eSports Finds Home at TBS and Opposition from Cowherd

Last Thursday, Turner Broadcasting Company (TBS) announced that they will broadcast a number of eSports tournaments beginning with Counter Strike: First Offensive in 2016.  For 20 weeks, TBS will broadcast these bouts — online to start — followed by live broadcasts from the TBS headquarters in Atlanta featuring the players who make the “playoffs”.

Back in August, the American team from Evil Geniuses (or EG) competed and won a worldwide Defense of the Ancients 2 (or DOTA 2) tournament. A total of $6.6 million was split among the five team members who became the first American team to win the event that is held by the Valve Corporation every year.

TBS’s obviously saw something with a growing eSports movement of fans and gamers alike and decided to capitalize.  Why not, right?  They’ve become more popular than ever over the past two decades thanks to multiplayer online games like DOTA and World of Warcraft as well as first-person shooters like Call of Duty and Battlefield.  Not to be forgotten is the fighting game community — of which I am a member.  (If you’re ever in Philadelphia on a Friday night, you can find me at Temple University hanging out with the Philadelphia Fighting Game Community — or just the Philly FGC.)

These eSports communities are everywhere.  They’re in every city in the world, and players are proud of who we are because we do what we enjoy doing: playing video games — sometimes alone, sometimes with friends.  We’re proud because we continue to do our hobby and passion despite stereotypes like ones that former ESPN and current FOX Radio Host Colin Cowherd portrayed on his radio show yesterday.

Cowherd used an example from evo 2015 when a Guilty Gear competitor named Woshige made a fatal error in realizing what round it was in the evo Finals costing him the victory.  That was the example that Cowherd used to show people who listen and watch his show what TBS would be broadcasting.  Yes, sometimes, tournaments can get a little crazy, but like any moment in a sports game, any number of rabid fans would have the same reaction if something crazy happened.

It was the Grand Finals of evo 2015.  For many eSports gamers, that’s their Super Bowl.  Of course there’s going to be emotion and excitement.  Cowherd continued by chronicling the after of when a gamer wins a tournament with a hilarious (sarcasm) portrayal of a gamer named “Spencer” who goes back to where he lives with his parents (a common stereotype) and finishes his night with a Hot Pocket.

There are “Spencers” that definitely exist.  Saying he doesn’t would be naive and foolish.  We all have met at least one person that is.  That’s the key caveat in that sentence: “one person that is”.  The extreme that Cowherd mentions does not represent the norm.  For every one of those eSports players, there are hundreds (even thousands) who have regular 9-to-5 jobs, and then spend time honing their craft.  If that’s what they’re good at, then they have to stay active and practice.  That’s true with anything.

Professional eSports gamers like the Evil Geniuses group are a breed that want to perfect their craft.  They practice and study and continue to find new ways to get better.  How is that any different than the athlete who goes to practice, watches film, studies game preparation, goes to the gym, etc?  The only difference is they play a physical sport.

When gamers or eSports aficionados are singled out via negative stereotypes, it is reminiscent of something a lot of us had to deal with growing up and something that younger generations of gamers deal with: the jocks vs. nerds struggle.  It’s something that a lot of gamers of all types (eSports, Dungeons and Dragons, etc.) deal with every day.  The struggle is increasingly difficult when you’re young and you’re constantly told that you have to “fit in”.

As much as I completely disagree with Cowherd with the general tone of his argument, there are smaller subsets of his argument that I do agree with.  Namely, his views about wanting his children to get outside.  He said later in his show that he would prefer his son “goes outside and move our bodies” as well as “enjoy nature and planet Earth”.  I absolutely agree.  It is important for kids to get outside and enjoy life, but there’s also a point where a child learns about what he likes and what he doesn’t like.  A good parent — and I’m not saying Cowherd is a bad one — will let their child grow and take interest in what they like.

When Cowherd was in high school and in college and took great interest in sports, I’m sure his parents were very excited and supportive.  It’s what parents are supposed to be for their children.  He parlayed that into a career in journalism and radio, and he is doing what he loves to do: talk about sports.

People like Yusuke Momochi (EG Momochi), EG Justin Wong, or Olivier Hay (aka MD|Luffy) — three of the best Street Fighter players in the world — are doing what they love to do: play video games.  They were good at it as children, and they’ve parlayed it into great careers where they are making hundreds of thousands of dollars every year.  What they and other eSports gamers do shouldn’t be ridiculed.

Choose your cliche.  “It takes different strokes to move the world.”  I wouldn’t expect Momochi, Justin Wong, or Luffy to understand “Spider 2 Y Banana” anymore than I would expect Cowherd to understand “s.MP, m.DP xx FADC U1”, but it’s important that both worlds (the gamers and the non-gamers) be tolerant towards one another.

Cowherd mentioned how eSports shouldn’t be on a “sports network”.  Last time I checked, TBS wasn’t one.  Yes, they show sports from time to time like the upcoming MLB Playoffs or March Madness, but TBS isn’t a “sports network” in the sense that ESPN or the Fox Sports channels are.  TBS is a broadcasting company.  They’re going to broadcast what they feel can make them money in advertising and viewership.  TBS will get both.  eSports is a growing multi-billion dollar industry, and there are people jumping into the foray at an increasing rate.

eSports will possibly never reach the plateau of national and international sports in terms of popularity, but gamers still wouldn’t mind having an outlet so they can watch some of the best in the world do what they love to do.  Seeing something like this on TBS can be inspirational.  How many times as a kid did you see an athlete do something completely incredible and want to pick up a football or basketball and try to emulate it?

For many gamers, seeing eSports on television will only want to make them better.  It will also draw more people into the sport and bring the best out of everyone for an overall better product and community.  If there is interest and a desire to do it, then why should eSports be persecuted with a bully mentality — which is basically all Cowherd looked like yesterday.

Think about that the next time you speak on eSports, Mr. Cowherd.  Many of us in that community have already had to deal with it once in our lifetime.  We don’t need any reminders.