WEBVTT - Episode 3: eSports 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:24.799 Hello, and welcome to Nernificent. I am Danny Fernandez and 0:00:24.840 --> 0:00:27.880 today if what are we what are recovering today? This 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:31.920 is a actual topic. I'm pretty excited about the sports. 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:41.120 I've watched sports. I've been really excited. I've gotten we 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:43.279 can go deep. There's a lot of stuff that we 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:45.280 don't even have in the dock that I'm probably gonna 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:48.280 go into tangents about. But the sports is very deep, 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:50.319 it has long history. A lot of people are hearing 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:52.879 about it now because the money in it, because that's 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:56.080 what drives everyone. Since more televised, I feel like now, 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:59.080 and just the amount of leagues which we'll get into. 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:02.400 And we have a old board of our Los Angeles 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:07.280 team like outside my place, so it's legit. Yeah Valiant, Yeah, 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:10.080 used to be the Clippers up there, but not anymore. 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:14.400 Were like, we're replacing you. This is really great because 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.800 at Nertificent, like we said, it's a show for everyone. 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:20.760 And this is actually a topic one of the few topics, 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.000 but yeah, one of the topics that I'm not as 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.679 well versed in, so how to do a lot of 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:28.399 research on this. Although I do have friends which will 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:30.840 be having one of them join us in a little bit. 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:33.480 Malik Forte, who's a friend of mine who is now 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:36.320 in the Overwatch League. Are you host? I saw a 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:41.000 commercial for him. Yeah, he's a commentator for a minute, 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:43.200 like he was a gaming editor as well, and of 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:46.199 course he was at nertict Um before that. Yeah, he's 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:49.760 been a commentator on Overwatch League, he's been part of 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:52.840 blizz Con, he's done fighting game for me. He even, 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:55.200 you know, grabbed the sticks a few times himself, so 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:58.480 he's he's we get both sides. I'm really excited. Yeah, 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:00.080 so he'll be joining us in a little bit it 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:02.520 but just kick us off if you have no idea 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:05.720 what e sports is. It is a form of competition 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:09.959 using video games. So it's most commonly a form that's 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:15.880 organized in multiplayer video game competitions now primarily between professional players. 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:17.960 So we'll get into that, as far as how to 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:21.200 go pro, how to go viral, how to go viral, 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:25.080 and let's go into our very first of many sidebars. 0:02:25.120 --> 0:02:27.320 I'm gonna take us on. So the fact that it's 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:30.079 called the sports is probably one of the most debated 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:32.359 facts about the sports. A lot of people don't think 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.320 that it should be called E sports. I remember when 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:37.480 they had, are the heroes of the Storm tournament that 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:39.560 they had, the college league they have and it was 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:42.880 airing on ESPN, and people like, why is this on ESPN? 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:46.839 This isn't a sport and what silly is? ESPN also 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:50.520 shows World Series of Poker, which which is like, it's 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:55.280 the same difference. But to really tackle this argument, the 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:59.440 definition of a sport is an activity involving physical exertion 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:02.440 and skill, in which an individual or team competes against 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:06.720 another or others for entertainment. I feel like the only 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:10.560 real debatable part about this is the amount of physical exertion. Now, 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.480 what one thing I can tell you is there is 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:16.480 a desparate difference between your average person trying to play 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:19.560 a video game and a professional player because it takes 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:21.440 a lot of hand eye coordination. You have to have 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:25.480 a certain quickness with your fingers. So the debate is 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:28.200 valid and strong. But I'm gonna go ahead and say 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:30.280 it is indeed of sport. And if you don't believe me, 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:34.639 just play video games for over three hours and tell 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:39.520 me how those fingers. And these are professionals that that 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:41.720 will get into but there are essentially I mean, they're 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:44.280 training every day a lot of them, some of them. 0:03:44.440 --> 0:03:46.920 One of our friends, actually, Janelle Santa Cruz, I know 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:49.440 her brother was living in a house because he got 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:52.200 picked up as a professional player. Um was living in 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:55.000 a house with other competitors or other people on his 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:59.240 team in order to compete. And now many many game 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:03.720 developers now are actually they design their games based off 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:06.760 of professional e sport. Oh yeah, we'll get deep into 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:10.160 that towards the end of this because I have lots 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:13.080 of thoughts about it. It really has made an impact 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:16.159 on gaming. But before we go there, let's talk about 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:19.320 the history. Let's get into it deep diving into the 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:22.080 history of e sports. So the earliest known video game 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:26.440 competition took place on October nineteenth, nineteen two at Stanford 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:32.600 University for the game Space War Space War Stanfords Hugh 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:35.960 Stanford had to add an extra one in there. Uh. 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:40.520 Stanford students were invited to an Intergalactic Space War Olympics, 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:43.800 whose grand prize was a year subscription to Rolling Stone. 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:46.840 That's kind of interesting, like those two things together actually, 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:50.200 given that time, very truly humble beginnings. Now that like 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:53.200 the rewards are in the millions, but back the first 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:55.880 one to get a subscription Rolling Stone. I mean I 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:58.280 would take that now, to be honest. Oh yeah, but 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:01.960 very quickly it jumps up to even spicier because in 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:06.479 the seventies, nineties, eighties, I'd said that all out of order. 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:09.760 But it got it got bigger, the tournaments started becoming 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:12.160 a big thing. But I don't want to get too 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:14.320 ahead of myself, and I just want to take a 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.200 quick stop because during the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties, 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:20.520 video game players and tournaments began being featured in popular 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:23.080 websites and magazines, including Life and Time. One of the 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:26.000 most well known classic arcade game players is Billy Mitchell's. 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:28.760 He's mostly known for his high scores in six games, 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:32.360 including Pac Man and Donkey Kong. But most people will 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:34.640 know Billy Mitchell from that movie The King of Kong, 0:05:35.080 --> 0:05:37.880 mostly because he painted as a bad guy, because every 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:40.280 movie needs like a good guy and a bad guy. 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:42.600 I love it because the name of the villain and 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:49.760 um karate kid is Billy. I love it. Yeah, I 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:52.320 was gonna say right before then, in uh in nine 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:56.159 we had the Space Invaders Championship was held, which was 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:59.560 held by Atari, and that was the earliest large scale 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:03.000 video game in competition, So that attracted ten thousand participants 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:06.080 across the US, and that I think helped establish it 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:08.880 as more of a competitive mainstream. At the time, it 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:11.560 was still a hobby, but definitely something that people were 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:16.080 paying attention to. Oh yeah, and then were really when 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:19.279 it really blew up, because video games as a whole 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:22.320 kind of stepped it up and it was taken into 0:06:22.400 --> 0:06:24.800 a huge competitive level and it's all the rise of 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:28.280 PC gaming. Along with this came the first true E 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:33.400 sports competition read Annihilation had tournaments for the first person 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:36.520 shooter Quake, which is widely considered to have been the 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.560 first real instance of E sports. I remember this, and 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:42.880 if you don't know what Quake is, uh, we'll take 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:46.279 it back. It's basically like a Doom esque shooter, except 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.240 it had This was the first kind of versus mode 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:52.160 of that, and you had these. It was the kind 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:54.520 of same first person shooter guy in the bottom. I 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:56.680 was a huge fan. I never really got to play 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:58.640 it because my parents didn't buy it for me. I 0:06:58.680 --> 0:07:01.320 had the captain crunch out with their own like bootleg 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:07.760 oh man. Yeah. So carrying on with that, more e 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:10.080 sports tournaments started to pop up in the nineties, including 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:14.680 which was Nintendo World Championships and that actually toured across 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:17.560 the US as well, and they held their finals in 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:20.720 the Universal Studios Hollywood and California. I just need to 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:23.600 say this as my sidebar, I found out Blockbuster Video. 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:27.160 May they rest in peace. Um they brought me a 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:30.040 lot of hours of my childhood, so I still respect him. 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.680 But Blockbuster Video also had their own World Game Championship 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:36.160 in the early nineties. It was co hosted by Game 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:39.600 Pro magazine and actually not only was the US involved, 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:42.640 but also citizens of Canada, the UK, Australia, and Chile 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.560 were also eligible to compete. Also, one more thing about 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:48.640 Red Annihilations tournament, which this is how I heard about it. 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:55.440 In those tournaments, the winner received a Ferrari. But get this, 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:58.680 the Ferrari was previously owned by John Carmack, the lead 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.400 developer for Quakes, So how much money was quite bringing 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:05.320 in that John? And it was a test erosive if 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:09.040 I remember correctly, it was pretty ball in Ferrari. On 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:11.520 a separate sidebar, since we also talk about our personal 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:14.160 experiences in here, I know several of my friends who 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:17.280 now work for people that got big in cryptocurrency. And 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:19.360 so a lot of those companies that they like host 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:22.960 or do freelance for. It's like basically one you know 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:24.920 dude that owns it or something that each of these 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:28.560 studios is trying to pay them in cryptocurrency, which a 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:31.080 part of me is like, yeah, I also want like 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:34.720 several options. I would like several options to be paid 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:37.760 in case one of these goes under. But yeah, but yeah, 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:40.840 I to really stay on the quake notion for a 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:43.120 little bit. This was also kind of like the early 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:47.240 beginnings of online multiplayer, just in a larger score. I 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:49.080 remember heat dot net. It was one of the early 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:52.800 leaders of online gaming, and I actually signed up for 0:08:52.840 --> 0:08:55.800 account right as it closed. Like I had the account, 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:58.720 I convinced my dad to get some faster internet, and 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:00.560 then I logged back in. It was like heat dot 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:02.800 net is closing its doors. I was like, Okay, well 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:08.640 this sucks. But then during the two thousand tens, e 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:12.080 sports grew tremendously, incurring large increase in both viewership and 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.439 prize money. Although large tournaments were founded before the twenty 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:19.560 first century, the number and scope of tournaments has increased significantly, 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:21.920 going from about ten tournaments in the year two thousand 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:24.120 to about two hundred and sixty and two thousand ten. 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:27.559 Many successful tournaments were founded during this period, including the 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:31.000 World Cyber Games, Intel Extreme Masters in Major League Gaming, 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:34.840 and the proliferation of the tournaments included experimentation with competitions 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:38.600 outside traditional E sports genres. For example, in September of 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:42.480 two thousand six, Fun Technologies Worldwide Web Games Championship featured 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:45.719 seventy one contestants competing in casual games for a one 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:51.320 million grand prize. So that was something for any one. Yeah, Well, 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:53.640 that's what's so funny. Is it kind of crept up 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:56.880 on you because it's always kind of been big in Korea, 0:09:57.000 --> 0:09:59.840 Like that was where it was with the StarCraft tournaments, 0:09:59.880 --> 0:10:01.600 and one knew it was big, but it just wasn't 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:04.000 sticking out here in America for I mean, it was 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:07.440 it was underground when we're talking about from the nights 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:10.720 until about now. It was still pretty underground. It wasn't 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:13.560 as large scale. So I was watching a documentary today 0:10:13.600 --> 0:10:17.120 on Netflix called All Work, All Play. It was filmed 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:20.040 in about the sports. It was basically about the life 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.319 and struggle of becoming a professional gamer and something that 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:25.760 they had said often and it was like the lack 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:28.800 of like respect for North American gamers, like they're just 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:32.079 not considered on the same level, which that has changed 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:36.000 since then, it's still a meme like Crash is a 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:38.800 meme within League of Legends, and it's because you know, 0:10:38.960 --> 0:10:41.800 in a doesn't make it that far in these huge 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:46.560 scale tournaments. It's usually dominated by UK and Europe, mostly 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:50.080 Europe and Asia. But you know, we're we're we've maked, 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:53.000 we've we're making strides. We're gonna get up there. Big 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:56.880 in a teams are evil geniuses. That's uh, they're great 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:58.920 in a team. Actually that's the only one I know 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:02.400 that's giving genus. What I did want to say is 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:06.160 the popularity, like if he was saying, has grown tremendously. 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:10.720 So back in it was estimated that there were seventy 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:14.080 one point five million people worldwide that watched e sports, 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:16.719 so it really did jump up quite a bit. And 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:20.920 that was also because of the increasing availability of media 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:26.240 platforms like Twitch where people can now live stream them playing. Well. 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:29.000 I think it's mostly because the difference now is people 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.880 see this happening and no, it's available. It's always kind 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:35.160 of been around, like one of the big tournaments used 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:38.240 to be the cow Cali counter strike tournaments. And I've 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:41.760 had friends who's competed in that, but that was beyond me. 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:45.600 Like I remember, I remember in high school trying to 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:48.600 put together a counter strike team. I never even had 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:51.679 counter strike, but I made like a graphic and uh, 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:53.480 are you like key club but you were trying to 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:58.320 do it for counter strike like a school club. Yeah, 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:02.360 but I had no concept that was already like established leagues, 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:05.440 that we're having counter strike tournaments that you can compete in. 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:09.320 And I remember before we started recording, you were talking 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:13.240 about like how tennis can be inaccessible because it's a 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:16.800 very expensive tennis, gymnastics, figure skating. It's kind of like 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:18.480 your parents have to have money in order for you 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:21.120 to compete in those. And that's kind of how each 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:24.719 sports was, especially the nineties era, because also you have 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:28.880 to have a a PC that can run counter strike, 0:12:28.960 --> 0:12:31.800 which may not have been you know, this was before 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:34.640 there was a computer in every household. This was when 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:38.240 having a computer was like, oh okay, it was a luxury. 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.520 Yeah yeah. So to have a computer also strong enough 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:43.440 to play counter strike that you can lug to a 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:46.200 land center and have a land party, which a land 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:49.880 party for those who don't know, is where you basically 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:52.960 hook up a whole bunch of computers to one kind 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:56.520 of server. So LAND stands for local area network, and 0:12:56.520 --> 0:12:59.559 it's a computer network that spans a relatively small area. 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:02.320 So you create a network between all the computers, usually 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:04.720 in the large room, and that way you can play 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:09.319 counterstrike at a good broadband because playing online not that good. 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.160 You know, this is like fifty k dsl D. So 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:15.000 when you have these land partis, you're able to play 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:18.360 almost as if it's well not almost as if, because 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:20.920 you're side by side, all on the same network. Yeah, 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:23.120 what I was going to say is that going back 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:28.199 to how tremendously this popularity has grown, so it's expected 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:33.200 to reach about five hundred million fans worldwide. By million. 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:35.400 I can see that, Yeah, I mean I could see 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:38.520 it too, But also like was you know, they said 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:41.160 seventy one point five million and now it's like five 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:45.560 million worldwide and that's thanks in part two Intel Extreme 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:48.480 Masters i AM, which is the longest running global e 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:51.920 sports tournament series. They mentioned that in the in the 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:55.200 documentary as well, that there were ones that were before them, 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:58.080 but they kind of dropped off. They didn't quite have 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:01.240 the same platform and in structure and everything, and this 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:04.880 is the longest running one. Yeah, Intel Extreme Masters is 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.400 one of the best run because they were partnered by 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:09.959 the e s L, which is the Electronics Sports League 0:14:10.440 --> 0:14:13.480 and uh really it launched into the year two thousand 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:16.240 and it was a successor by the Dutch clan Liga, 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:19.680 which was founded in so this is a law, so 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:22.040 these people know what they're doing. And e s L 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:25.800 is like e s L is the NFL four counter strike. 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:28.520 If you're talking about counter strike tournaments, you're talking about 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:32.520 the s L. But just like the NFL, they're running 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:34.560 into some issues here and there, and we'll get into 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:37.600 that a little later, but they're having issues with cheating, 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:41.520 teams cheating and not having to span because it's blowing up. Basically, 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:47.040 the scene is growing quicker than these companies anticipated. So 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:50.640 it's now you can't really have officials at every one 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:53.520 of the qualifying event. And when you can't have officials, 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:56.200 remember I'm a big fan of Rainbow six Siege and 0:14:56.240 --> 0:15:00.160 they had their own invitational and a lot of the 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:05.520 qualifier matches are done online with someone like they're not 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:08.400 in person, like a lot of these major events, so 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:10.840 people are cheating and you have to like turn in. 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:14.720 It's almost like a report on like the activity that 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:18.480 your computer was doing. But those can be falsified. And 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:21.280 so there was lots of accusations or as we call 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:25.160 them in the gaming industry, hack usations of people hacking, 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:28.040 and some of the evidence looks good, but it's kind 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:30.280 of hard for them to be able to pinpoint every 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:35.840 single one because it's growing faster and it's hard to 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:39.200 watch so many different games. Yeah, we'll definitely get into 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:42.320 the ethics of e sports here and dive into that 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:43.880 a little bit more. What I did want to say 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:46.280 is back to you comparing it to the NFL. With 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:49.360 these companies, a lot of them sought to create leagues 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:53.680 that followed essentially North American professional sports, so in which 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:56.480 all the teams participate in a regular season of matches, 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:00.000 just like the NFL and MLB and all the other 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.160 ones that I can throw out there. Oh yeah, that's 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:06.120 completely why the s L eventually created Eligue. But I'll 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:08.320 wait for Molique to be here to talk about that 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:11.000 because he's very well versed in it. If I remember correctly, 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:12.800 he kind of was a part of it in a 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:15.240 small way, arn't big way. I did want to say 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:18.320 in that the All Work, All Play documentary when they 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.880 were talking about League of Legends, they said, sixty seven 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:24.040 million players play this game every month. Fifty players in 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.960 North America actually play at a pro level. And this 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:30.040 is in quotes. Just like it's very hard to get 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:32.560 into NFL or Major League Baseball, it's just as hard 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:35.480 to get into League of Legends. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, But 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:38.240 going back to league, So Maligue is a commentator for 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:42.200 one of the biggest leagues, which is the Overwatch League. Yeah, 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:45.040 because Blizzard Entertainment announced the Overwatch League based on the 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:49.200 game Overwatch in two thousand sixteen, with its inaugural regular 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:52.600 season featuring twelve teams starting in January two eighteen, and 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:55.200 players got contracts to play on teams that are guaranteed 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:57.880 an annual salary and benefits, as well as sharing the 0:16:57.880 --> 0:17:01.080 team's revenue and prize winnings. And the reason that's very 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:04.840 important is because kind of the the structure before it 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:08.880 was kind of iffy. You never knew what could happen if, like, 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:10.960 especially right now in the e s L, you have 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:15.439 teams cutting players right before the big matches and cutting 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:17.840 them in a way so that another team can't pick 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:21.240 them up, because just like just like other sports, their 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:24.720 trade blocks and there's like trade deadlines. So what they'll 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:26.639 do is they'll keep a player they know they're going 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:30.720 to drop on until the deadlines over so that other 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:33.320 teams can't pick them up and use that player against them. 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:35.480 But if you look at how it affects the player 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:38.720 players out of mound, Yeah, and not only that, we're 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:41.000 talking about young people here, So a lot of these 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:43.560 people are ones that have dropped out of college. They've 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.720 dropped out of school to pursue professional e sports and 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:49.720 now they're at a level where they are getting paid professionally, 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:53.200 but they don't necessarily always have a black up plan. 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:55.720 And so when you do something as shady as this 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:58.400 as cutting them, and then now they don't Now they're 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:01.399 out of money, and now they are also banned. Like 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:03.359 if you said where they can't get onto another team, 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:05.399 we kind of screwed them over. Yeah, they have to 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:09.560 wait till the next season pretty much. And you bring 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:11.280 up a good point where like a lot of these 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:15.560 kids aren't necessarily going to college. There there's no backup 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:18.480 plan and has it stands so far kind of because 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:22.040 we all know if you play football or basketball, you 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:23.600 play for as long as you can, but if you 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:25.679 get dropped, you have to find something to do, or 0:18:25.760 --> 0:18:27.760 if you last long enough, you become a coach. It's 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:30.640 very similar in E sports. There's coaches in the sports, 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:33.600 and a lot of these coaches are ex E sports players, 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:36.920 and your other options is either being commentators or trying 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:40.120 to make a living on Twitch streaming. But a lot 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:42.919 of times, you know, the big dogs on Twitch are 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:45.320 the ones who are still playing, right right, right, Yeah. 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.040 I think it's just important to understand that these are 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:51.200 young people. They also deal with the pressure. I think 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.600 that is something that they're not always used to as 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:57.160 far as you know, as reading interviews with them and 0:18:57.200 --> 0:18:59.920 some of their parents and stuff, that these are kids, 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:02.040 some of them have dropped out of college in order 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:04.080 to pursue this full time, and then they get cut, 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:06.760 or they lose a match, or they lose a tournament, 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:08.960 and it's like the amount of online harassment that they 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:11.119 deal with that I think all of us are like, yeah, well, 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:12.800 that's what you signed up for. I mean, that's not 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:15.040 how I feel, but that's what people say to me 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:18.800 about the career that I chose, is like, oh, well, 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:20.199 that's what you signed up for. You're gonna be a 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:21.960 public figure. You're gonna get this. And I'm like, yeah. 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:25.120 But one, they're young, so I don't think that they're 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:29.800 always necessarily prepared for the amount of online harassment or 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:34.280 and it's just relentless. I mean, I feel like that's uh, 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:35.879 something else that we can get into. But what I 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:38.760 did want to say is that there are universities that 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:43.159 encourage and have e sports programs. So um. According to 0:19:43.280 --> 0:19:46.679 scholarships dot Com, there are more than thirty u S 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:49.920 colleges and universities that offer scholarships for gamers, and I 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:51.920 guess the University of Utah is one of the largest 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:54.679 ones to offer scholarships for video gaming. UM. I was 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:57.480 watching an interview that they did that was talking about 0:19:57.520 --> 0:19:59.760 just like the important that I'm glad that a lot 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:03.880 of these universities understand where technology is going and they're 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:07.040 trying to also incorporate that, and mainly they also want 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:09.119 to encourage like, yeah, if you want to continue academics, 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:11.000 if you want to continue going to college, but you 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:14.240 also want to be a part of this esports program. 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:16.399 You can do both so you don't have to sacrifice it, 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:18.800 and you can get your school paid for exactly. Now, 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:21.399 that's that. I think that's a great plan. What I 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:23.960 didn't want to say is so the University of Utah 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:27.399 currently offers players partial video game scholarships, but with the 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:30.679 plan their future goal of offering full video game scholarships 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:34.440 to its gaming team. Oh yeah, but it's it's good, 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:37.040 but it's tricky for me because I feel like the 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:43.800 median age for most professional gamers is within the sixth range. 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:46.600 Except for Overwatch lea, I believe you have to be 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:49.359 over eighteen be a part of that league. But yeah, 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:51.879 because the median age is so young, it's hard to 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:57.080 really kind of capitalize off of, you know, a structure 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:00.440 similar to most sports, where you know, you go through college. 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:03.720 Most most players get the first two years, then they 0:21:03.960 --> 0:21:07.639 jump out, or sometimes they'll get the full four years. 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:11.440 But with this one, it's I don't know, we'll see. 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:14.399 I don't know if with the because also the reason 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:16.520 the media age is so young is because this is 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:19.760 those are the ones who are playing right now, and 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:25.200 I feel like this our generation at least, really, like 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:28.520 I said before, you weren't able to even compete in 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:30.119 the sports because your parents are like, what are you 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:32.320