By Jinx Golden
A new sport is being brought into the light with excitement and anticipation this 2023-24 school year. Esports has been around since 1972. The first esports competition was held at Stanford for a game called Spacewar. Popularity exploded in the 2010’s which eventually led to their prominence today.
But what even is an Esport? The term Esports is short for “Electronic Sports.” It’s a nontraditional sport where skills like quick reflexes, creative problem solving, and good strategizing are key to playing well. Players, in teams or individually, compete against each other to win the tournaments they enter, or in more serious cases, are invited to.
The prizes for winning, besides bragging rights, have been known to go as high as 3 million dollars. By 2022, the global esports market was priced at 1.45 billion US dollars, making it an rapidly growing industry. A few of the most popular games are FPS, or first person shooters, like Rainbow Six Siege, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Valorant. Another type of game is a MOBA, or Multiplayer Online Battle Arena - this is where the game League of Legends stands out. In San Diego, a successful student-led local team at UCSD has been around since August of 2019. The organizations of esports are taking steps to become more inclusive by creating sub-units of teams that are specifically for marginalized genders and even creating co-ed teams for it to be an industry for everyone to enjoy.