The extensive article written by Nick Wingfield centers around Dota 2’s The International, where 11 million dollars in prize money was up for grabs. The article was formatted for people unaware of the concept of eSports and it’s recent exponential growth around the world. Wingfield points out a few key things such as the sell out of large arenas and sponsorships from Coca-Cola and American Express.
Wingfield also covers things such as Twitch’s role in the climb and an in-depth interview with Peter Dager, the captain of Evil Geniuses’ Dota 2 team. In addition, he explores the roles of the game developers and event holders such as ESL and MLG in the community of eSports.
With viewership topping what the Stanley Cup gets and gamers making six to seven figures, it’s easy to see the crazy potential for eSports. Everything is moving very fast within the world of competitive gaming.
“What was happening at that arena in July would have been unthinkable, even laughable, only a few years ago,” says Nick in the original piece.
An interesting aspect of the article was its overall reception on Twitter. While the average post on the New York Times twitter page usually only receives upwards of 100 retweets and favorites in its first 24 hours, this story is closing in on 2,000 retweets and 1,500 favorites respectively only 14 hours since its release.
This reaction to the article only further explains how much viewership and traffic is brought on by eSports and why it should be featured in the mainstream media more frequently.
While Call of Duty was only talked about briefly in the article, Seth “Scumpii” Abner from OpTic Gaming was quoted when Wingfield was explaining how gamers make a living broadcasting their gameplay online.
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You can read the full article by Wingfield below and share it on your social media accounts to spread the word.
