcraft 2 much, or video games in general, for that matter, but I do enjoy occasionally watching SC2 casts, mostly out of nostalgia for the original game which I enjoyed quite a bit as a kid. I've seen Scarlett's games before and while I had gathered that she is a woman, I had no idea she was transgender - honestly, a pleasant surprise, because I'm a trans woman too. I enjoyed this article, and I found it refreshing that it wasn't invasive with regards to her gender identity, while still being explicit and not just sweeping it under the rug. I'm quite happy with this kind of representation - and I'm even happier to find out that I have this in common with such a highly-regarded player. One note to some of the commenters in this thread, though - please don't speculate on our biology like that, it's incredibly rude. She deserves to be celebrated for her accomplishments regardless of the gender assigned to her at birth.

brotoss 12y ago

Look, I'm a huge gamer. But I think calling them "athletes" is an insult to actual athletes. Totally fine with referring to Pro gaming as E-Sports, but calling them athletes is taking it too far.

JoeAltmaier 12y ago
How about bowlers then? Or archers? Pool? Its a fuzzy line; but I agree, this one goes over the line.
- gadders 12y ago
  No-one calls Chess players athletes.
pitt1980 12y ago
yeah, if they're not risking serious brain damage, they're not a real athlete
atom-morgan 12y ago
So, what qualifies as an athlete?
- jdhawk 12y ago
  An athlete (American and British English) or sportsperson, sportsman or sportswoman (British English) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed and/or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs.[1] Most professional athletes have particularly well-developed physiques obtained by extensive physical training and strict exercise accompanied by a strict dietary regimen. The word "athlete" is a romanization of the Greek: άθλητὴς, athlētēs, one who participates in a contest; from ἄθλος, áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, a contest or feat. It is the general term for all participants in any physical sport; its application to those who participate in other activities, such as horse riding or driving, is somewhat controversial.
  - 12y ago