9781422277348

7 N ear the end of 2017, some of the top executives in college athletics gathered for a conference in New York City. One of the most talked about subjects during the two-day event was the idea of varsity esports—competitive video gaming. Some schools em- braced the idea of establishing esports teams at the college level. Oth- ers—despite the meteoric rise in popularity of esports—still wanted no part of it. A speaker on one of the panels, Rutgers University athletic director Patrick Hobbs, said he is often approached by people who tell him he shouldn’t get involved in esports. He offered his response to those people: “I pull up Twitch,” said Hobbs, referring to the live streaming platform that has been a hub of sorts for esports. “So if I pulled out my phone right now and we opened up Twitch, went on League of Legends, there might be someone practicing—with 57,000 people watching him practice. And their reaction is, ‘Oh my God.’ You get their attention pretty quickly.” The idea is quite simple, really. When games like baseball and basketball were invented, it’s safe to say that nobody predicted spectators filling stadiums and arenas to watch the games get played. But as more and more people played these games, there was an understanding and appreciation for watching the games played at their highest levels. Video games have only been around a few decades, but they are played by mil- lions of people in the United States and around the world. The comparison with tra- ditional sports is fair: it’s only logical that video game enthusiasts would appreciate watching the best gamers in the business. Of course, just as the popularity of mainstream sports turned them into giant businesses, the business of esports has already exploded into an industry that every-