Let's Chat Games 009 - What Happened with Esports?

Esports were everywhere... now... not so much.

First, yes, I know some esports competitions/tournaments are still really big. DOTA pulls XXXXXXXX viewers, blah, blah, blah, blah. I’m not trying to be annoying in dismissing those facts, but I am trying to move them out of the way to get to the bigger picture: esports haven’t become what “everyone” (and certainly venture capital folks) wanted/hoped them to be.

ESPN had an esports department. IGN had an esports department. FaZe clan went public via a SPAC. 100 Thieves was the next huge thing. A reported 4.5 BILLION dollars was invested in esports in 2018. It seemed like everywhere you looked, eports was there. Esports were on SportsCenter. Colleges were spinning up esports teams. Esports, esports, esports, ESPORTS!!!!

Now… yeah, not so much. ESPN’s esports department is long gone. So is IGN’s. FaZe clan never became the stock darling investors were hoping it would become. 100 Thieves had layoffs. The Overwatch League never challenged “traditional” sports for viewership or public mindshare, and underwent a MASSIVE overhaul/shutdown. Esports just never really caught on.

The question then, was there ever any “there there,” or was the esports “craze” companies looking to make “fetch happen” during an era of interest-free money? Was it too much, too fast? Like rollerblading in the 90s, too much of a spotlight was put on a thing instead of letting that thing grow organically on its own, allowing it to find its own place and culture? Do most people just not care about watching world-class gamers play video games competitively?

Reasons have been given for why esports didn’t become the next BIG thing. The toxicity of Activision/Blizzard probably didn’t help the Overwatch League. The fact that the companies that own the games also own the competitive leagues for those games is also a little iffy. What’s the main profit driver, selling the game (or its in-game microtransactions) to people the world over, or making a game that is the best possible game for esports? So far, in my opinion, those two things aren’t the same. I don’t have to pay the NBA, or anyone else for that matter, money when my friends and I want to go play basketball. But if we want to play LoL… well, get ready for prompts about spending money. The funnel is always pointing toward getting people playing to spend money. If you and your friends play soccer every weekend, soccer never starts showing you prompts to buy stuff. Just saying.

But to me, the reason I think esports “flopped” is mostly… watching the people who play the games competitively just isn’t fun. To be clear, watching people play games can be fun. Twitch, Let’s Plays, all that. I get it. I get the fun in that. So I am not saying watching someone play games is unfun. I’m saying watching esports players play games is unfun. The game itself might be riveting (though I’ll have more to say on that later), but the human moment-to-moment is boring.

When you’re watching an esport event, you’d never want to just watch a player’s face or hands. What they’re doing is incredible, no doubt about that, but it’s not impressive to watch. It doesn’t look cool, even if I know my hands could never move that fast, my eyes never see what they see. For a small group of people, sure, maybe watching a player’s hands move is rewarding, but that is someone looking for a specific thing. Like someone who watches a DJ work their magic, while only watching their hands, without listening to anything that they’re playing. I’m sure those people are out there, but that’s never going to be a mainstream success.

OK, but what about the game itself? Video games can be flashy and impressive no doubt. But in esports, flashy doesn’t always mean it was a good move. I could do a super in Street Fighter and the screen would light up, and it would look cool, but if I did it at the wrong time, it would be a terrible move in a competition. The move that punishes me for this mistake, might just start as a simple jab, something not flashy at all. There’s no clarity for the average viewer to appreciate what is “good” and what isn’t. And, if we’re just watching the video of the game, who’s to say that isn’t just an animated movie? You and I know it isn’t, but to someone just watching casually, it totally could be… which, again brings us back to the “people who are playing aren’t fun to watch” problem…. which also then leads to a disconnect between which actual human is doing what on screen. There’s a lot to keep track of for a casual viewer, and those are all big hurdles to mainstream success.

Lastly, a lot of games aren’t great to watch. Overwatch is cool. It’s highly competitive. The screen for Overwatch is first person. Same with Call of Duty. And while Fortnite is third person, this same issue still applies. If I’m watching one person’s game in Overwatch, I can’t see what else is happening on the map. Yes, competitions have screens from multiple people up, and a map, and they jump around from player to player, but again, that’s confusing. Unless you know the map like the back of your hand, you’re going to get lost trying to keep track of who is where and what they’re doing.

I’m not saying esport viewership won’t grow. I’m not saying there isn’t money in esports, but I am saying there’s a reason why fetch never happened and why fetch will never happen. Just my two cents.

What do you think? What did I get right? What did I get wrong? You can comment directly here in Substack, or you can just reply to this email and let me know your thoughts. I always do my very best to reply to everyone. I love the dialogue.

Thanks for being here!

-C