eSports Round Up : July 20

Last week was yet another big one in the world of gaming and eSports. Everything from TheInternational Smashing prize pool records to Super Smash Bros Melee setting streaming records in world of Fighting eSports.

Super Smash Bros Melee breaks streaming record at EVO 2015.

Reported by our pals at TheMarySue: http://www.themarysue.com/melee-stream-record-broken/

How did a then-12-year-old game, which still needs to be played on old, clunky, heavy CRT TVs at tournaments for lag purposes, suddenly not only return to popularity, but consistently break viewership records for fighting games?

The answer is eSports and online streaming. Just when the Smash community was splintering over Brawl‘s tournament worthiness, video game streaming was growing rapidly in popularity. Of course, YouTube “combo vidoes” and videos of tournament gameplay already existed, and so did some small streaming sites, but Twitch’s launch in 2011 and subsequent success has really established the timeline of eSports viewership popularity.

DOTA2 The International smashes eSports prize pool records. No End in Sight.

The incredible traction of The International continues to confused main stream media and rock the world of eSports. Starting at a prize pool of $1,600,000 the current prize po0l sits at a whopping $17,049,180. That’s a 965.57% increase and a player contributed prize pool of $15,449,180.

esports news
There’s no end in site for the growth for The International

“We were all on Adderall” Sparks a Quick ESL Response. Kinda.

Last week Vice.com released an interview with Kory “SEMPHIS” Friesen, a high level, professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player, has admitted he and other members of his team at the time, Cloud9, used Adderall during a major tournament where players competed for $250,000 in prize money.

Govindasamy: Everyone does Adderall at ESEA LAN [eSports Entertainment Association League events] right?
Friesen: Yeah.
Govindasamy: Just throwing that out there for the fans, that’s how you get good.
Friesen: And you can hear it in the comms right? That’s what was so funny to me. Like [people saying] “shit comms [are] so hectic.” So yeah that might clear up some of the questions of why it was like that.

Obviously after an exchange and comments like that ESL, the reigning King of live international eSports events jumped in immediately for a bit of damage control.

Everyone does need to keep in mind that these types of drugs are very much accepted within the eSports community. The industry has some growing up to do, but the same could have been said of the UFC 10 years ago.

ESL’s response went something like this:

Competitive Video Gaming

Kory “SEMPHIS” Friesen, a high level, professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensiveplayer, has admitted he and other members of his team at the time, Cloud9, used Adderall during a major tournament where players competed for $250,000 in prize money.

“The integrity of our sport is and always will be our biggest concern,” says Anna Rozwandowicz, head of communications at ESL. “When we first saw [Friesen’s comments], we focused immediately on kickstarting a policy-making process and adjusting the rules. We have worked on changes in our rules, reached out to authorities for support, and will be ready to announce our next steps in a couple of days. When that comes out, you can treat that as our full statement on the issue.”

As far as any punishment being imposed on Friesen, the matter is trickier. “Our rules forbid participating in the tournament while on drugs [but] we don’t have a list of repercussions that we can match to every incident in a straight forward manner,” says Rozwandowicz.

That’s like having a law against speeding, without any fine if you do indeed score that speeding ticket. ESL might want to take a look at that policy and revise.

That’s your eSports update for the week of July 20th. Be sure to check out brand new eSports forum and community. We’ve got a ton of new and exciting community features, offers and goodness coming your way this fall and winter!

Plus out very own kick-ass subreddit is on it’s way 🙂

What do you think?

Written by Reggie Breese