Mr. Toastmaster, Fellow Toastmasters, and guests.
How many of you play or played basketball? (they raise hands) Football? (hands) Soccer? (hands) Are there any I haven’t listed? (perhaps replies, if so ask “what” and ask for that)
These are definitely games that people like to spectate that we call sports. One of my favorite sports was just broadcast on ESPN2, had a world-wide $10 million dollar tournament where the winners took home $5 million dollars. The players of this sport all did this without leaving their seat. I’m referring to electronic sports, or esports.
I’m not just talking about playing a golf, basketball, or tennis game on the Wii. What I do mean is that there are video games out there that take all the main components of traditional sports: communication, training, and teamwork, and make them into their video game. People are playing sports without ever leaving their seat.
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome once again to Digital Sports! (Stanley Parable announcer saying this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRloyLtJ6r0)
Let’s talk about the three things you will need to be able to play digital sports effectively: communication, training, and teamwork.
Communication in esports is one of the most crucial skill areas. Think about all the things you rely on when playing a traditional sport--body language, hand signals, eye contact, speaking to each other. All of these thing are pretty much removed from esports. Now, it is a little different if you play professionally and you are communicating in one room--but if you are playing with friends online and they don’t have microphones, you’re out of luck.
Because of this, communication is the most valued and highly underused skills a esport player can have. My favorite esport is called Defense of the Ancients 2 or DOTA 2 . In this game, you can make markings on the minimap with your mouse to signal to go here, defend this, fight this fight. It can be crucial to the win or loss of a game. And as I mentioned before, communication can be the reason you win five million dollars for your team. Communication is vital for any sport, esports in particular.
Secondly, you need to train. In Asian countries, where they have a higher affinity for esports than western nations, players will live in training houses. (I went on a tangent here about that bit in Free to Play where the soccer team was coached by their esports idols.)
Essentially they live in one large house and spend hours a day working and playing together as a team. Besides just working on your in-game skills, you train other skills too. Eating with your team, and staying in constant contact with them is one way to develop teamwork and an affinity for each other. Sometimes this is difficult if your team is international and you play in different places, but it’s a must if you want to play the game effectively. Training your various skills is another way to be a good esports professional.
Seguing from my second point, teamwork is vital to playing in esports. While in DOTA2, there are your Kevin Durant type positions who carry the game, there are also Kendrick Perkins positions. But you need everyone of all position types to win your match. That’s one huge problem when you try to find matches by yourself--everyone tries to be the one to carry the game, everyone wants to be the star, while no one wants to do the dirty, unglamourous work of helping the match be successful. If you want a good team, there has to be repore and a willingness to challenge each other. Teamwork is hard, but worth it if you want your esports team to be a success.
I told you about the three necessary items to have a good esports play experience: communication, training, and teamwork. Does any of this sound familiar?
I know there is a lot of controversy about if esports are actually real sports--so much so that there was backlash when DOTA2 was broadcast on ESPN. But aren’t the essentials the same? To be a professional at these games, you must have great skill and ability, as well as all of the attributes I listed. Hopefully, my speech today helped pique your interest in digital sports so that you would be open to hearing more in the future.
And there you have it ladies and gentlemen, Digital Sports! (Stanley Parable announcer saying this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRloyLtJ6r0)
Mr. Toastmaster.
I had a lot of fun writing this, and while there were a few chuckles from the audience about it being a real sport, I had great feedback. Most people said they'd be interested in hearing more. If I present any more about DOTA2 mechanics or information, I'll let you know.