Let's Talk About eSports Partnerships

With the eSport's world continue to grow around the world, so is the access to it throughout several generations. One of the main topics in the competitive playing field, are should pro-teams help sponsor and promote eSport genre games to the public. This would include both high school and college programs. One of the most recent news was that NFHS or the National Federation of State High School Association has partnered with PlayVS to form school level eSports programs.

The thinking behind this deal remains the following. If colleges around the world are offering education towards professional play, than shouldn't there be programs to help students become better prepared before college?

The recent deal with the NFHS and PlayVS includes that nearly 19,000 members in high school will actively become apart of several programs, classes, competitions, and other meetings to help round out players as they progress into their eSports field. The price to currently become a member is a fee of 16 dollars per month, and will also include the internet and infrastructure to learn on.

Currently the types of platforms that are being taught include multiplayer online battle arenas, fighting and sports. With the already increase in popularity, ESPN has already made several coverage of the current state of this partnership as it continues to grow.

Lets Talk About Shaming in the eSports World.

For as long as I have been playing video games, there has always been the constant debate on whether or not video games should be considered a sport on a professional level. The argument throughout the years have been constant, players want to be recognized by the mass media, that video games are not just another outlet for entertainment, but a very competitive and skill based format. The problem with this idea is that throughout the recent years there has been large amounts of criticism and backlash over the ideas that video games should be labeled as sports on the competitive level. 

One of the more recent news that brought in a lot of discussion was the debate, should certain games like League of Legends or CS:GO Global Offensive, be considered to be part in the 2014 Olympic Games or possibly any form of eSport coverage be a part of any Olympic Game. While this idea seemed progressive at the time, as the term sport can be broken down to many different types of activities, many different generations both young and old, had mixed feelings. These mixed feelings eventually led to harsh criticism that such eSports player were never "true" athletes and had no place in any Olympic Games. 

The discussion was only further increased when in 2016 a new petition was formed and created by several different eSports teams to be sent to the White House.The petition asked the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to recognize competitors as athletes in order for them to be eligible for P-1 visas, allowing them to compete for money at major tournaments. The petition surpassed the 100,000 signature threshold in under one month, which allowed an official comment from the White House. With the petition in place, it is only a matter of time before we start to finally gauge if eSports will finally be considered a "sport" to the community or will it still remain in the grey area that it once was in the past. 

The Recent Craze With Battle Royal Games.

By now, many of you might have heard about the recent genre of battle royal game modes being released almost on a yearly basis, with arguably the most popular one, Fornite just being released later last year. For those who haven't heard much about Fornite, King of the Kill, and Playerunknown's Battlegrounds or short for PUBG, have dominated the gaming industry in terms of user amount, sales, and overall growth in the community. Each of these games hold the common interest of the battle royal genre, with each player being pitted against one another in a 100 man battle to be #1. The concept is quite simple, but each of these games have brought something different to the table, as each has taken ideas from other games and formulated concepts that differentiated itself from the others.


But lets take a step back on where these battle royal games even came form. The format is rather new, but the premise holds similar attributes to older games like the infamous DayZ survival game, and the slightly newer game H1Z1 in 2014. In 2014 H1Z1 has been credited has one of the first battle royal game modes under the name King of the Kill, with its inspiration coming from the movie, Battle Royal in 2000. While the game became very popular in the matter of a couple of weeks, the game soon fell flat as the leading developers made slow progression to the product of the game, and by 2016 the game saw non existent play.




It wasn't until 2017 did we see the true competition of the two titans we see today, PUBG and Fornite. Each of these two while sharing similar game play have greatly appealed to different audiences, with Fornite being a more kid friendly game with its cartoonist graphics and easier game play. PUBG on the other hand holds a more complicated game play with more detailed information including weapon statistics, armor, and more strategic game play. This in turn overall has greatly appealed to the "hardcore" gamer and other enthusiasts of the genre.





Overall the two have seen amazing success in just the short time of their conception, with both holding total revenue sales in the hundreds of millions and millions of active users.