Hello! My name is Nikita Bokarev, I am a creative producer of the game direction Mail.Ru Group. Today I will talk about the phenomenon of eSports in colors. Of course, the topic is huge and to cover it entirely - the textbook will not be enough, so I will tell you about the most significant, in my opinion, events and phenomena from the moment of the emergence of eSports to the present day.

In the world: Korea, Europe, States and China

The fate of eSports in each part of the world was different. It can be said that South Korea, which chose high tech as the main “national idea”, put its main forces on the development of the industry. To popularize it, certain symbols and directions were needed, so the Koreans made computer sports the most important in the country, a topic around which the population united. It happened in the 2000s, and even then they invested a lot of money in eSports and brought it to a very high level. Those who participated in the competition and won immediately received big fees and new opportunities. This was originally a state initiative, to the extent that the first tournaments were opened personally by the country's leadership, with great fanfare and pathos. In just a couple of years, South Korea became the main organizer of world competitions: it was extremely prestigious to come and win something in competitions in this country.

European eSports has evolved both along the classical path (organization of offline tournaments) and along the way online. The fact is that even then Westerners had better ping better than in other countries, and already in 1997-1998, Scandinavians didn’t cut into Quake and other games on the Internet. The Swedes and the rest of the Vikings were engaged in the development of all sorts of online leagues, online competitions, platforms, services and everything that allowed players to fight precisely within certain communities. There were about five of them in Europe, and each of them decided which games fall into tournaments (and, accordingly, into e-sports), and which do not.
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By the way, the thing that is useful to immediately clarify: in fact, a single concept of "eSports" does not exist. He is not. Each participant of this circus arranges for itself e-sports with blackjack and the rest. For example: I am South Korea and I want to do the World Cup. I say: StarCraft, Counter-Strike, DOTA and LoL will be on it. So I created my e-sports. There is no international classification, world-recognized disciplines, the register of games - this is not the Olympiad.



In the States, the phenomenon of eSports in general developed in its own unique way. CPL appeared in America - CyberSport Professional League, whose participants played on consoles in exactly 15 games. Of course, all this was done with great fanfare and scope: for example, for the first place the player received not just an award, but a ready-made Ferrari. Sure, red.

In the early 2000s, the Koreans were powerfully pushing their hands on the cybersport field by launching a large project called World Cyber ​​Games. It was the first incredibly cool World Cup with one important feature: the qualifiers were held in 200 countries. If, before that, a major championship in the same Korea, for example, could have been invited (a miracle some Korean noticed you and invited you to compete), then with the advent of World Cyber ​​Games they started organizing qualifying tournaments inside different countries. Some competitions were held, the team was selected, which then went to the finals to defend the honor of the motherland.

That WCG gave impetus to the unification of various ideas about eSports in the world. Before that, as I have already said, everyone did what they wanted. Koreans used eSports as a tool for working with their own populations; Europeans developed the industry online; the Americans did the show; Well, the Chinese used the phenomenon to unite the country and showcase their national achievements in a winning light. Only the champions of their countries, 200 teams from all over the world, got to the tournaments in China. It was very large and impressive.

In CIS countries

As for us, in 1997, a new type of business appeared in the CIS countries, which everyone really liked and quickly developed. Its essence is that you find some kind of room, put collected computers in it - as much as you like - and rent them out. This was called "computer club". The first computer club was opened in 1997 at the Shabolovskaya metro station in Moscow and was called “Orki” - a memorable place for me, because, actually, there I once began my activity as a pro-gamer.

This business model quickly became very popular. People realized that it was quite easy money: we didn’t have a lot of Internet at that time, and we all wanted to try it terribly, the people were coming up with a shaft. Of course, it was enough to go to the club once to understand that this is a completely different level of the game and a very special high. So you sit at home in proud solitude, and here you play on the grid with twenty living people! Then, no one played on the Internet, for the sake of "multiplayer" they dragged their entire computer to a friend to the apartment. And here was not only an opportunity, but also a choice: with whom to play, what to play, when to play. The theme exploded: clubs began to appear like mushrooms in the forest.

Accordingly, tournaments in the CIS began to develop along with the clubs. At first they were held simply by enthusiasts. For example: I play Counter-Strike, I like this game, I want to do for it more than just play it. I collect people, I tell them that we gather and play such and such a number in such and such a place, the contribution will be so much. Actually, the amount collected from the contributions, and was the prize fund. This is how the Russian “e-zero” eSports looked like.

At that time, no one dreamed of some world tournaments - they thought it was just such a fan, nobody looked seriously at it. The explosion occurred in 2001, when the first season of World Cyber ​​Games was officially announced with a final in Seoul. What did it mean? In all countries, there was an opportunity not only to be the coolest guy in the city, but also to win the qualifying, become the champion of the whole country and go to the finals in Korea.

The main sponsor of World Cyber ​​Games was the company Samsung. This was the first time that such a large sponsor was involved in organizing a large event, and when the company invested heavily in e-sports. Samsung had an interest in this venture. Then, in 2001, the company began actively promoting its mobile games for brand new phones with color screens. They themselves developed toys for their own platform and sold them, including through gamers. Thus, Samsung was bending its own line: if the World Cyber ​​Games were devoted to "client" games, the Korean company tried to promote mobile. In fact, they even succeeded in something: at some point in the championship there were separate competitions in mobile games.



Samsung was closely involved in the tournament and in addition to its mobile path: it helped organize the qualifying competitions in countries with its offices, invested a lot of money, to the extent that the prize funds were tens of thousands of dollars for a team: first place - 50 thousand, second - 40 thousand, third - 30 thousand. For that time it was unrealistic amounts. As for the Russian representative office of Samsung, in 2001 it did a lot of useful things: it did a great job with the gaming community, monitored the qualifiers, and also did a very significant thing - the city curtailed the choice of the country's champion. For the first time on the outdoor advertising appeared such an unexpected thing for the time, as gamers and eSports. The effect it gave is amazing: it was very cool to feel part of a great event, to know that this is YOUR contest.

With the advent of World Cyber ​​Games, people have a new motivation to develop a promising direction. Everyone rushed to train and play, another 100,500 clubs opened to accommodate all comers, qualifying competitions began in the cities. Thus was born the first, still approximate structure of what later became Russian eSports, as we know it now.

Boom in Russia

World Cyber ​​Games has announced competitions in three games: StarCraft, Counter-Strike and Quake. Actually, we mostly played in them. Qualifying campaigns were held in every major city, the city team arrived at the finals in Moscow, where the first mega-finals took place, where we found out who is the best StarCraft player, the best Quake player and the five best guys in Counter-Strike. All this had a certain media coverage, which was incredibly expanded after cybersport was told on TV. It was like this: around that time Leonid Parfyonov, a well-known, I think, everyone, and his friend Sergey Loshak were in search of new themes for the program “The other day”. They wanted to find something interesting that no one else had said. Actually, they found World Cyber ​​Games and decided to make a story about how Russians prepare for the tournament, fly to Korea and perform. It so happened that the Russians in that match took two gold, according to Counter-Strike and Quake. The plot came out interesting: how simple St. Petersburg guys play, go to college, drink beer, like a simple Novogireyevsky dude from Moscow also trains before the finals. When the guys returned, it was a real holiday: we won! And here, in addition, the program “The other day. ESports ", which was shown on NTV several times.



What did it do? A new era has arrived: people on TV showed a guy from Novogireevo, who won 20 thousand dollars playing Quake. Everything. At that moment, all the roofs were torn down, because thousands of people understood: “It's me! Here I am, wait, I'm coming! ”And they all began to play with double inspiration, organize competitions, turn it into a matter of their life, collect leagues, open computer centers. A new process has gone, the formation of a new scene, such a mini-industry within the gaming industry. The publishers did not deal with this side of the issue at all; they were interested in selling boxes with new games, so the organization of sporting events fell heavily on the shoulders of enthusiasts. All this was formed due to the very difficult work with sponsors, who at that time, in 2002–2003, did not understand what it was and why it was needed.

Gradually, results began to appear. In particular, a series of Asus tournaments started in Russia. The company gave money and launched tournaments once every three months: in the CIS countries qualifying, the final in Moscow. That is, in addition to the world championships, new stable competitions with worthy prizes appeared in the calendar of cybersportsmen. And that's not counting a couple dozen small tournaments! People made themselves graphics and prepared to fight no worse than Rocky Balboa.

More tournaments, good and different

In other parts of the world, of course, they did not sleep either. So, in Europe, launched the Electronic Sports League. It gathered all the adequate European enthusiasts who worked for the sake of the idea, and created a very large union of intelligent people from almost all European countries. It was they who launched the ESL online service, which, by the way, is still working. The first international online competition series has appeared on this platform.

Of course, we took it very well. Besides the fact that in the life of Russian pro-gamers there were four major championships and about twenty small ones during the year, so now they could play in online contests for money or quotas. All this was unrealistically cool, and in addition gave a decent impulse to the development of the eSports audience. The most important thing - not only hardcore players, but also a different audience began to come to her slowly. Due to the launch of ESL, some sort of “packaging” of the existing teams began according to their skill level.



What does it mean? Suppose I play Counter-Strike, I love this game, I dream of becoming a champion. I came to the eSports match, played one match with the champion, he removed me with the score 16: 0, I ran away, cried and never touched the game. So it could be before the advent of ESL; subsequently this service minimized the chances of such a scenario. Now I could play with an opponent with about the same ratios of wins to losses as mine. The matchmaking system was based on rates: ESL launched a gradation according to the statistics of your wins and losses, which is used by any modern game project. Of course, this lowered the bar for entry into the sport, and a lot of players came to the industry who were quite comfortable competing. They did not build any far-reaching plans - these people just played for rating, watched the matches of professionals and got their own fan.

In America, meanwhile, the CyberSport Professional League thundered with all its might, Garena was launched, and the Championship Gaming Series appeared - a league that was made in a TV show format. It looked like this: on a large American channel, regular digests were published, which told about all the competitions in five CGS cyberdisciplines, played in a stunningly beautiful studio. The second season of the show was already broadcast on a separate channel. Roughly speaking, with this launch, the States took a step along the path chosen by Korea, for example, in which there are three channels entirely devoted to StarCraft. Yes, the TV channels that play StarCraft around the clock. Americans acted in a similar way, but still remained in the format of TV shows.



In the meantime, enthusiasts in Russia got to the officials: in 2004, by means of the Federation of Computer Sports of Russia, e-sports was entered into the official register of sports. Even earlier, in 2002, a significant event occurred in the capital: NetLand opened - Samsung’s gaming center on the fourth floor of the Children's World. It was a fantastically expensive and beautiful room with its own entrance, separate areas, a bunch of staff, original layout (tables with computers were not along the walls, but an amphitheater, with the highest row intended for selected pro-gamers). It was a completely new level: NetLand showed that the computer club may not be a basement. A little later, somewhere in the beginning of 2006, another significant game center opened, Club4Game, to the creation of which your humble servant had a hand. At the same time, we launched the National Professional Cyber ​​Sport League, which operated in collaboration with partners.

Results

Summarizing the interim result of my story: what did we have at that time? In the world there were already a lot of different competitions for a variety of games. Enthusiasts moved projects that were interesting to them, so tournaments started to appear, dedicated to anything at all, even Mario. The prize fund was different: I found the championships where we were playing a box of beer, but at the same time there were other processes. At the same time, the Electronic Sports World Cup was gaining momentum in Europe - a major tournament with decent prizes that brought together the color of e-sports from around the world. The scene itself was popularized: people began to learn not only about the competitions themselves, but also about those who participated in them year after year. We started to buy tickets to tournaments with the participation of these players, to come, to take autographs, to recognize them on the street.

At this cheerful moment I will pause not to overload you with information. In the next post, read about the crisis of eSports, the wars of MOBA-games, the appearance of broadcasts and other interesting events. If you have questions about the already mentioned - ask in the comments.