KnowSoda
Life & LeisureVideo Games
Esports: fun facts and quiz
The essentials in 7 ideas, with fun facts, an illustrated story and a quiz to see how much you know.
The essentials
What Esports Are
Esports are competitive video games played by professionals, often in teams, in front of huge crowds and online audiences.
Key fact
Top esports events fill stadiums.
The Big Games
Popular esports include League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Dota 2 and Valorant. Each has its own leagues and world championships.
Key fact
League of Legends world finals draw millions of viewers.
Prize Money
Top tournaments offer huge prizes. Dota 2’s The International 2021 had a prize pool of about 40 million dollars, funded partly by the players themselves.
Key fact
Fans helped fund it by buying in-game items.
Streaming & Twitch
Fans watch gaming live on platforms like Twitch and YouTube. Some streamers earn a living from subscriptions, donations and sponsors.
Key fact
Twitch launched in 2011.
Training Like Athletes
Pro players practise for hours every day and work with coaches, analysts and even sports psychologists. Fast reactions and teamwork are key.
Key fact
Top players can make hundreds of precise actions per minute.
Esports & the Olympics
Esports are knocking on the Olympic door: they were a medal event at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games, and the IOC has announced Olympic Esports Games.
Key fact
The Hangzhou Asian Games, including esports, took place in 2023.
Esports History
Competitive gaming goes back decades: a Space Invaders championship in 1980 drew about 10,000 players, and South Korea turned StarCraft into a TV sport in the 2000s.
Key fact
South Korea had whole TV channels devoted to esports.
Fun facts
Some universities offer esports scholarships, just as they do for football or basketball.
Counter-Strike began in 1999 as a fan-made modification of the game Half-Life.
At 16, Kyle Giersdorf won 3 million dollars at the 2019 Fortnite World Cup.
Twitch grew out of Justin.tv, a site that first streamed one man’s life around the clock.
Many esports pros retire in their mid-20s, partly because reaction speed peaks young.
Esports were a demonstration event at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, before becoming a medal event.
In 1972, Stanford students competed for a year’s subscription to Rolling Stone, in one of the first gaming contests.
Story: A Prize Worth One Magazine
A Prize Worth One Magazine
October 1972, Stanford University. Students crowd round a huge computer for the “Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics”, flying tiny spaceships on a round screen.
It’s one of the very first video game tournaments. Reporters from Rolling Stone magazine turn up to write about it.
The grand prize? A year’s subscription to Rolling Stone. Today, top esports events hand out prizes worth millions.
True or false?
Tap your answer to see if you got it, and why.
-
Question 1 of 10
Esports are competitive video games.
Show the answer
True. Played by professionals.
-
Question 2 of 10
League of Legends is a major esport.
Show the answer
True. One of the most watched.
-
Question 3 of 10
Some esports prize pools reach tens of millions of dollars.
Show the answer
True. Like The International 2021.
-
Question 4 of 10
Twitch is a platform for live-streaming games.
Show the answer
True. Watched by millions every day.
-
Question 5 of 10
Pro esports players often have coaches.
Show the answer
True. Like other professional athletes.
-
Question 6 of 10
Esports have been a medal event at the Asian Games.
Show the answer
True. At Hangzhou 2022.
-
Question 7 of 10
South Korea helped make esports a TV spectacle.
Show the answer
True. With StarCraft in the 2000s.
-
Question 8 of 10
Esports are only ever played alone at home.
Show the answer
False. Top events fill arenas.
-
Question 9 of 10
Esports only feature chess.
Show the answer
False. Many different games are played.
-
Question 10 of 10
Esports tournaments never award prizes.
Show the answer
False. Some prizes are enormous.
Keep going in the app
KnowSoda learns what you know and brings back what you’re about to forget. Esports has 6 more ideas at the Advanced and Expert levels.
Sources
- Esports Charts — Viewership statistics
- Liquipedia — The International 2021 prize pool
- Olympic Council of Asia — Esports at the Asian Games Hangzhou 2022
- IOC — Olympic Esports Games
- Computer History Museum — The 1972 Intergalactic Spacewar! Olympics
- Games Done Quick — Charity totals
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — esports; Evolution Championship Series
- Guinness World Records — First to beat NES Tetris (2023)
