NBA Finals and What It Made Me Think of League

Watching the ending of the game seven finals (spoilers), seeing the cavs celebrating, it made me wonder, wonder why esports teams hardly celebrate after being victorious. (injection of humor) that is aside from the Froggen X Keithmcbrief moment

Alright back to serious. In traditional sports, watching that finals is amazing because of all the circumstance built around it. But the celebration isn't only caused by circumstance. Esports have built a ton of circumstance around their world championship. And yet, after winning the teams barely celebrate, let alone look happy. Most of SKT T1 looked aloof at the end of their championship win. Sure you could chalk that up to an easy series, but that doesn't take away from the fact that they really didn't seem all that elated to have won.

First I tried to hypothesize the cause of this difference. The first obvious difference I looked at is how physicality affects emotions. Traditional sports are physical, in your face, confrontational while esports all of these conflicts are resolved virtually, that is, there is a separation between the person and the character they are playing, and playing against. They are separated by screens, by mice, by keyboards. We don't feel like we are in the game, we feel like we are playing a character in the game. Could esports progress if they found a way to put players into the game by giving players the ability to "link" themselves to their characters? Maybe in the future an esport will come out where the characters are representations of the players, where their faces are on the characters they play. Maybe players will even have more control over their character than inputs and runes, masteries, and choice of summoners. Maybe they will be able to choose or alter abilities. Maybe they will be able to create their own kits from a set of abilities offered based on role. That would lessen the "distance" between player and what they see on their screens.

In traditional sports players get up in each other's faces (at least in contact sports). They trash talk, they grab each other, they make it as difficult as they can. This raw physicality ramps up the stakes and creates tension. I found it difficult to find ways to incorporate this kind of physicality in esports, but still think there could be improvements made. For one, I'd like it if opponents were facing each other, and were in close proximity. Not close enough to hear low level chatter about the game, but close enough to hear celebrations, shouts, and other emotional outbursts. The second idea I thought of would be that every time you die, the webcam of the player who killed you is shown on your screen. While dead, you'd have to watch as your opponent cheers. This would most likely ramp up intensity.

The other difference I could think of that maybe creates some conflict is the presence of a coach. Now, I do commend league's direction in terms of including their coach as part of pick and ban phase, but I do think there's room for improvement. Put the coach there behind his players throughout the game. Give him only the information that his team has, and let him dole out orders throughout the game. Give the coach the power to call a timeout as well to ramp up the drama. (Coach calls time out, the crowd at home gets to listen to the discussion).

Finally, esports shows too much of the game, and not enough of the players. I know the importance of watching the game, but sometimes I want to see the emotions of the players. Sure, you can watch teh webcams, but they are so small and tinted and that makes it hard to really makeout any emotion. I want a split screen showing the players sometimes during the game. Maybe even have some of the slow mo replays show their emotions and focus in slow mo as well.

Well, those are my thoughts. If you have any to add, I'd love to hear them.

All the Best, HOTARSE