Crédits photos : Numerama
What is e-sport?
Contraction of the word “electronic sport”, E-sport refers to the practice of video games in competition. They are games where the player, alone or in a team, faces other players.
Bringing together millions of fans, the phenomenon has exploded in recent years, with the frequent organisation of amateur and professional tournaments, online via the Internet or during increasingly important and spectacular events.
Behind the scenes at GamersOrigin
Valeria Dragoni, journalist at Le Parisien takes us behind the scenes of GamersOrigin, a training centre for professional players. It’s in a 900m2 centre where 25 international players prepare to take part in world tournaments.
The Director visits the facilities: a lounge for the players to relax, glassed-in offices and fitted carpets, the players are divided into areas according to the games they play. Each team has 3 to 5 players. The Director raised €3 million in a fundraising campaign to open the centre.
A whole staff is at the service of these keyboard athletes: it’s the coach’s role to carry out an analysis in real time and then organise a debrief with the players at the end of the game.
The team is an expert in League of Legends and plays 5-on-5 for games up to 6 hours. Nutritionists, assistants and osteopaths take turns to provide the ideal training conditions for the players. Last year at a tournament in Krakow, Gamers Origin’s top team won €48,000 in prizes.
France has some great e-Sports teams such as LDLC, which last year formalized a partnership with Tony Parker to create a partnership around the NBA Champion’s Adequat Academy. The objective is to create a curriculum modelled on the sports-studies for the e-sport.
Riot Games, an example of e-sport
In the field of e-sport, Riot Games is considered to be the “champion” of e-sport. The company has designed the very popular video game League of Legends, for which a world championship has been held regularly since 2011.
The League of Legends Championships in figures:
- 2018 edition in South Korea: 99.6 million people attended the Final
- 2019 edition organised in Europe (Final in Paris): More than 800 professional players took part.
- More than 100 hours of Live Broadcast through 20 TV channels
- In 2016 Riot Games stated (last communication on the number of players) more than 100 million players per month.
- In South Korea, China and Greece, more than 10% of the population is said to play to League of Legends.
Sources: Journal Le Parisien, Pedagojeux.fr, accordhotelarena.com, LeMonde.fr, LDLC, Tony Parker Adequat Academy
