Manitha Abeysiriwardana | 2017 A/L Project | August 15, 2016

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 Contents
Title Page

1. What is eSports? 3

2. History of eSports.. 4

3. Present and Future of e-Sports. 7

4. eSports Games 12

5. Traditional Sports vs. eSports. 14

6. Life of a Pro-Gamer. 18

7. Tournaments 22

8. Teams and Associations.. 24

9. Local eSports Scene. 26

10.Ethics.. 32

11. Media Coverage.. 35

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 What is eSports?
E-Sports (also known as electronic sports) is a form of
competition that is facilitated by electronic systems,
particularly video games. The input of players and teams as
well as the output of the eSports system are mediated by
human-computer interfaces. Most commonly, eSports take
the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions,
particularly between professional players.
This is a real sports industry that has grown up around video
games, much like the way a sports industry grew up around
hockey, basketball, golf, NASCAR etc. It is just any usual
game which turned out to be competitive enough to become
a sport. It still is a growing industry, and a dramatic number of
enthusiasts can be seen every year.

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 History of eSports
The earliest known video game competition took place on
19th October 1972 at Stanford University for the
game Spacewar. The Space Invaders Championship held
by Atari in 1980 was the earliest large scale video game
competition, attracting more than 10,000 participants across
the United States, establishing competitive gaming as a
mainstream hobby. During the 1970s and 1980s, video game
players and tournaments begun being featured in popular
websites and magazines including Life and Time.
In the 1990s, many games benefited from increasing internet
connectivity, especially PC games. In June 1997, the
Microsoft-sponsored Red Annihilation Quake tournament at
the E3 expo is considered to be the first real eSports
competition of all time. Dennis Thresh Fong won the first
prize: The Ferrari 328 GTS Cabriolet of Quakes lead
developer John Carmack.

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There was a rise in global tournaments from 2000s onwards.
The growth of eSports in South Korea is thought to have been
influenced by the mass building of broadband
internet networks following the 1997 Asian financial crisis. It is
also thought that the high unemployment rate at the time
caused large numbers of people to look for things to do while
out of work. Instrumental to this growth of eSports in South
Korea was the prevalence of the Korean-style internet
caf/LAN gaming center, known as a PC bang. The Korean
e-Sports Association, an arm of the Ministry of Culture, Sports
and Tourism, was founded in 2000 to promote and regulate
eSports in the country.
In the second decade of the 21st century, eSports has grown
tremendously, incurring a large increase in both viewership
and prize money. Although large tournaments were founded
before the 21st century, the number and scope of
tournaments has increased significantly, going from about 10
tournaments in 2000 to about 260 in 2010. Many successful
tournaments were founded during this period, including
the World Cyber Games, the Intel Extreme Masters,
and Major League Gaming.

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The 2000s was also the peak of televised eSports. Television
coverage was best established in South Korea,
with StarCraft and Warcraft III competitions regularly televised
by dedicated 24-hour cable TV game
channels Ongamenet and MBCGame. Elsewhere, eSports
television coverage was sporadic. The German GIGA
Television covered eSports until its shutdown in 2009.
The United Kingdom satellite
television channel XLEAGUE.TV broadcast eSports
competitions from 2007 to 2009. The popularity and
emergence of online streaming services have helped the
growth of eSports in this period, and are the most common
method of watching tournaments. Twitch, an online streaming
platform launched in 2011, routinely streams popular eSports
competitions. In 2013, viewers of the platform watched 12
billion minutes of video on the service, with the two most
popular Twitch broadcasters being League of
Legends and Dota 2. During one day of The International,
Twitch recorded 4.5 million unique views, with each viewer
watching for an average of two hours.

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 Present and Future of e-Sports
In recent years, e-sports have grown exponentially, creating a
market that generates millions in revenue as hundreds of
thousands of teenagers log on to watch sporting events they
can relate to. E-sports still might be fairly new but with its
popularity increasing everyday people are already looking to
the future of eSports and whats next. There are already plenty
of tournaments taking place throughout the year with millions
of spectators watching. Not only is this great for the players
but its also big business for the games developers and
sponsors. A few years ago there werent that many world
tournaments as games didnt have enough popularity or
players to host one. Nowadays, new world tournaments are
being announced every year which means people can only
expect more and more yearly tournaments to pop up on the
calendar.

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Currently there a few big games which hold worldwide gaming
competitions all over the world. Some of these names include
League of Legends, Dota 2, Hearthstone, Smite and the most
recent e-sport title, the Overwatch World Cup. These gaming
events are big dates on the calendar and attract millions of
viewers each year as the best players in the world battle it out
to be crowned the world champion.
Since the start of these international tournaments many have
been offering multi-million dollar prize pools for players who
take part. The good news for players is that it looks like the
prize pools for these tournaments are only going to get bigger
and bigger.
Ever since Valve launched their Dota 2 international world
championship tournament, they have continuously broken the
record for the largest eSports pool prize. The first Dota 2
International was held in 2011 and had a total prize pool for
$1.6 million split between the top 4 teams, pretty impressive
but it gets better. Two years later in 2013 Valve, the creators
behind the game and the tournament had a great idea to
increase the prize pool for the competition.
They began to sell what was known as an Interactive
Compendium that had details of the teams, team members
and heros they played. For every one of these compendiums
they sold 25% of the revenue went to the prize pool. This left
the prize pool total at $2.8 million for 2013, a big leap up from
2 years ago. Since 2014 the record has been broken every
year by Dota 2 and this year for 2016 the prize pool stands at
$20.7 million!

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The bigger the prize pools for tournaments, more the players
that show up. Its simple math. If tournament A has a prize
pool of $2 million and tournament B has a prize pool of $20
million, people will be more interested in tournament B.
By increasing the size of the prize pool at gaming
tournaments, this allows more eSports players to turn pro and
have an actual career. Currently some companies such as
Riot games actually pay players a basic wage in order to cover
their living expenses. This is a great idea as solely relying on
winning tournaments for income is not realistic. One bad year
and youll earn nothing at all.
By having more companies pay eSports players a basic wage,
this allows more players to turn pro and increase the level of
competition in eSports. Good players want to turn pro if the
money is there and audiences want to watch exciting new
talent.

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South Korea has taken a big step towards cracking down on
cheating in online games by criminalizing the creation and
distribution of aimbots, wall hacks, and anything else not
allowed by a game's terms of service. According to
a PvPLive report, anyone convicted of doing so could face up
to five years in prison or $43,000 in fines.

Schools that offer eSports Programmes

Remember the old saying that playing video games will get
you nowhere, and one will be better off spending their free
time studying? Well, this isnt the case any longer, as more
education institutions around the world have started eSports
programmes and even begun offering scholarships for
students who excel in their specific gaming arenas.
Back in March 2016, the University of California, Irvine (UCI)
announced that it will become the first public university to
launch a League of Legends eSports scholarship program,
which began in fall 2016. Riot Games has been supporting the
programme and funding the new PC cafe on campus. Riot and
UCI are hoping that through the PC Cafe, theyll be able to
rouse a greater interest in eSports among the students.

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Garnes Vidaregaande Skule of Norway is one of the first high
schools to put eSports into their core curriculum. Students in
this high school need to study eSports for at least five hours a
week. The main aim of this programme is to enhance the
students ability to stay focused over a long period of
time. Students enrolled in the course are given rigs equipped
with NVidia GeForce GTX 980Ti video cards, to provide them
with the best gaming experience.

The International eSports Federation has taken the first step

to get eSports recognized by the International Olympic
Committee. The organisation has received a response
providing them with the steps required to get competitive
gaming recognized as a sport and possibly considered for the
Olympic Games.
Although its still in early stages, it can take months to prepare
and review the submissions. It is definitely the first step in
getting eSports in to the Olympics.

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 eSports Games
E-sports: video games which are played in professional
competitions, usually fall into a few major genres. The majority
of eSports titles are fighting games, first-person
shooters (FPS), real-time strategy(RTS), or multiplayer online
battle arena games (MOBA), with the MOBA genre being the
most popular in terms of participation and viewership.
The most popular e-sports titles as for now are Dota 2, League
of Legends (LOL), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO),
Overwatch, Hearthstone, Smite, and StarCraft II.

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The real time strategy (RTS) computer game StarCraft had an
active professional competition circuit, particularly in South
Korea.
Starting in about 2002, pro-gamers started to become
organized into teams, sponsored by large South Korean
companies like Samsung, SK Telecom and KT. StarCraft is
also the most popular computer game competition during the
annual World Cyber Games thanks to its Korean fan-base.
Throughout the establishment of the StarCraft II pro-scene,
the GSL and WCS formats became the main avenues for top
tier individual competition, with WCS "points" replacing Elo
scores for assigning yearly rankings. As of 2015, the World
Championship Series (WCS) was the main format for the
Starcraft II 1v1 pro-scene. The top-16 ranked players qualify
for the ultimate end of year tournament at Blizzcon, with the
winner being crowned world champion.

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 Traditional Sports vs. eSports
E-sports tournaments are already held in huge sporting
stadiums all over the globe. In 2015, the final battle in the
League of Legends competition had 36 million unique viewers
for the live stream as well as a sold-out arena in Berlin.
Twitch, the live video streaming site for gaming, currently sees
100 million viewers a month for its coverage of various events.
Major TV corporations and broadcasters are also starting to
get in on the deal too, with ESPN2 airing live coverage of
eSporting events on network television.
This backs up a recent market study by Technavio that
predicts that spectator numbers will continue to soar. The
study estimates that by the year 2019, spectatorship for
eSports will not only match but surpass that of mainstream
sport.
With a growing audience, its not a huge shock that the
professional eSports player receives the same amount of
adoration from their fan base as more traditional sporting
heroes. After tournaments, players are often swarmed by fans
for photo opportunities and autographs. Pro players have
started to get noticed and recognized as they go about their
daily lives, and some, like Soren Bjerg of Team SoloMid, have
even had to take out restraining orders against stalkers.
Even mainstream athletes can see the similarities between
traditional sports and eSports. Basketball star Jeremy Lin, a
gamer from a young age, guest starred on last years panel
for the DOTA 2 World Championships and described how
alike the two fields are.

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Just like any other athlete, professional players often work as
part of a team and have tough training regimes. As with any
professional sport, in order to get to the top and stay there,
pro gamers must be highly tactical, strategic and have
lightning-quick reaction times.
Sporting salaries are among some of the highest paid in the
world, and eSport is beginning to cash in too. Top players can
earn up to $1 million a year through endorsements,
sponsorship and promotions. Then theres the rather
substantial prize money to take into consideration. With some
of the highest prize pots across the sporting world, pro gamers
can take home double their yearly earnings with just one win.

Coca-Cola, which has a long

history of sponsoring sporting
events, teamed up in 2014 with
Riot Games to sponsor League of
Legends. This was the first time a
major brand had endorsed
eSports, and more are set to
follow.
According to a recent report on the
eSports market by Newzoo,
eSport revenue has experienced a
43% rise in just one year, taking it
to a whopping $463 million. Much
of this growth is reportedly due to the increase in investment
and interest from media companies.

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Just like the United States of America have the USSA (United
States Soccer Association) and the Olympic Committee
governing the respective fields, the world now has the WESA,
the World E-sports Association, regulating eSports. Founded
in early 2016, the association brings traditional sports rulings
to what is still viewed by many as a non-traditional sport.

Esports is not just a group of children getting together to play

some video games. As weve already seen, its a serious
multimillion dollar business. WESAs aim is to legitimize and
standardize the field, to help raise its reputation as a serious
sport and to crack down on the more shady dealings that
plague almost every sporting area.
Like traditional sports, eSports also have a dark side. With
fame and the fortune comes temptation, and as prize winnings
rocket and betting pools raise their stakes, issues of doping
and game fixing are becoming more commonplace in eSports.

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The Electronic Sports League (ESL), one of the founders of
the WESA, is now working with the World Anti-Doping Agency
in conducting random drug screening to deter the use of
performance enhancing drugs such as Beta-blockers and
Adderall.
Gambling and sport have always gone hand in hand, and as
eSports grow, so does the betting interest. However, that
increases the opportunity for match fixing. Just a few months
ago, two South Korean StarCraft II players were charged for
match fixing. As with any serious sport, there are serious
consequences when the fight is not fair.

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 Life of a Pro-Gamer
It is not easy being a professional gamer. You might think that
they spend most of the time sleeping and playing the video
games that they love, and have amazing meals with all the
money they have earned. That is wrong. A professional gamer
practices for a minimum of 50 hours per week and most of
them play the game far more. And that doesnt comprehend
that they play a minimum of 50 hours with joy and relaxation.
Being a pro is time-restrictive. To stay competitive with other
pro teams, a player cant stop playing.
It's insanely difficult to excel at these eSports titles. Only a
select few can handle the pro-level regimen required to gain
the extensive game knowledge and elite mechanical skills and
reflexes to compete.
Professional team players practice together for eight hours a
day, scrimmaging against other pro and challenger-level
teams. In the hours before and after that team practice, they
play on their own for nearly every waking minute.
They have their lunch and dinner usually takeout while
they discuss game strategy and review videos of previous
matches with their coach and team analyst. When they get
home from the teams training
facility, players almost
immediately hop on the
computer to play Solo Queue,
a game mode that matches
you with other random players
at your skill level.

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To achieve absolute synergy many teams also chose to live
together, establishing team houses (a phenomenon that
started in Asia, where the best eSport players are akin to rock
stars in fame and stardom) where they sleep, eat and train
together, constantly honing their craft and teamwork. Modern
teams have even started to implement strict physical training
and dietary schedules, all in an effort to optimize players
performance in the heat of battle.

And even though the money has started to catch up,

professional gaming is still anathema in many social circles,
with such heavy stigma attached, that many pro gamers have
to choose between the games they are passionate about and
their familys acceptance and support. Combine that with the
insane competition in each of the popular eSport games, and
you have a cocktail that has led to many a broken dream.

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Pro gamers have a strange and contra-intuitive lifecycle.
Contrary to what many of us imagine, a pro gamers career is
seldom very long, typically stretching from mid-to-late teens
into the middle twenties. It is commonplace to see the top
players retire around the age of 25, especially in the games
that require mental agility and primed reaction times.
The pure mechanical requirement of the top games,
specifically DotA (Defence of the Ancients), LoL (League of
Legends), StarCraft 2 and Counter Strike, are so demanding
that players quickly lose their edge as they age. And while
experience is important, 27 and 28 years olds are considered
grizzled veterans and grand ol men of their games, typically
on the very last legs of their careers.
Beyond that comes the enormous pressure to keep winning
and stay at the top of your game, leading many players to
retire due to stress, mental fatigue and burnout. For while
the money is growing and growing, the top of the eSports
world is still dominated by a relatively small group of people.
This will probably change over time, with the viability
becoming greater, but currently, to make the truly big bucks,
you have to be the very best. E-sports are now followed by
hundreds of millions of people, and many of those people
have at one time either tried or dreamt of becoming a pro
gamer, and in a field that competitive a bad streak of losses
can destroy your career at an astounding pace.

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Tournaments are a great way to show off skill, make friends
and win prizes. There isnt really a downside to them, apart
from having to travel a long way to get there. More
tournaments means more competition and in a competitive
environment like eSports, this is definitely a good thing.
Getting into a big eSports team can be hard, especially if no
one notices you. By having smaller, more regular tournaments
throughout the year will not only give people more to play for
but also lets big teams scout out future superstars in the lower
leagues.

We tend to simplify and reduce the things we dont

understand, and professional video games still falls into that
category for most people. Just understand that these young
people go through as much hardship and sacrifice as any
other athlete, needing a truly singular dedication to achieve
their dream. For while video games may seem like pure
entertainment and a childish pursuit, for many people these
games are deadly serious, with their very hopes and dreams
riding on the next online match.

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 Tournaments
ESports tournaments are almost always physical events in
which occur in front of a live audience. The tournament may
be part of a larger gathering, such as Dreamhack, or the
competition may be the entirety of the event, like the World
Cyber Games. Competitions take several formats, but the
most common are single or double elimination, sometimes
hybridized with group stage. Competitions usually have
referees or officials to monitor for cheating.
Although competitions involving video games have long
existed, eSports underwent a significant transition in the late
1990s. Beginning with the Cyberathlete Professional
League in 1997, tournaments became much larger,
and corporate sponsorship became more common.
Increasing viewership both in person and online brought
eSports to a wider audience. Major tournaments include
the World Cyber Games, the North American Major League
Gaming league, the France based Electronic Sports World
Cup, and the World e-Sports Games held in Hangzhou,
China.
For well-established games, total prize money can amount to
millions of U.S. dollars a year. As of 10 September 2016, Dota
2 has awarded approximately US$86 million in prize money
within 632 registered tournaments, with 23 players winning
over $1 million. League of Legends awarded approximately
$30 million within 1749 registered tournaments, but in addition
to the prize money, Riot Games provides salaries for players
within their League of Legends Championship Series.

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Nonetheless, there has been criticism to how these salaries
are distributed, since most players earn a fairly low wage but
a few top players have a significantly higher salary, skewing
the average earning per player.
Often, game developers provide prize money for tournament
competition directly, but sponsorship may also come from
third parties, typically companies selling computer
hardware, energy drinks, or computer software. Generally,
hosting a large eSports event is not profitable as a stand-
alone venture. For example, Riot has stated that their
headline League of Legends Championship Series is "a
significant investment that we're not making money from".
There is considerable variation and negotiation over the
relationship between video game developers and tournament
organizers and broadcasters. While the
original StarCraft events emerged in South Korea largely
independently of Blizzard, the company decided to require
organizers and broadcasters to authorize events featuring the
sequel StarCraft II. In the short term, this led to a deadlock
with the Korean e-Sports Association. An agreement was
reached in 2012. Blizzard requires authorization for
tournaments with more than $10,000 USD in prizes.
Riot Games offers in-game
rewards to authorized
tournaments.
ESport competitions have
also become a popular
feature at gaming and multi-
genre conventions.

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 Teams and Associations
Professional gamers, or "pro gamers", are often associated
with gaming teams and/or broader gaming associations.
Teams like OpTic Gaming, Evil Geniuses, Team
SoloMid, Cloud9, Fnatic, Mousesports, Counter Logic
Gaming, SK Telecom T1, Splyce, Team EnVyUs, Ninjas in
Pyjamas, Virtus Pro and Natus Vincere consist of several
professionals. In addition to prize money from tournament
wins, players may also be paid a separate team salary. Team
sponsorship may cover tournament travel expenses or
gaming hardware. Prominent eSports sponsors include
companies such as Logitech and Razer. Teams feature these
sponsors on their website, team jerseys and on their social
media, in 2016 the biggest teams have social media
followings of over 1.27 million. Associations include
the Korean e-Sports Association (KeSPA), the International e-
Sports Federation (IeSF), the British eSports Association,
the International eGames Committee (IEGC) and the World
eSports Association (WESA).

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This is the transport bus of the professional e-Sports team
Ninjas in Pyjamas.

In Sweden, Ninjas in Pyjamas has their own McDonalds

burger called McNip;

and their own chocolate too.

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 Local eSports Scene
Nine years ago, playing a computer game competitively was
just a dream in Sri Lanka, until of course Gamer.LK was
founded on the 24th of March in 2007 by a group of friends
with the same ambition; to promote eSports in Sri Lanka and
bring the sport to the level of International standards.
Gamer.LK is the central gathering place for Sri Lankan
gamers and cyber-athletes. It is commonly abbreviated as
GLK.
Gamer.LK has become Sri Lankas premier community for
casual console/computer gaming and professional e-Sports.
It has an active community and organizes frequent e-Sports
tournaments both online and LAN. GLKs mission is to help
promote e-Sports in Sri Lanka. It aims to do this by organizing
tournaments and by encouraging and assisting gamers form
clans in order to participate in these tournaments.
Gamer.LK is also a member of the International e-Sports
Federation (IeSF).

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Gamer.LK has been successful in organizing a numerous
amount of tournaments and events. One of them is the Sri
Lanka Cyber Games, or better known as SLCG, which is
held every year. Sri Lanka Cyber Games (SLCG) was first
held in 2008, now being the largest of its kind in Sri Lanka.
Players compete in Singleplayer and Multiplayer titles in this
massive 3-day event for the glory of their respective clans and
medals.

There are many other ranked tournaments throughout the

calendar for different games organized by Gamer.LK too.

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Gamer.LK, in collaboration with Dialog Gaming, successfully
conducted Inter-University and Mercantile eSports
championships.

One of the turning points in Sri Lankan eSports scene was the
introduction of the Inter School e-Sports Championship
organized yet again by Gamer.LK in collaboration with Dialog
Gaming. The Dialog Gaming Inter-School eSports
Championship is open to both government and private
schools, and will see teams from over 20 schools in the
country compete for the prestigious championship trophy.
Organized with the intention of bringing out the positives of
structured competitive video games, this event brings the
feelings of Big Matches between schools. It is splendid to see
the blistering competition between two rival schools in a
friendly and professional manner.

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With video games being perceived as a problem for school
children today, Gamer.LK is striving to take the passion and
hours that children put into casual gaming and mould it into a
constructive, team based, regulated, sports-type past time.
The benefits of e-Sports are many, with studies showing
increased cognitive growth, better hand-eye coordination,
enhanced communication skills with team members, and
increased critical thinking for problem solving. E-Sports in Sri
Lanka has received the support of organizations such as the
Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka for
its promotion of Information Technology, with e-Sports being
considered a gateway to computer literacy and a career in the
IT industry.
The promotion of game-development awareness and
education is another main aspect being brought to light at the
event. Alongside game-development workshops, there will
also be talks on how to balance eSports and maintain grades
at school. Dialog Gaming powers the event and also hosts
cloud gaming servers, underlining its commitment to the
eSports community in Sri Lanka, providing them a platform to
take on the international stage.

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In 2015, Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) took steps to initiate a
massive e-Sports tournament. It was a major success, so the
event was held in 2016 too. Unlike any other e-sports
tournament in Sri Lanka, the SLT e-Sports Championship
brags a prize pool of 2 million rupees in addition to the
trophies, medals, SLT branded promotional gifts, gift
vouchers with attractive discounts on new connections for
Megaline, Smartline and LTE, which are handed out to the
winners of the competitions. The SLT eSports Championship
has become the largest eSports tournament in the country
with ultimate fame and prestige for the Champions. With
numerous social media competitions launched alongside the
event, even spectators and fans can be a part of the event
and stand a chance to win fabulous prizes for supporting and
motivating their favourite teams and players.

We at SLT believe in the power of ICT to connect people and

we feel that the SLT e-Sports Championship is the perfect
way to bring gaming enthusiasts from all over Sri Lanka
together and watch them bond over a shared passion for
e-Sports and video games, stated SLTs Group Chief
Marketing Officer, Mr. Ajantha Seneviratne.

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The SLT e-Sports Championship is organized by Sri Lanka
Telecom along with Redline Technologies Sri Lankas
premier enthusiast tech store, and Xiphos eSports - the oldest
gaming clan in the country celebrating its 11th anniversary.

________________________________________________

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 Ethics
Pro gamers are usually obligated to behave ethically, abiding
by both the explicit rules set out by tournaments, associations,
and teams, as well as following general expectations of
good sportsmanship. For example, it is common practice and
considered good etiquette to chat "gg" (for "good game")
when defeated. Many games rely on the fact competitors have
limited information about the game state. In a prominent
example of good conduct, during a 2012 IEM StarCraft
II game, the players Feast and DeMusliM both voluntarily
offered information about their strategies to negate the
influence of outside information inadvertently leaked to
"Feast" during the game. Players in some leagues have been
reprimanded for failure to comply with expectations of good
behavior. In 2012 professional League of Legends player
Christian "IWillDominate" Riviera was banned from competing
for a period of one year following a history of verbal abuse. In
2013 StarCraft II progamer Greg "Idra" Fields was fired
from Evil Geniuses for insulting his fans on the Team
Liquid internet forums. League of Legends players Mithy and
Nukeduck received similar penalties in 2014 after behaving in
a "toxic" manner during matches.
Team Siren, an all-female League of Legends team, was
formed in June 2013. The announcement of the team was met
with controversy, being dismissed as a "gimmick" to attract
the attention of men. The team disbanded within a month, due
to the negative publicity of their promotional video, as well as
the poor attitude of the team captain towards her teammates.

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There have been serious violations of the rules. In 2010,
eleven StarCraft: Brood War players were found guilty of fixing
matches for profit, and were fined and banned from future
competition. Team Curse and Team Dignitas were denied
prize money for collusion during the 2012 MLG Summer
Championship. In 2012, Azubu Frost was fined US$30,000 for
cheating during a semifinal match of the world playoffs. Dota
2 player Aleksey "Solo" Berezin was suspended from a
number of tournaments for intentionally throwing a game in
order to collect $322 from online gambling. In 2014, four high-
profile North American Counter-Strike players, namely Sam
"DaZeD" Marine, Braxton "swag" Pierce, Joshua "steel"
Nissan and Keven "AZK" Lariviere were suspended from
official tournaments after they had been found guilty of match-
fixing. The four players had allegedly profited over US$10,000
through betting on their fixed matches. Gambling on eSports
using Counter-Strike: Global Offense "skins", while an
estimated US$2.3 billion value in 2015, had come under
criticism in June and July 2016 after several questionable
legal and ethical aspects of the practice were discovered.

There has been some concern over the quality of life and
potential mistreatment of players by organizations, especially
in South Korea. Korean organizations have been accused of
refusing to pay competitive salaries, leading to a slow exodus
of Korean players to other markets. In an interview, League of
Legends player Bae "Dade" Eo-jin said that "Korean players
wake up at 1pm and play until 5am", and suggested that the
16 hour play schedule was a significant factor in
causing burnout.

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Concerns over the mental health of players intensified in 2014
when League of Legends player Cheon "Promise" Min-Ki
attempted suicide a week after admitting to match fixing.
To combat the negative environment, Korean League of
Legends teams were given new rules for the 2015 season by
Riot Games, including the adoption of minimum salaries for
professional players, requiring contracts and allowing players
to stream individually for additional player revenue.
Players must handle their own treatments and carry their own
medical insurance, which is opposite of the norm with
professional sports teams. Since most eSports play requires
many actions per minute, some players may get repetitive
strain injuries, causing hand or wrist pain.

League of Legends Championship Series and League of

Legends Champions Korea offer guaranteed salaries for
players. Despite this, online streaming is preferred by some
players, as it is in some cases more profitable than competing
with a team and streamers have the ability to determine their
own schedule. The International tournament awards US$10
million to the winners, however teams that do not have the
same amount of success often do not have financial stability
and frequently break up after failing to win.

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 Media Coverage
The main medium for eSports coverage is the Internet.
Coverage of eSports by general news organizations is
generally sparse; most reports come from news organizations
with a technology or video games focus. Esports Heaven,
RankR eSports, Esports Nation (ESN), and ESFI World are
among the few independent news organizations specifically
dedicated to eSports. Other typical sources for information
include video game developer's websites, websites of
professional teams, and independent community websites.
However, in the mid-2010s, mainstream sports and news
reporting websites, such as ESPN, Yahoo!, Sport1, Kicker,
and Aftonbladet started dedicated eSports coverage.
ESports tournaments commonly use commentators or casters
to provide live commentary of games in progress, similar to a
traditional sports commentator. For popular casters, providing
commentary for eSports can be a full-time position by itself.

Many eSports events are streamed online to viewers over the

internet. With the shutdown of the Own3d streaming service
in 2013, Twitch is by far the most popular streaming service
for eSports, competing against other providers such as
Hitbox.tv, Azubu, and YouTube Gaming. Dreamhack Winter
2011 reached 1.7 million unique viewers on Twitch. While
coverage of live events usually brings in the largest
viewership counts, the recent popularization of streaming
services has allowed individuals to broadcast their own
gameplay independent of such events as well.

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Individual broadcasters can enter an agreement with Twitch
or Hitbox in which they receive a portion of the advertisement
revenue from commercials which run on the stream they
create.
Another major streaming platform was Major League
Gaming's MLG.tv. The network, which specializes in Call of
Duty content but hosts a range of gaming titles, has seen
increasing popularity, with 1376% growth in MLG.tv
viewership in Q1 of 2014. The 2014 Call of Duty:
Ghosts broadcast at MLG's X Games event drew over
160,000 unique viewers. The network, like Twitch, allows
users to broadcast themselves playing games, though only
select individuals can use the service. For several years,
MLG.tv was the primary streaming platform for the Call of
Duty professional scene; famous players such
as NaDeSHoT and Scump have signed contracts with the
company to use its streaming service exclusively. In January
2016, MLG was acquired by Activision Blizzard.

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Especially since the popularization of streaming in eSports,
organizations no longer prioritize television coverage,
preferring online streaming websites such
as Twitch. Ongamenet continues to broadcast as an eSports
channel in South Korea, but MBCGame was taken off the air
in 2012. Riot Games' Dustin Beck stated that "TV's not a
priority or a goal", and DreamHack's Tomas Hermansson said
"eSports have a proven record to be successful on internet
streaming only."

TV 2, the largest private television broadcaster in Norway,

broadcasts eSports across the country. TV 2 partnered with
local Norwegian organization House of Nerds to bring a full
season of eSports competition with an initial lineup
of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends,
and StarCraft II.

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