9781422277348

The Actual Name Before getting into the history of esports, it’s worth spending a little time try- ing to figure out the origins (and the spelling) of the name itself. It’s not like other sports that have one clear-cut version of what they’re called—baseball, football, and basketball, for example. Do a quick web search, and you’ll find references to eSports, esports, e-Sports and e-sports. So which is correct? In 2000, the Korea e-Sports Association was created, and that is be- lieved to be the first official use of the term. In 2003, the Electronic Sports World Cup was launched in France. This international tournament was orig- inally an annual event; now it holds multiple events each year. In 2016, the company that owns the Electronic Sports World Cup renamed it the eSports World Convention. Wikipedia lists the subject as “eSports,” while ESPN. com has a section covering “esports.” ESPN.com’s esports section launched in January 2016, and what to call it was actually one of the first questions the editors addressed. “When we launched our site we came up with an esports style guide for our copy editors to use as reference—different names of games, posi- tions, that type of thing,” recalled ESPN.com esports senior editor Ryan Gar- fat. “And our first discussion was how to address the word esports.” Garfat said he felt good about the company’s decision to go with “es- ports”—explaining that they felt it was akin to “email.” Their opinion was even- tually validated by one of the staples of modern journalism: in April 2017, the Associated Press Style Guide formally added “esports” to its glossary of terms. “I do believe ESPN had an influence on AP’s ultimate decision,” said Garfat.

Introduction: The World Is Watching

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