Esports Evolution: A Brief History of eSports and Competitive Gaming
A Short History of Competitive Video Gaming and the Evolution of Esports
The gaming industry we see in 2023 is vastly different from even 10 years ago.
From arcades to home video games, to the giant business it is today, gaming has gone from an entertaining hobby to an entertainment universe of its own making.
Video games have become the biggest worldwide medium of entertainment, and one thing that helped make video games so popular is their competitive nature, and with competitive gaming comes esports: gaming on a professional level.
So, without any further ado, let us dive right in and explore the evolution of esports through a trip down memory lane.
The Early Origins of esports
The first sign of esports event was way back in late 1971. It was an event held by the University of Stanford, where students of multiple disciplines got to compete in a battle of the vintage Spacewar game.
But unlike today, there was no prize money. This pioneer event announced the prize of a one-year subscription to the famous Rolling Stone magazine.
Even though this event was not an official esports event, it was certainly the start of something new in the world of gaming. And the momentum this event provided kickstarted the first official competitive gaming event in 1980.
The event was the Space Invaders Championship, and more than 10,000 players participated. The massive amount of interest put the world of competitive gaming into the people's eyes.
Media, game developers, and numerous other organizations slowly started to realize the potential competitive gaming had, and started acting on it.
Twin Galaxies - Video Games done right (or were they?)
In the same year, another monumental competitive gaming event was held, with the game being run by Twin Galaxies.
It was created by the Walter Day organization, which kept the record of the top scores all over the world. Gamers from all over the world tried to beat each other and hold the title of the top 5 scorers at Twin Galaxies.
People were crazy about gaming.
And slowly but surely it made its way into television broadcasting. Many live shows held small events where people played against each other to get the highest scores. They were offered prize money or gift hampers. And many people all around the world, especially in the US enjoyed their afternoon while watching these competitions.
The Further Advance in the Development of esports
In the later stage of the 1980s esports was starting to get dominated by Nintendo as they took the game control, graphics, and accessibility of gaming to a whole new level.
The first Nintendo Entertainment System made its mark on North America back in the mid-1980s. Which was followed by the release of the Super NES in 1991. With Super Nintendo, came Super Mario and the biggest game of the 90s, StreetFighter 2, The World Warrior.
Nintendo was also one of the first companies that acted on the potential of esports and launched their world champions ship in the 1990s. In addition to that, the designers and the game developers were successful in making video games much more accessible to everyone than in the previous decade.
The next world championship was held by Nintendo in 1994. The event was a huge success with a massive number of spectators at the grand finale held in San Diego, California.
These events made the road map to the esports events we see today. In the late 90’s it was relatively difficult for gamers to connect to one another, as there were no social media or well-established regular gaming tournaments.
And with the rise of the internet and PC gaming, esports finally elevated to another level.
Counterstrike: Taking esports to a New Level
First Person Shooters are one of the most popular genres when it comes to esports. And whenever we talked about FPS games, the first name that pops up is Counterstrike.
Counterstrike was actually a modification of the game called Half-Life, but CS became the gamers choice in FPS play.
In 1999 Counterstrike released their first official version. And soon, Counterstrike became the number one multiplayer competitive game that players from all over the world joined today.
CSGO explained in 6 minutes
The game made its esports debut back in 2001, offering 150,000 USD prize money. Many well-established gaming teams like NiP or SK gaming created a team of professional players.
NiP won the first-ever CSGO victory at the event, which eventually shaped the FPS esports industry worth millions of dollars we see today.
The Era of Twitch
Even though esports made its way into TV broadcasting in the late 1990s, the whole world was never able to be a part of the competitive gaming industry due to battles for rights, and different viewing mediums across the globe. This was changed with the rise of the twitch stream.
Twitch was created to be, and still is successfully used as the number one streaming platform for gaming and esports. The platform helped the masses watch competitive gaming on a more personal level. The platform has taken esports to a previously unimaginable height.
The online broadcast of popular games like CSGO, League of Legends, Dota quickly made its way to everyone’s reach. Gamers got a chance to make a living out of playing the game even at home instead of drawing their luck on the professional career of gaming.
Wrapping up our Short History of eSports
The world of esports is still on the rise with no hint of slowing down. The industry is exponentially growing every day.
Traditional teams have now fully acknowledged esports and millions of dollars are being sponsored to the esports teams on grand events. And with the momentum that esports is running with, the future is looking bright for the industry.
Check out our Podcast with British Esports Association Chair, Andy Payne!
