Tuesday, January 31, 2017

The Fight for eSports Recognition, Respect, and Money at the University of Washington

Aaron, a University of Washington student, was recently confronted with an ultimatum by his boyfriend: Stop spending up to eight hours a day playing  League of Legends, stop going to tournaments, and focus more on their relationship.

"We'll see," Aaron told him, but later confessed, "in my mind it was a 'no.'"

Dropping practice and play just wasn't an option. Aaron had planned his entire academic career around professional gaming, he explained after ending the relationship. "This is what I'm going to be doing my entire life... this is what I want to do, this is what consumes all my free time." He frowned. "It can be frustrating when your greatest passion, your career path ... is not accepted by the person you really care about."

It wasn't the first time someone had tried to derail Aaron's career plans. Organized competitive gaming, also known as eSports, continues to attract skepticism from family, friends, colleagues, and officials at his university. But Aaron and his teammates are on a mission to change all that.

Starting with  Spacewar tournaments at Stanford in the early 1970s, competitive video game tournaments have existed for longer than many of today's players have been alive; but it's only in the last decade or so that local matches have turned into an industry that stands to rival physical sports.

Read more on Waypoint



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