The Economist - USA (2020-06-27)

50 International The EconomistJune 27th 2020

2 known by his tag “Faker”, may be the high-

est-paid sportsman in his country.

Older sports are moving in. f1’s e-sports

competition existed before covid-19

brought it to television, as did enascar

races. Michael Jordan, a retired basketball

star, is among those to have invested in

Team Liquid, which plays in around a doz-

en e-sports. In November Manchester City,

an English football club, unveiled its pro-

fessional “fifa” team—based in South Ko-

rea. Games of “Starcraft”, a strategy game,

were first screened on cable tvthere in the

1990s. Korean teenagers play, after school

and before private tuition, in internet ca-

fés, known as “pc bangs” (pcrooms).

Activision Blizzard, a publisher, runs

leagues for “Call of Duty” and “Overwatch”,

two first-person shooter games. These are

modelled on conventional sports leagues,

with teams that rent stadiums and play at

home and away. Being based in a specific

city enables teams to generate local sup-

port, as well as revenue from local spon-

sors, says Ben Spoont, the ceoof Misfits

Gaming, which owns the Florida Mayhem

“Overwatch” team.

Crowding in

Last year Epic Games, the publisher of

“Fortnite”, launched a “World Cup”. Any-

one could apply to play: 40m did so. The fi-

nals filled 19,000 seats of the Arthur Ashe

stadium in New York and $30m of prize

money was dished out to the winners.

Though South Korea remains a leader in

e-sports, China is catching up. The island

of Hainan, popular for its beach resorts,

has set aside $141m to subsidise interna-

tional e-sports. In Hangzhou government

money has been used to build an “e-sports

town”, featuring a 56,000-square-foot

(5,200-square-metre) arena, which is

home to the Chinese “League of Legends”

games, sponsored by Tencent. There are

also shops, a training academy and an e-

sports-themed hotel.

For a generation that lives chiefly on-

line anyway, games are a means of socialis-

ing, like traditional sports. Thurston Jepps,

a 12-year-old from London, mainly plays

“Minecraft”, a free-roaming construction

game, and “Overwatch”. He guesses that at

least four-fifths of the time he spends play-

ing is with friends online, rather than

alone. Logging into his Xbox and seeing

who is online is a little like going to the

park to see who is around for a kick-about.

“I don’t often play single-player games un-

less I am kinda lonely,” he says. “Playing

alone is very uncool.” Sometimes he and

his friends play competitively, but often

they just hang out and talk on voice-chat.

E-sports are different in some respects,

however. Nobody owns the game of soccer

or basketball. That is not true of e-sports.

Publishers control the games. And grass-

roots do not exist in the same way. Children

are not encouraged to play video games at

schools; most amateur teams exist only

online; the pathway into playing profes-

sionally is unclear. Some teams are trying

to change that. Mr Spoont’s firm has held

“block parties’’ to encourage parents to

take the game seriously. His teams have

scouts to recruit the best players interna-

tionally, much as other sports do. But he

admits that there is a long way to go. “Par-

ents are rightly anxious,” says Mr Spoont,

who limits his six-year-old’s screen time.

These games bring with them fears that

do not apply to kicking a football around a

pitch. Fewer people now worry about viol-

ent video games causing real-world vio-

lence, but newer concerns have arisen. Last

year lawyers in Canada filed a suit on be-

half of two sets of unidentified parents ac-

cusing Epic Games of bringing in psychol-

ogists to help make “Fortnite” more

addictive. Players are encouraged to buy

“battle passes” to customise their charac-

ters. For all that executives talk about me-

dia rights and sponsorship, much of the e-

sports industry is cross-subsidised by

money made on in-game purchases. The

prize money at the “Fortnite” World Cup

came from Epic, which made $1.8bn last

year from microtransactions in the game.

The free-to-play model may bring in

millions more players, but it also relies on

a small minority spending extravagant

sums on virtual uniforms. Britain’s Depart-

ment for Culture, Media and Sport has just

launched a call for evidence to look at “loot

boxes”—virtual purchases that some cam-

paigners think are akin to gambling. The

sale of loot boxes can create bills that go be-

yond what parents can afford. Last year

Valve, the makers of “Counter-Strike”, an-

other shooter game, banned the trading of

virtual items which were being used to

launder money.

Gambling is another worry. Just as it did

with baseball in the 1920s, gambling on e-

sports threatens to undo the professional-

ism of the league. “Counter-Strike”,

“League of Legends” and “Overwatch” have

all had match-fixing scandals. Some play-

ers have resorted to doping—Adderall, a

stimulant prescribed to treat attention-

deficit disorder, has been used to stay alert

during long sessions.

And then there is politics. In the Gulf

states and China governments have

cracked down on political activism spread

via video games. In Hong Kong “Animal

Crossing”, a video game, stopped being

sold in April after it was used by virtual

protesters to mock Beijing.

Not just a game

As games evolve more into social net-

works, it is also harder to control the con-

tent that children see. And unlike the text

on social networks such as Twitter and Fa-

cebook, voice chat is harder to moderate.

Rodolfo Rosini, a technology entrepreneur

in London, says he has no trouble with his

son Finn making friends online, but wor-

ries about the “toxicity” of some games he

and his children play. On games like “Over-

watch”, which mostly have a young-adult

audience, bullying is common. Racism is

especially common on some American

servers, he says. Encountering racist

chants is also a risk of going to a football

match—but it is easier for parents to avoid.

If anything checks the rise of e-sports

competing with football or basketball for

the world’s attention, though, it may be

that video games move too fast. “League of

Legends” has been going for a decade;

“Counter-Strike” is almost two decades

old. That is an aeon for a video game still to

be played. But compared with sports that

were codified in the 19th century, it is short.

The Overwatch League has struggled over

the past year as some of its players have

switched to “Valorant”, a new shooting

game, or from playing in teams to stream-

ing live on YouTube. In the end, there may

simply be too many games to try. 7

Home runs

Globalaveragemonthlyviewers

ofgamesonTwitch,’000

Source: Twitchtracker.com

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2019 2020

Call of Duty:

Modern Warfare

Fortnite

League of Legends

WHO declares covid-19 a pandemic