Professional E-Sports
As someone who has become an avid fan of League of Legends over the past year or so while completing my law degree, I have found it striking to see the lack of a desire to unite the top games under one competitive brand (i.e. the NCAA, UEFA, NFL, etc.). I find it very encouraging that Robert Morris is already offering athletic scholarships for a competitive League of Legends team, but I haven't heard much in terms of promotions trying to get other colleges to join them. Being a former 4-year varsity athlete at a Division I school in men's tennis I know how important it is to promote the sport to get other schools to pick it up, or to get other schools not to drop the program as is the case with men's tennis.
Upon further research I came across the Collegiate Star League (http://cstarleague.com/lol/news), which appears to be the governing body, or at least the main organizational body for LoL and several other competitive gaming competitions at the college level. There are 180+ colleges and universities fielding teams, whether it be at the club or varsity level. How is this not being advertised by the competitive gaming community? These are players and competitions that should be at the forefront of airtime and featured games whenever there are not professional matches going on.
This post is primarily designed for an in-depth discussion from those who know a lot about the e-Sports scene and could offer feedback. In my searches for jobs upon completion of my JD I have come to realize how dispersed and seemingly unified e-Sports is as a whole when compared with other sports. (Yes I do believe that one day competitive gaming will see the same success athletic sports do today.) My main question is why? Why not have a regulating body, even if it is just confined to specific genre's of games? After all there are three prominent MOBA's with LoL, DOTA 2, and Smite, not to mention the other games in the genre with their respective followings. You could even take the soccer, or football approach, by having the regulating body (FIFA) made up of the main regional organizations (UEFA etc.).
The IeSF seemed the most logical governing body, but as a result of some fallout between LoL and that governing body, it appears all ties have been severed. There is also ESL and MLG as well. One of the "best" reasons for having one governing body is it gives you one voice to promote your platform and gain TV rights and deals. The perfect example of this is what DOTA 2, and then LoL, did with ESPN. MLG has also formed another partnership with ESPN for the Winter X games to air a prominent Counter Strike tournament. (http://www.majorleaguegaming.com/news/mlg-espn-esports-x-games-aspen/) It seems like the potential for expansion is virtually limitless and we could see a huge explosion in popularity and airtime if everyone was willing to work together.
Sorry for the long post. Any feedback and discussion would be greatly appreciated. Happy holidays.
For those of you who have not heard about the first scholarship program being offered for League of Legends, you can go to Robert Morris's website here: http://www.rmueagles.com/sport/0/147.php
