Are Esports Sports?

The debate has raged on for years now about the idea of esports being synonymous with traditional sports, but is this a debate we even need to have? I owe who I am today to playing sports when I was younger. I know that without participating in Powerchair Football (Powersoccer), I likely would have become depressed and isolated in a world that was far too scary for a kid with a physical disability. Now that I’m an adult, I could say the same about esports. My friends and opportunities have been directly linked to my passion for esports as of late, and I find it to be an irreplaceable part of who I am now. With that said, I’d like to talk about some of the arguments that we see in the debate about sports and esports.

Firstly the Oxford Dictionary defines a sport as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.” This is the root of the argument around the silly idea that sports have to be about physical attributes like strength or agility. I don’t see it say anywhere that you have to play outdoors or be physically fit. The two determining factors are “physical exertion” and “skill,” but what is “physical exertion”? Oxford Dictionary defines physical as “relating to the body as opposed to the mind” and exertion as “physical or mental effort.” In other words, you’re using your body and putting an effort into what you’re doing. I suppose that it’s a bit implied that you should feel tired after performing this activity since you’re putting a great deal of effort into it. With that said, esports definitely falls within this definition because of the physical energy necessary to have high APMs at a competitive level. It may be less physical than football or hockey but that isn’t what defines a sport. If level of physicality was the determining factor of what is a sport then the sport that changed my life, Powerchair Football, isn’t a sport by those standards.

The next argument that really bothers me is the notion of an esports athletes being “nerds.” I’m sure most that say this don’t really mean it like this, but this type of discrimination is no different than being sexist or racist. We live in a world where our social culture is changing constantly, and as such, we always have subgroups that feel the brunt of discrimination and persecution. In our day and age, we’ve tried to change our ways and huge steps forward have been made with regards to equality, but we still aren’t there yet. Even our greatest global event, the Olympics, has been surrounded by controversy about Russia’s laws towards gays and lesbians. This type of global dilemma is no different than esports being shunned because it’s a bunch of “nerds.” Everytime I hear this comment made it outrages me because it reminds me that we still live in a world where women are considered inferior and people with disabilities are invalids. The fact that people don’t take the time to learn and understand one another is the reason that when I go outside in public people stare. It’s the fact that the glass ceiling for women still exists, and it’s the fact that esports is ridiculed by mainstream personality.

With those pet peeves of mine aside, I’d like to tell you my definition of what a sport is and how esports fits into my definition.

Sport: an activity involving physical or mental exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

I added two words to act as clarification, but those two words are so incredibly powerful. By allowing for the competition to occur on a mental level then we’re removing the shackles that lead to discrimination and inequality. The notion of sports should be more aligned with the ideals of the Olympic movement which states:

The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practising sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play (http://www.olympic.org/Documents/olympic_charter_en.pdf).

Sports are about friendship, community, fairplay, and equality. They are not about who can kick the hardests or throw the furthest. Those activities come secondary to the spirit of competition and sportsmanship, which esports has in spades.

Adaptive Solutions for Disabled Gamers Playing League of Legends

Since I started streaming last year, I've been approached for help from a number of disabled gamers who want to find better ways to play the games they love. I typically say that I'm not really sure what the best solution for them is since everyone is unique, but I always suggest working with their Occupational Therapist to find a system that works for their unique needs. While this is the honest truth, I decided to try and provide a comprehensive write-up on the types of adaptive technology that I've tried or looked into. The following information is purely based on my opinion and information I've found through my research. Additionally, I've found that every game will need a slightly different solution, and the in game settings (keybinds) can be very useful for finding new ways to play a game. My recommendations are based on playing League of Legends since every game may require a very different use of these adaptive solutions.


Head Mouse

Example: http://www.orin.com/access/headmouse/

I've used this type of mouse with my laptop years ago, and I didn't really enjoy it at all. It was hard to have good accuracy and precision, and to do mouse clicks you have to hold the mouse still for a few seconds. I believe you could have external switches mounted to do the mouse clicks, which would make this a decent way of using a mouse for gaming that doesn't need exact precision. This type of mouse usage could be very competitive if a solution for mouse clicking was figured out (likely via switches). Personally, it wouldn't work for me, but I can see it working perfectly fine for others.

Recommended.


Eye Tracking

Example: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/26897/TrackEye-Real-Time-Tracking-Of-Human-Eyes-Using-a

I have very little knowledge in this area, but from what I've read, the technology isn't reliable enough for fast-paced gaming. I'd only advise this for someone playing a slower, more casual game.

Not Recommended.


Electroencephalography Technology

Example: http://www.emotiv.com/

This technology is our future, but for playing real games, it isn't ready yet. The setup to use the hardware is extensive, and it isn't reliable enough. My sources have told me that it would be like playing with 300-500 ping because of the input delay. I've seen this technology work decently in games where the behaviour of the game is somewhat predictable (i.e. WoW PvE content or single player RPGs), but it would not work very well in games where you face other players because of the input delay.

Not Recommended


Voice Recognition

Example: http://www.nuance.com/dragon/index.htm

I've used this technology since it started becoming mainstream years ago, and it has improved a lot since then. Despite the improvements, this technology isn't nearly good enough for any kind of fast paced competitive gaming. Additionally, to make custom voice macros you NEED the Professional version, which has a hefty price tag. I would still recommend it as a compliment to other adaptive solutions because it could easily handle some less critical/time sensitive commands in a game like League of Legends (ward placing).

Worth Trying.


Trackball or Touchpad Mice

Examples: http://www.logitech.com/en-ca/mice-pointers/trackballs and http://www.ergonomictouchpad.com/

Both these are perfect good alternatives to using a mouse that don't suffer from input lag like the above methods. Whether you want to use these depends on your own personal capabilities and how well you can get them mounted/positioned for you. Your occupational therapist can/will help with this type of device since they are quite standard adaptive solutions.

Recommended.


External Switches

Example: http://xkeys.com/xkeys/xkswi.php

These are great if you have some movement in your hands, arms, legs, or feet. There are a wide array of switches that vary in size and sensitivity, but this option can be pricey if you need a lot of switches. My current setup revolves around using switches mounted by my foot and elbow to use abilities in League of Legends, so I'm very fond of these.

Highly Recommended


Best Combination for Adaptive Solutions?

I can't answer that because everyone is different, but I would recommend trying as much as possible, until you find the right fit. I know my own physical limits and ability so well that I found a very good solution for me, but I'm always looking to improve it. For instance, I started playing League with voice recognition software, but I couldn't handle the input delay, so I researched and found the external switches for macro'ing my abilities to. The key is to think outside the box and then see if it exists by googling your idea. 9 times out of 10, someone else had your idea and made it a reality.



I appreciate any comments or input on adaptive solutions that I may have missed. I've tried so much over the years that I'm likely missing a few.

Esports and Equality: Gamers giving the world a real lesson in how to behave

In a world still filled with injustices and inequalities, I believe that, like traditional sports, esports bridges the barriers of race, sex and physical abilities that still plague the world. I realize that this is quite a bold statement to make given the behaviour of an average internet user can be quite unpleasant, but I believe that esports is heading in the right direction to help improve online communities. The basis of my opinion is centered primarily in two events, my online fundraising and a Las Vegas trip, that I've been involved in.

Last year, a few friends of mine made comments about how it would be cool for people to see how I play because of how unique it is. They were of the opinion that I could get quite a lot of viewers if I did it, and so, I decided that I would try it out. I decided that instead of streaming for myself, I would try to do an online fundraiser to help Muscular Dystrophy Canada provide support for kids and adults who have neuromuscular conditions. Additionally, I wanted to raise awareness for disabled gamers since I knew quite a few. While I knew this fundraiser was going to be successful no matter what, I was astonished by the publicity and support I received from the online communities. In fact, a number of big named professional players from many games promoted my stream, and in part, it was so successful thanks to the support from the esports community. The second event that helps form my opinion is from meeting people involved in esports.

Thanks to my fundraising and streaming, I've been able to meet a number of awesome gamers, and my recent trip to Las Vegas, firmly instilled my faith in esports as a tool for bringing people together. I went to Las Vegas for IPL6, but unfortunately, the event was cancelled. Due to a number of factors, I decided that I would still go on the trip and enjoy myself. A big part of my trip was getting to meet and hang with Optimus Tom, MissTeak, and Glyceroll. I wasn't really sure what to expect when I met up with them because as a guy with a disability, I've seen people reaction or handle it quite differently. Most people at first are a bit careful and stand off-ish till they get used to the wheelchair and such, but this wasn't the case when I met up with these 3. Honestly, I was shocked by how normal they acted around me from the very start. Typically, a person is only this comfortable from the start if they have prior experience with wheelchairs and such, so I was pleasantly surprised. To be quite honest, their acceptance and understanding is what made the weekend just that much more enjoyable. This kind of reaction is exactly the kind of bridging barriers that I'm talking about, and I believe that esports is a huge part of why this is possible.

The 7 Habits of a Highly Effective League of Legends Player Part 1

I'm going to be writing a new series that I've entitled The 7 Habits of a Highly Effective League of Legends Player. The inspiration for this piece is Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The aim of this series is to help enable and empower the reader to take charge of their League of Legends career and become successful. This could apply to raising ELO, reduce raging, and increase enjoyment while playing. I cannot guarantee that you’ll reach Diamond or Platinum from reading this since the focus is behavioural and not so much mechanical skill, and you need both to reach high ELO. However, I guarantee that if you take these habits to heart, you'll enjoy your time spent on League of Legends a lot more than you currently do.


Habit #1 – “Be Proactive”


The first habit has a lot to do with looking at what shapes who you on. In League of Legends, we are shaped by our experience, and ELO. As an inexperienced player you are treated as if you don't know the game as well as someone who has played since beta, and as such, you will perform in a manner that you're expected to. ELO influences us in a similar way, and with the addition of borders for S2 standings, a player will likely under perform if they are on a team with all Platinum players when they only reached Gold last season. The Gold player may have worked hard to improve and may be just as good as the Platinum players now, but because they're expected to do worse, they will do worse in most cases. These two factors are external determinations that are used to gauge our aptitude to perform, but the fact that they are external shows that they don't have to dictate how we perform.


The basis of human intelligence is the idea that we can decide our responses to stimuli. In the case of League of Legends, the stimuli are our experience and our ELO (the perception our team/enemy has of us). As humans, we have the choice to play as we are expected or play how we know that we can play. The difficulty is applying this principle, and this is where the first habit comes into play.


The idea of habit #1 is to switch from being a reactive person to being proactive. To do this, you need to take the initiative. You can't wait for others to judge your skill based on your experience or ELO, but instead, you need to make the first move. In the context of a League of Legends match, you can do this in a number of ways such as:

• Speak up in champion select and be cooperative
• Get first blood (don’t give first blood)
• Win your lane
• Make plays early on
• Play safe (ward/ping/call mia)

There are numerous ways of taking the initiative, but the idea is to set a precedent yourself rather than letting other factors set it for you. A fine example of this would be my life. I've faced stereotypes and expectations that others have placed upon me, but they've never dictated my success. Since I started streaming and putting myself out there online, I've heard a lot of people saying things like, “He's good for how he plays.” They see my limitations and put the expectation of my capability on me, but I choose to ignore such comments because I know I can do better. I know I can and will improve. My ELO may be at 1k now, but my understanding of competitive play and the game far exceeds that (at least in my opinion). My limiting factor is not my physical capabilities as people like to think, but it is the fact that I'm still finding the best way of playing for me. I don't play or limit myself by the expectations of others, but rather, I try to prove them wrong by taking the initiative and improving myself whenever possible.


The essence of being proactive is considering what is in your power to influence or change (your cs'ing skill, your behaviour, your map awareness, etc) and separating it from things you can't control (teammate's attitude, teammate's performance, enemy's skill, etc). The idea is that you should focus on things that you can control instead of getting stuck on the areas that you cannot control. An example of this would be playing top lane and getting ganked a lot. You can control this by warding and improving your map awareness. Alternatively, you have no control over your teammate rage quitting after they die in lane, so you shouldn't focus your energy on this matter. Not only will this help you improve your gameplay, but you'll enjoy yourself far more if you don't get upset over things that you cannot control.

The Barriers of Esports

I've been following Esport for years now, and it has been grown exponentially in the last year due to the growth of online streaming sites like Twitch TV and Own3d TV, and the large investment of capital from game companies like Riot Games. Despite the growth, I've noticed a few barriers for the current esport games and future ones.


Scope Creep


The first issue I noticed with the development of an esport for various online games is the concept of Scope Creep. Scope Creep is a term used by project managers that basically says that the project's scope has slowly grown too large. Essentially, the project evolves past what the company can manage to develop without compromising the quality of the product/service.

This is seen a lot in the gaming industry because advancements in technology are becoming so rapid and competitive that every new game needs to innovate to succeed. This is difficult for gaming producers and publishers because they have a market scope that is quite large. For example, MMORPGs are divided into a wide variety of segments such as casual, elitist, pve, pvp, etc. While games like World of Warcraft have been successful for years in targeting multiple segments, they fell short in the esport domain (competitive pvp) because they were restricted by the other market segment's demands. This is generally seen by the issues with balancing pve dps and pvp dps for games in the MMORPG genre.

The problem of Scope Creep isn’t isolated to the MMORPG genre. Developers of most games are trying to be the jack-of-all-trades instead of mastering one. What does this have to do with esports? Well, if there are no developers who wish to be the masters of competitive pvp then the games we use to showcase the esports scene will always be somewhat lackluster. Since I primarily play League of Legends and its growth in the esports scene has been incredible, I’ll be looking at the concept of Scope Creep as it applies to League of Legends.

Riot Games, the creators of League of Legends, has a philosophy that pushes them to the goal of being “the most player-focused game company in the world” (http://www.riotgames.com/about). While I absolutely love this goal, I can’t help but notice the difficulty in accomplishing such it since every player will want something different. Riot has chosen to focus on a few primary areas to achieve this goal such as esports, customer service, steady champion updates, steady gameplay balancing, improving player behavior, and quality of life improvements. With all of these focal points in mind, is Riot falling into the Scope Creep pitfall? I’d like to argue that they have found a good balance with the exception of one area. The area I’m thinking of is in fact esports. I know what you’re all thinking, “But Keith, they’ve had a record breaking year with regards to esports success!” You’d be right in thinking this, but I’m looking towards the future. I’m thinking of the longevity of the game and esports as a whole.

Let’s take a step back and consider traditional sports for a moment. Most sports you watch on television have been around for eons, and their gameplay has become very standardized in comparison to most esports who have new patches that can change the game dynamic drastically. This change in gameplay leads to a volatile environment for the professional scene that some would argue keeps it exciting. I would agree but that’s because I keep up with the changes. At the current rate of change I believe that if I were to stop following the game for a few months, it would be very difficult to start watching again and enjoy it to the same extent as I do now. I realize that my argument here is very biased, but let me try to give a better analogy. It’s 5-10 years from now, and I’ve drifted away from watching League of Legends tournaments, but my nephew is at the age where he’s starting to get interested in it. If we were watching hockey or football together, I could explain the game to him, despite me rarely following the games, but I wouldn’t be able to properly explain an esports game because of the constant changes shifting the meta. This is where Scope Creep comes in. Riot wants to please its playerbase by continually changing/adding to the game, but this undermines their goals of longevity and growth in esports. In fact, I would argue that this is an issue every potential esport game faces.

Am I suggesting that esports and League of Legends is destined to fail?

This is far from my point. I’d wager that sports like hockey and football started out just as volatile as esports are now. My point is simply that as players we can’t have everything. If we want League of Legends to become a permanent sport and not just a fad then Riot Games may want to focus their scope and standardize the game after they feel that they’ve reached the quality of traditional sports. This could be done by better utilizing their tournament realm since it could have far fewer updates and gameplay changes, but this creates a disparity between the game that amateurs play and the one that professionals play, which is a very bad directions to go towards since one of the underlining psychological principles behind fandom is relating to the professional you admire. It’s hard to relate with someone who plays essentially a different game.

My suggested solution (for League of Legends) for the above issue is quite drastic and may be horrible to do currently, but one day, it may be a suitable direction. My solution would be to halt all gameplay changes to Summoner’s Rift except balancing and yearly updates. I would adopt a similar model as item development by introducing new champions/changes into the other game maps and at the beginning of each season consider which champions/changes should transition to Summoner’s Rift.


Visibility


A huge problem faced by the esports scene is the ability to attract more viewers. This issue is based around two problems with visibility. First, you only hear about esports if you're already a gamer. This vastly limits the growth potential of esports, and it could be very detrimental in the future as companies are deciding whether it is worth it to put money into developing the esports scene. There is really no easy solution to this, but I'd like to see more buzz generated for the larger tournaments outside of the online domain. It is true that a majority of your target market is online, but it is important for esports to have a presence away from the internet so that people become aware of it.

The second visibility issue is with regards to gameplay. I've read a number of blogs and articles that go over what makes a game successful as an esport, and one of the biggest points they make is that it needs to be easy to understand. This means that the objectives, strategies, and risk vs reward decisions should be apparent to a brand new spectator. This issue is evident in League of Legends because it is hard for a new viewer, who has never played, to understand the champions and their roles. All of us players have no issue understanding things like the differences between various ap mids, but for a new player or someone who just happened to check out a tournament broadcast they would have no clue. While the casters do help with this issue, I find that they focus a lot more on the higher thought process involved in the gameplay and not the basics.

My suggested solution for this involves the creation of a new viewer stream that has casters explain the basic fundamentals of the game that the general audience would find tedious. Moreover, educational broadcasts and pre/post game shows that help delve deeper into the gameplay and decision making of professionals. These are not new concepts and are done for regular sports, so I believe they would be a welcome addition to tournament content.


Please post your thoughts and questions below! I’m going to continue delving into the realm of esports and League of Legends by trying to make use of my business degree.

The Evolution of the MMORPG Genre

With the release of games like Tera and the up-and-coming release of Guild Wars 2, we are seeing a shift is style from the MMORPG gameplay that we are used to from games like World of Warcraft and EverQuest. The shift is based around the combat system in an effort to become more action orientated. This means that there is more of an emphasis on positioning, targeting, and evasion of your enemy than in the predecessors of this genre.


Is this a good or bad thing?

The MMORPG genre has remained quite stagnant for the last decade as seen by World of Warcraft's dominance of the market. This level of stagnation has harmed the development of the genre and gaming as a whole because companies for sometime avoided innovation. In some regard, you can't blame them for this since the current generation of gamers isn't kind to new ideas and reject change quite a bit. It is a bit ironic since most gamers desire more from their gaming experience, but when something new arises they bombard it with ridicule, but this is another issue entirely that I will address in another post.

Additional to the ridicule received from players, game developers also face the issue of deciding what aspect of the genre to innovate. Making a bad choice in this area could be disastrous since the game's entire development is based around this decision. A fine example of this is seen by Star Wars: The Old Republic who decided to try and innovate the leveling experience by having fully voice acted stories that the players follow as they level. The issue with this was that they focused too much on this aspect, and when players hit max levels, they had nothing innovative and original to keep their interest. The pvp and raiding was very much identical to games like World of Warcraft.
Now I don't want to be too critical of Star Wars: The Old Republic, Bioware was success in the aspect of gameplay they decided to master. In fact, it was the most enjoyable levelling experience I've ever had in an MMORPG, but after I finished levelling, I was quite disappointed to not see this innovation flow into the rest of the game as much as it should have.


So spending insane amounts of resources on a minor aspect of gameplay is bad?

Yes!

Having a competitive advantage is important, but your advantage must keep the customer's needs in mind. If you fail to effectively identify what your customers want then you'll be producing a product/service that has no demand. A prime example of this being done success (we hope) is Guild Wars 2. Like Star Wars: The Old Republic, they've made use of voice acting and dynamic/fluid questing, but they didn't go to the same level of depth. They spread their focus more so that they could bring innovation in other areas such as combat style.


Tips for Innovative Design

• Pick a current feature of the product and expand on it. This method is far easier than creating a brand new feature.
• Make sure your innovation is what the customers want. Do not waste your time building a box if your customer wants a circle.
• Don't compromise current features for furthering your innovation. Even if you're innovating, the rest of the product needs to meet the minimum standards expected by your customers.

Starting A Movement

Today in my Organizational Behaviour class, we went over how to successfully create change in a business. My professor started off by showing us this 3 minute TED video that captures virtually everything you need to make a successful change/movement.




There are a lot of things in such a short video, but the key points are:

1. Leaders need guts to create a movement/change.
2. The initial followers active as leaders and must be treated as equals.
3. Leaders are responsible for nurturing followers.
4. Movements/change must be public.
5. More followers = less risk for newcomers.
6. Focus on the vision/movement/change rather than the people.

There are more subtle points, but these are the more important ones in my opinion.