eSports: the "opium" of the people

[BetLaden]

They fill stadiums. Tens of millions of fans are "pinned" on their screens to watch the finals. The conqueror of the top gets millions. Training is daily and at least 50 hours a week. How then can eSports players not see themselves in the 2024 Olympics?

Editor: Niki Bakoulis
Publication: 27 Aug 2017
source: sport24

The team at the SuperBowl, the most commercial sporting event in the United States, receives 7.3 million. The one who wins the UEFA Champions League gets (along with the trophy) 13.2 million. The one dominating eSports receives - for the trophy - close to 9 million. So you realize that gamers have found their way to the list of richest athletes. What; Aren't they athletes? Click the play in the video below. You will see how the latest International, the jewel of all eSports tournaments and the crowning of winners (Team Liquid) ended.

In the US there are now colleges that provide sports scholarships to videogames (Robert Morris University of Illinois and University of Pikeville). France has also recognized the sport, the 2016 and the players as athletes, and in our country there are two teams that have relevant divisions (Panathinaikos, Mars). Those in charge of the top leagues are moving the way to get eSports into the 2024 Olympics program - for the most obvious reason. A presentation was held in Rio de Janeiro last year and eight countries are competing to be placed on the Olympic platform this year.

In February 2016, the International eSports Federation applied to the IOC to recognize eSports as an official sport. The International Olympic Committee responded by sending the necessary steps to be taken, in order to receive "one day" the recognition. For their part, they have the commercial value they have acquired.

Earnings now reach 20 million

In this year's "International 2017", also known as the biggest DOTA2 tournament (owned by Valve Corporation, a company created by Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, former employees of Microsoft) the cash prizes exceeded 24 million euros. Half went to the winners. The rest was shared among the other 17 teams, based on their place in the standings, as revealed by the tournament held at the crowded Seattle Center in Los Angeles (17.000 spectators), while millions of pairs of eyes watched the developments from the live streaming broadcasts. To understand how times have changed, the 100.000 euros that was the cash prize of the 7 tournaments held in 1998 (with 28 players) became 66 million euros in the 1955 tournaments of 2017, in which 10.128 players participated. The prize for each event was on average. 30.000 euros and 5.000 euros the average salary of each player. All these reasons led us to the presentation of eSports, which according to expert estimates, in 2020 will have revenues of more than 1.275.000.000 euros.

And what do you care about?

Everything you have read and are going to read concerns the whole planet, to which Greece also belongs. Country at No. 36 on the list of "countries with the highest profits from eSports". You will tell me "how many?", I will answer you at 120 and somewhere there you will understand that compared to other sports (inside or outside quotes), our representatives do a great job. In the list on esportsearnings.com, you will see China at No. 1, with profits of 54.2 million euros and 2172 players representing it. America has the most games with 8888 players and 48.9 million euros ... income, while the top three is completed by Korea with 2360 players and 42 million euros revenue. In our country there are 202 players, who from their appearances so far in tournaments, have "made" 780.000 euros. What did you think of it;

The Greek player who "sits" at the top of our list (see Greek) is called Omar Davasas, is a Dota2 player and has the nickname "Madara". It belongs to the group called "mousesports" and is based in Germany. Omar started the competitions in 2015 and until today and his presence in 33 tournaments, he has "made" 116.000 euros. The biggest and most profitable distinction he has experienced was the second place of his team in "Boston Major 2016" (one ... of the grand prix of the Dota Championships - the first of the year). The prize for the players was 85.000 euros.

Our topic today is the presentation of eSports. There will be another one dedicated to what is happening in Greece. Because things are happening. To top it all, over 50.000 Euros are given each year in tournaments and each event has more than 10.000 fan-paid tickets. Panathinaikos and Mars have their own eSports divisions and our country will participate in the Balkan Championships starting in October, with a prize pool of 120.000 euros.

WHAT ARE ESPORTS

The name derives from the term "electronic sports" (see electronic games). It is a form of competition facilitated by electronic systems. Especially from video games. And now follows a short history lesson, so that we can all tune in at the same frequency. We start with when the first computer came about and what it was used for.
I will not go far behind you, that is to say in 2200 BC. when the first abacus - an object considered to be the first computer - appeared in the literal sense of the term. I'll stop you somewhere on 1943 when, during World War II, British mathematician Alan Turing designed a machine that could solve any problem, in the form of an algorithm.
His priority was to decode the Enigma machine (yes, from the Greek word "enigma"), which was inspired by the German electrical engineer Arthur Scherbius initially so that large companies - and especially banks - could protect company secrets. Later, it was used by the German army to send encrypted messages and became the weapon of the Nazis. Until Turing appeared and here I tell you that the Turing Machine is taught to this day, in the university faculties of computer science of the planet. The sequel was - for the most part - as follows.

The evolution of computers

Top row (from left): Alan Turing, the Turing Machine, ENIAC (Electronic Numeric Integrator and Computer, the first-large-scale reprogrammable digital computer), EDSAC (Computer-Aided Storage Computer) program).

Bottom row (left): the 701 (IBM's first large computer), the TX-O (the first self-programmable computer built by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), the CDC 6600 (Seymour Cray supercomputer running more than 3.000.000 commands per second) and the HP-2115 (Hewlett-Packard's first computer, which offered the power of much larger computers in a size that could fit in living rooms).

1970 the US Department of Defense funded ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), the first packet switching network to be the dominant data communication base worldwide. This spreads computer-to-computer communication through a network of partner computers. This is how the Internet came together. Two were at the University of California, one in Santa Barbara, one in Los Angeles and one in Utah. Beyond that, speeds are getting faster, sizes are getting smaller, personal computers and all the way are demanding and luxurious. Like video games, in a very early form.

 

[BetLaden]

WHO WAS THE FIRST VIDEO GAME

As people with access to computers grew, so did their demands, as did the inspirations for technology. The first attempts at video games were made at the end of the 40. The first was Bertie the Brain (1950) and contained something of a trilogy. Dr. made it Josef Kates, a Canadian engineer who has also signed on to create the first automatic traffic control lantern. Bertie the Brain was a wall of 4 meters high and the user was playing against an artificial intelligence machine.

The 1952 Turing presented his own game, in collaboration with statistician DG Champernowne: it was Turochamp and the object was chess. They developed an algorithm that valued methods and options. The process reached a point, but it was never completed and the plan was abandoned. 1951 appeared on Bouncing Ball, a program written by MIT student Charly Adama. It was the first game - and the first computer - to display real-time graphics and text video on an oscilloscope display. But it had no interactivity, which was true of the other three inventions (that is, the machine itself was playing).

When did physics come into play

The first physics video games appeared in the late 50's. In fact, in 1958 the American physicist William Higinbotham (a member of the team that developed the first nuclear bomb) created "Tennis for Two" in his work at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. He designed it in a few hours and "built" it with the help of an engineer who worked in the same laboratory. On the computer, a flat tennis court and an obstacle representing the net appeared. The ball was brighter than the others. See the process.

This was followed in 1962 by Spacewar !, which was conceived by MIT student Steve Russell and executed with the help of five of his classmates. It was about the intergalactic battle and evolved into one of the most important video game games, along with one of the most influential developments in history. In the small -then- community of developers it was extremely popular. An eyewitness, a Stanford student, wrote on kotaku.com that "every night - non-working hours - in North America, hundreds of computer technicians came out of their bodies and were" locked in "a space battle of life or death projected onto imaging screens. "We squinted for hours and hours. We rolled our eyes and our fingers numb, with the frantic forging of the control buttons, happily killing our friends as we wasted the valuable computer time belonging to our employers." It inspired other games, such as the first commercial electronic video games, namely "Galaxy Game", "Computer Space" and "Asteroids".

The next machine available to the public (and working on the coin) was the first to have a sports object. It was called Pong, from table tennis and had two-dimensional graphics. Also, two players could play simultaneously! 1972 was introduced (1975 also got a home version and was the first to become extremely popular with the world. It belonged to Atari, a company that if you didn't know to tell you that there is a huge generation gap between us. The company appeared on 26 / 7 at 1972 and made a break (the kind that Apple did in the last decade). Its founder, Nolan Bushnell, was disgusted when he first started Spacewar! 1966. of Utah and then inspired ... the slit and the coin.

Together with Ted Dabney they worked on creating a wired custom computer that the "player" could control manually and play on a black and white TV screen. The concept was to mark UFOs. The experiment took place at the University, he had no commercial luck and then a graphic design specialist was hired and a little later the company Atari emerged. The name was from Japan and meant "hit the target". It also means "I accept a happy time", something that Bushnell and Dabney lived through for years.

The first prize was a subscription to "Rolling Stone"

With that and that, I got to you in 1972. So in October of that year, a store, Andy Capp's Tavern (a bar in Sunnyvale, California, now part of Silicon Valley) was 30 days old. of Pong. But the theme of the spectators was different: Spacewar! now housed at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. On the day of the 10th anniversary of the first video game for the people (17/10), at Stanford University ... they celebrated! The Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics are scheduled for the University's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. The winners were Robert E Maas, Bruce Baumgart and Tovar, who spent the rest of the day working on placing a sensory intelligence on a robot vehicle. first -official- eSports competition, if you consider that it was not about electronic games, but computer.

Before we move on, I would like to talk to you about Maze War, a game that Steve Colley "wrote" for the computer (in 1973) that created a series of concepts that are still used today (eg 3D perspective, first person , avatars, the position of the player is displayed at map level, while it was the first game played between two computers). It is considered the first example or the ancestor of video games that make you an executor. There is, of course, another point of view that wants Spasim to be the first 3D game. It had 4 planetary systems and 8 players could deal with each one. Released in March 1974, by Jim Bowery, it gave a $ 500 prize to anyone who proved that there was an earlier 3D game.

Both were operating on the PLATO platform. In brief I will tell you that this was the first computer-aided teaching, computer-aided teaching system of the University of Illinois, the Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operation. This is what set up your forums, message boards, chat rooms, instant messaging and games for many users.

The "father" of the console

Atari continued to play ... unrivaled (had several but led the race) until the late 80s, with the move that boosted its revenue to the Atari 2600. It was not the first home video game console . This first belonged to the German-born, US-raised engineer Ralph H. Baer, ​​who is considered the "father of the gaming machine". One stop here. In 1951, Baer was asked to make "the best television in the world." Thinking that the prices of the devices are "falling" and therefore the market is "opening", he suggested to his boss, Loral, the idea that the consumer can play games on the TV screen. Turned down. See a little, again the year. We are moving forward. When he changed employer (he went to Sanders Accociates) he made the offer again. This time, they did not say "no". The first commercial console was released in May 1972. In the first phase, it had 4 built-in games. The trend was table tennis. For a start, it sold 340.000 units.

Baer with his inspiration

In December 1974, the discovery of Ralph H. Baer (TV games) took place in Tokyo, with the Vending Times reporting that "Sega Enterprises Ltd. hosted a tournament featuring representatives of the city's newspapers and entertainment companies. Sixteen people competed in the final round, among 300 champions across the country - the selection was made by lot. The prizes were televisions. transistors and cassette players, and in a way, this process went down in history as the first videogames competition.

In February, Xerum Baer was honored with the National Medal of Technology by the Planetarium. He died on 2006 / 6 at 12, at the age of 2014.
Atari did not turn a blind eye to the developments. Instead ... he was again inspired by others to create the Atari 2600 console released on September 11, 9. His groundbreaking innovation was a microprocessor that allowed the consumer to play games that were not built-in, using a " cassette "which later became a" floppy disk ". Magravox counterattacked (with 1977-player console and game cartridges), the other competitors disappeared from the map, the story began to decline and that was when Atari made the matte move: released in 4, a new version of the game Space Invaders, a game that made history.


What is the "new version" for? It's time to meet the wonderful Mr. Nishikado

The Space Invaders you mentioned was made by Tomohiro Nishikado for the Japanese company Taito, 1978. Because microcomputers in his country did not have the power needed to deliver Nishikado's complex design and programming requirements, he had to build his own hardware and develop the game's own tools. He bought microprocessors from the US and made his own electronic board. All this resulted in something unique and by the end of 1978 it had raised 500 million in Japan alone. In two years, he sold more than 300.000 Space Invaders electronics in his home country.
When it "opened" in America, in one year it sold 60.000 in America, where prices were between 1.500 and 2.500 euros. Until June 1981, gross revenue was 7 billion euros ... today's money. By 1982 the creator had become 1.50 billion euros richer - again, today money. His inspiration became the best-selling and most profitable of his time. It was only compared to the Star Wars movie.

It created global frenzy

An article was published in the "New Yorker" about ... the side effects of the game's popularity. In Japan, for example, a few weeks after the release, a 12-year-old man entered a bank armed, demanding that he be given all the coins he had to play Space Invaders. In November 1981, in England, a 14-year-old resorted to market love to find money to play, while the police of North England had announced that the madness for the game had doubled the robberies. Even the then Minister of Labor, George Foulkes, had referred to the blurred eyes of the youth, asking the Parliament to do something to save them from the game.
Writer Martin Amis had written about a young actress he knew who had injured his index finger at a point "reminiscent of a fused liver." There are also reports from Australia that children did not go to school to visit places where the machine was. Cities had run out of 20-cent coins, and investigations had begun into Space Invaders causing nervousness and addiction.

 

[BetLaden]

The Space Invaders Championship is the "zero" point of eSports

Atari got the rights and made it the first "killer app" for video game consoles. She saw sales of her products quadruple. It started with 2 million units in the first year and ... continued from there, as the relevant industry revived. To deify the developments, the company organized in 1980 the Space Invaders Championship, in which 10.000 players of all ages participated. First there were four regional races (the one in New York was won by 14-year-old Frank Tetro, scoring 110.125 points in one hour) and then the final phase. The title was given to a man named Bill Heineman, a programmer by profession.

Videogaming proved to be a trend that occupied many and so in 1981 the Twin Galaxies organization was introduced, which aimed to record top performance. Its founder, Walter Day, had visited more than 100 vending machines to record the best scores and then steadily increased the list he published each year. The Americans formed a national team in July 1983 (US National Video Game Team), but in the absence of ... a second, the orientation changed and its members devoted themselves to the events held for the Guinness record, as well as its sponsorships. sport. The competitions, which were now mentioned, in popular newspapers and magazines, such as "Life" and "Time", increased, after the number of players, the number of games had increased, while something came into our lives that you would say changed it drastically : the Internet.

Before we continue, I need to introduce you to Starcade, a TV show in which there were two players or two teams playing three rounds of a video game. To begin the process, the player had to answer a game-related question correctly. Then, he chose the one of his choice and had 60 '' to catch the highest possible score. His opponent was called to play the same game etc. The TBS show was on the air from 1982 to 1984 and ended in 133 episodes. Gave on the show That's Incredible! (ABC) the idea to integrate in the reality program the projection of the North American Video Game Challenge, an international tournament that went down in history as the first world videogaming championship.
The North American Video Game Challenge, which since its second year (1984) was renamed the Video Game Masters Tournament, was no easy task. Twin Galaxies commissioned the US National Video Game Team to collect and confirm scores from eight cities (in the same number of machines) that took part in the premiere - the third year was 35.

Then each contestant was responsible for himself. That is, it paid for travel and subsistence expenses in whatever city hosted the five-day tournament. For this time, they were receiving a living wage. 1983 events were seven different (Star Trek, Buck Rogers Planet of Zoom, Congo Bongo, Sinistar, Bubbles, Mario Bros) and Spike's Peak, the game that Atari 2600 had not yet released. The ten finalists from each of the eight regions met in the finals. The top ten were invited to the national. Let me remind you that the Internet was an unknown word, OK?

By 1969 US Universities had begun experimenting with the interface of remote computers. In order to make a huge - and extremely interesting - story, I will shortly argue that from 1993 and the World Wide Web credited to the Swiss CERN lab (and to Tim Berners Lee), everything has become simpler since anyone with a PC and modem, could connect with anyone his soul wanted, through the multimedia information interconnection system stored on thousands of Internet computers around the world - and presented on electronic pages, which can be browsed using the mouse. Why this is www.

The ease of access has attracted a large number of new users and it goes without saying that video game companies have not missed this opportunity (online communication) to go astray. They were constantly displaying new PC products with improved graphics, providing access to the host and the ability to play - for anyone interested - an individual game online. Soon, users had the opportunity to compete with players from around the world on their home couch.

The first online game, with two dimensions and graphics, with many players was called Xtrek and users ... were divided into the Star Trek universe. He did not "know" that he was using a network, since the program was "running" on a computer. The X Window System took care of the display on different screens.

Netrek was the first game to be "written" entirely in open source multi-platform software. That is, it was the first online game and it patented a few patents (eg the code so that someone could not "steal", the observer function, etc.).

It became the first Internet group game and the first to use metaservers to detect open game servers.

It was also the first ... obsessed with information that a user had to provide. In 1993, Wired Magazine named it "the first online sports game". They could play up to 16 people and it was a real time strategy game. Players tried to deactivate or destroy enemy ships in realtime. They also attacked enemy planets with bombs and left their troops on friendly planets. The goal was to understand all the planets of the opposing team.
Both Xtrek and Netrek were the first notes on the list of MOBA games (Multiplayer online battle arena), which I had a real-time strategy. Overall, they did the slide show for Nintendo to take on the new era.

The contests went on, on a limited level, though history (and possibly urban legend) has written that a man named Dennis Fony had donated a Ferrari as a first in a Quake PC tournament. He called on players to find their way through various labyrinths of medieval environments, while battling with monsters, using a variety of weapons.

In 2000 there was a small revolution, thanks to games like Starcraft and World of warcraft. These were the ones that allowed the first teams, with professional players. That is, there were now people who made videogames careers and lived off the prize money of the competitions. In that regard, good luck to Nintendo. The word means "assign" (nin) and "sky" (tendo).

He appeared on the world map, 1889, in Kyoto, Japan as a maker of handmade cards and especially playing cards. In the late '90s 70 invested in video games and initially became the official distributor of Magnavox Odyssey in Japan.

There was a new loss, and so the owner decided that it would be useful to create his own video game console. It was Famicom (Family Computer) and 1983 was introduced in Japan. The original version crashed, Nintendo withdrew the console, fixed it, and re-released 1985, along with Super Mario Bros. The sequel obviously and you know it. In any case, in the video below you will see the evolution of Nintendo, up to 2012, in two minutes.

In 1990, while the Japanese company had become dominant in America, the representative in the USA decided to organize a championship, the Nintendo World Championships. It started at Dallas Fair Park's Automobile Building and ended with tours (see championships) in 29 cities. The players were divided into three different groups (up to 11 years old, 12-17 and 18+) and competed for three days. The top scorers claimed the title of "City Champion". The first received 200 euros, a prize and a trip (for two) to the World Finals held at Universal Studios Hollywood, Los Angeles. The finalists won a Power Pad and a Game Boy.

From the official 10 tournaments to the 260

In the finals, the winner would have emerged from the competition process in Super Mario Bros, Rad Racer and Tetris. The one who scored the highest score in 6 minutes and 21 '' (in each category) would receive the trophy - a gold plated miniature of Mario - along with 9.000 euro bonds, a car, an 40 inch TV. The experiment succeeded, followed by other companies, the videogames acquired their own TV shows, the development of games, the speed of connection / response speed and the appearance of many more players led the 10 to officially XNUM tournaments, 2000 the 260.

Most popular were (and some remain)

*the World Cyber ​​GamesIt was first organized in 2000 by World Cyber ​​Games Inc. of South Korea, sponsored by Samsung Electronics and the government, in the logic of sports tournaments. There was an opening ceremony and players from many countries competing for gold, the silver and bronze medal.The motto was "Beyond the game" and went down in history as "The Olympic Games of video games". In the maiden appearance there were teams from 17 countries involved in the Quake III Arena, FIFA 2000, Age of Empires II and StarCraft: Brood War.The total prize was € 170.000 (in 2007 it reached € 3.5 million and 700 participants from 75 countries).

*the Intel Extreme Masters (a series of international eSports tournaments in many countries around the world. This is the Electronic Sports League, the oldest of all in the eSports field that remains active and based in Cologne, Germany. It is sponsored by Intel, an American multinational technology company, with Headquartered in Silicon Valley, players compete in various games, the main ones being Starcraft II, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Quake Live, League of Legends and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.In the final phase of 2016, 500.000 was awarded to winners About 113.000 fans watched closely what happened to Katowice and others. 2.000.000 viewers watched the developments from their home - in livestreaming and television broadcasting - and we'll talk about that later.

*the Major League Gaming (is a professional eSports organization based in New York. 2002 was founded and initially undertook official tournaments in America and Canada. The company has been involved in television productions and new game development. 2006's Boost Mobile MLG Pro Circuit was the first console video game broadcast in the US, by USA Network cable television, while G4 - an American cable and satellite television company that no longer deals with the issue - showed X-ray profiles, highlights, and profiles. Winners were given + 7 Euros 750.000 signed an 2009 Euros contract with Ritchie Capital Management - an asset management company - to create the world's first professional videogames league, MLG signed exclusive contracts with some of the best players and games on the league menu are Starcraft II and League of Legends, PC, Mortal Kombat, Soul Calibur V and King of Fighters XIII, PlayStation 9.000.000 and Super Smash Bros. Melee for Nintendo).

24 / 7 StarCraft coverage

South Korea's Ongamenet (cable) and MBCGame (MBC Plus Media (closed) on January 31, 1) television networks were the first to offer videogames fans constant updates on what was happening at the event. And when we say continuous, we mean continuous. They were dedicated 2012 hours a day to the tournaments that usually involved StarCraft and Warcraft III.

Onamame was created to follow - and cover - StarCraft's growing publicity in Korea, and 2000 created its own Starleague broadcast on its own channel (OnGameNet). In the twelve decades that followed, it was such that fans were countless and the network had exclusive contracts with top teams.

Twitter and Facebook bought ... some

Worldwide, there have been several attempts by television networks to cover the events (ESPN, CBS, DirectTV is on the list), but there has been nothing lasting. It didn't have to, because eSports at one point and then learned to exploit their capabilities. What I mean: good online streaming.

It goes without saying that there would be no eSports without streamers, the millions of players who helped build and empower the community by streamlining their games live and allowing comments, discussions and the creation of their own brand. The strongest (the 17.000 "strongest") earned their share of the profit-sharing program from the ads they choose when to run. Twitch, which "covers" all tournaments, appeared in 2011 and now has 9 million visitors a day and about 100 million a month. In 2014 it was acquired by Amazon, for 826.291.706 euros.

AP Photo / Mark J. Terrill, File

In June of 2016, research firm Newzoo announced that in the past ten months, 100's millions of Twitch viewers had watched 800 millions of hours of eSports. And if the media giants are still wary, let me know that Twitter signed a deal in March with ESL (Electronic Sports League) and DreamHack (Swedish digital concert broadcasting and eSports) for livestreaming 15 broadcast of the top tournaments.

Two months later, something similar happened to Facebook - the 1.94 billion active users per month - when it announced its partnership with ESL for 5.550 live broadcast times and other original content, including 1.500 live prime time tournaments, in six languages ​​( English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and German). Live streaming is also available on YouTube.

 

[BetLaden]

From the underground to the larger stages

Thirty-six million fans watched the League of Legends final in 1.4 (a game that "made" 2015 billion euros two years ago - a crazy fact if you consider that it has free download) in 23. In the same year, 17 million fans watched its finals NBA and 17.000 million Major League Baseball finals. The 2013 tickets of 3, for the same event that took place in Berlin, disappeared in 10.000 minutes and the 2015 tickets of International 10, in 40 '. Madison Square Garden, Staples Center, and other large arenas are packed to the brim for eSports tournaments and are not the only ones - although tickets cost from $ 55 to $ XNUMX each.

According to newzoo.com, 2018 the industry concerned will show 592.750.000 euro growth and 43.3% growth, compared to what it is worth this year. Companies are expected to spend 440 million, of which 132 million will be advertising, 226.5 million sponsorships and other media rights. Experts estimate that the value of eSports will reach 2020 at 1.277.443.957 euros, without counting on the money companies spend on creating new games. Typically, one of the latter cost 24 million.

The public is expected to reach 385.000.000 viewers by the end of this year, with 191.000.000 not losing tournaments for tournaments. It is estimated that the 2020 number will be 286 million viewers.

The most famous games- and the exorbitant cost

The most popular games in eSports are those that offer the possibility for "versus multiplayer", with the best known being League of Legends (the most successful PC video game of 2017, with the highest revenue of the year - it had more than FIFA 17) StarCraft , DotA (Defense of the Ancients), but also the Grand Theft Auto V which was the most profitable, for 2017 - in terms of games for consoles.

After the advent of smartphones, the list of games for mobile phones was added, where Honor of Kings (with historical characters of the country) "sits" at No. 1 and came to us from China, where it has been characterized as "drug" due to addictive incidents. children -there is a suicide of a boy associated with the game. Statistics show it has 80 million daily active users - and 200 million registered - with owner Tencent (which also owns the League of Legends) announcing last July that it was preparing a theme park and eSports complex. He revealed that he will add a time limit for use by children.

It is free to play (free "download"), but to upgrade the characters or costumes, to go to the next levels, you give something of your own (from 1 to 5 euros per month, the person). Tencent (basically a portfolio investment company after providing Internet, media services, entertainment, payment systems, smartphones, etc.) "pulled out" 6.1 billion euros in the first four months of 2017. 3.3 billion euros came from the dominant games.

I didn't tell you that the money that companies are investing in creating new AAA titles has gone up. The first cost concerns the salary of developers who have a difficult task, given that their product needs to be more sophisticated, more realistic and more complex and graphical. The Atari ET, 1982, cost 17.8 million because it was made by a man in six weeks and was unique in its kind - at that time. An average cost from 1982 to 1996 was 1.000.000 euros. From there 2002 reached 3.000.000 euros and in the ensuing years the money was lost. Enter the Matrix cost Atari first 40 million for Matrix rights and then 17 million for the creation of the video game, with other companies increasing their investment and reaching close to 8 million . euro. Some (Halo2) exceeded 20 million.

The evolution of graphics from 1962 to 2017

In the past, each character needed two weeks of work. Now it takes at least seven weeks of effort. A game that needs the contribution of 100 people (Destiny needed 500), for two years of work gives only relative salaries of 15 million euros. Then you have the actors who give (for free) their voices, special music and permission. When you prepare the project, you need money for advertising and of course the costs for production and distribution follow. According to the Economist, the cost has now reached the level of that for the production of blockbuster Hollywood movie (225 million euros). Engadget.com added that World of Warcraft cost € 170 million to maintain and improve in the first four years of its release (2008-2012). Somewhere here to say that the Grand Theft Auto V "took out" on the first day of release 679 million euros.

The Dota 2-Join the Battle promo

Now let's look at the most highly paid players that are by no means coincidentally featured in DotA 2, the game that has the most players on Steam (Valve Corporation's digital multiplayer gaming platform, video streaming, etc.). .. by DotA 2). The change observed in the top positions in the world rankings is due to the latest International that gave the largest cash prize in the history of eSports (24 million).

#1 Kuro Takhasomi (KuroKy)

The dominant team in eSports, at the moment, is called Liquid and has won 14.357.174 euros from its participation in 1022 tournaments. Her star is 24-year-old Kuro Takhasomi (KuroKy). Born in Germany on October 28, 10, he is No. 1992 in the world rankings and has "made" 1 euros from his participation in 2.863.641 tournaments. He started competing in 75, a year when he had won 2008 euros. Distinguished in Dota105.

#2 Amer Barqawi (Miracle)

Second on the list of best video games is Amer, born on June 20, 6, whose father is from Jordan and whose mother is from Poland. He has belonged to Liquid since 1997 and this year he saw his income increase fivefold, as his team also prevailed in International. In the first year of the competition, in 2016, he had "made" 2015 euros, in 212.000 he reached 2016 million euros and this year he became a millionaire (332 euros). If you do the sum you will see that it is by no means negligible, and much if you consider that it has played in only 1.960.000 tournaments.

#3 Sahil Arora (UNiVeRsE)

Born on 11 / 10 to 1989, in Wisconsin, USA, Sahil is known as UNiVeRsE. He belongs to the team of Evil Geniuses (N2 of the rankings) and his profits from his work have reached 2.500.000 euros after the 64 tournament. The biggest prize he received at an event was 1.130.000 euros at International 2015. It started with 3.543 euros, 2011, and this year ... it was enough for 165.000 euros.

Up to No. 44 on the list of the best had an annual income of at least 1.000.000 euros. In the teams, Team Liquid, based in the Netherlands, is at the top and has received 14.370.000 euros in the 1022 tournaments that have appeared. It is followed by Evil Geniuses (based in San Francisco), with 14 million euros in 662 tournaments and the one that completes the TOP3 of the best is from China and is called "Newbee". It has won 10 million euros from 96 tournaments and its leader is 27-year-old Zhang Pan (Mu), whom you will find at No. 23 in the world rankings. His own profits correspond to 1.185.000 euros, after the 48 tournaments in which he has participated from 2011 until today.

Morning, evening, all together

Team members live in the same house (some teams don't leave it all year) and most leave the family home for the first time. So they learn to live as adults, to cook, to pay bills, to take care of themselves, their clothes, and their home. The lounges usually have the best equipment available so that they can workout perfectly (50 hours per week). In the kitchen, they all come with a sign so that children are not lost and in the cupboards there is always a donor product. Usually, there are up to two players in the room (the coach is left alone), decoration is an unfamiliar word (they have no time for ... such details) and the only sure thing is that everyone has the same thing in mind: how to win at next tournament.

SPONSORS AND FIFA

Ad Age.com was the one that revealed on the 1st day of last July that the organizing authority of the North American League Champioship Series, Riot Games Inc. is considering developing it into a "closed" league, with 10 fixed teams, starting in 2018. According to Bloomberg, each team pays 8.5 million euros for participation. Two years ago, the amount was 850.000 euros. The increase in the total cash prizes received by the players was proportional, which in 2018 is expected to reach 595 million euros (in the total of 4.500 tournaments, of the top titles), with the help of sponsors.

Like Coca-Cola, which was the sponsor of last year's League of Legends World Finals. Coke agreed with EA Sports and FIFA on the creation of a minor league tournament, the FIFA eCOPA Coca Cola, aimed at amateurs - ideally college kids - and gave them the opportunity to take part in their first championship. The winner was a sophomore at Arizona State University and received an 4.000 Euro Scholarship, plus a wild card to compete in the EA Sports FIFA 17 Ultimate Team Regional Finals.

In the list of those who already have an active role in what is happening are YouTube, Google, Microsoft, Sony, Doritos, Audi, Gillette, Bud Light and Red Bull, and there are many other companies that have purchased (see maintain) teams, as 95% of the money each team needs comes from sponsorships. And it's not enough to be a good year. To find money, to support the team, you must always be good. Possible exclusion from tournaments means that sponsors will not be promoted and will therefore look for the next jersey. Yes, no stress.