Time to move out of mom's basement!

CrazKanuk

Looks like the Overwatch League is actually taking steps towards making e-Sports legitimate. We know about the whole price to buy a team. Now, though, they've set standards for player salaries. $50k per year minimum salary, plus bonus, plus healthcare. Wow! Shit just got real! 

Cleffy

The question will always be is it entertaining enough for the audience?

Horusra

with the prices in the real world I wish I could move into my mom's basement

MikaelJordan

I think if you ever joined playing Overwatch as a professional player, you will live in the team house most of the time for training - So Mom's basement will be an option for holiday

Official announcement from Blizzard: https://overwatchleague.com/en-us/news/20937016

And yes, as long as this game series, league entertains the audiences - It will be maintained.

Question: How could I contact and apply to play for a professional team?

Gruug

So-called "e-sports" just is not entertaining to me. Why would I rather watch people playing games when I can be playing games myself. I really don't care to make anyone wealthy by taking away my leisure time or my time from playing games myself.

Loke666

It is not really the amount people earn that makes a sport entertaining or not. I think the people making the devs need to make them more entertaining to watch for it to grow faster.

Yes, it helps if the pros actually can afford to live on it but a sport have only so much potential as it is fun to watch.

Games in general tend to instead focus on how fun they are to play.

RofusEU

Heh, there are so many players that becoming a pro requires some serious work so I wouldn't set becoming one as my life goal

HeyYouVideoGame

why would they put caps on player salaries? Also - why 50,000? Seems very relative.

Sovrath

Gruug said:

So-called "e-sports" just is not entertaining to me. Why would I rather watch people playing games when I can be playing games myself. I really don't care to make anyone wealthy by taking away my leisure time or my time from playing games myself.

Curious, are you interested in actual sports and if so do you ever watch them or just play them?

Phry

Sovrath said:

Gruug said:

So-called "e-sports" just is not entertaining to me. Why would I rather watch people playing games when I can be playing games myself. I really don't care to make anyone wealthy by taking away my leisure time or my time from playing games myself.

Curious, are you interested in actual sports and if so do you ever watch them or just play them?

Not particularly interested in watching sports myself, even though i do enjoy some of them, like tennis and volleyball, but watching is far less fun than doing in my own experience, i think for esports its much the same, i enjoy playing cs:go, but don't have the patience to watch others play it.

Panther2103

I love watching Esports personally. It's entertaining to watch the best of the best compete, watching it gives me a take away to better my gameplay, it's also nice to root for someone and watch them go along in a tourny. It's good they are giving them a living wage, it makes everything better for teams who may not be the greatest, so they can still get better and be able to earn enough while playing even if they aren't winning the majors.

I can see why some people don't like to watch it, but it feels the same as normal sports for me. You can go join a team for basketball and play it all day every day if you want, but a lot of people would rather just watch it and root for their teams. 

Hatefull

Cleffy said:

The question will always be is it entertaining enough for the audience?

Guess so Reference and Reference I think online views will always eclipse attendance but I think it will continue to grow.

Panther2103

Hatefull said:

Cleffy said:

The question will always be is it entertaining enough for the audience?

Guess so Reference and Reference I think online views will always eclipse attendance but I think it will continue to grow.

If the games are popular the attendance will be big. I enjoy watching the games I like to play, maybe I would go to an event if it were ever where I lived. 

Tofke

Well, it's a step in the right direction if they want to be professional/taken serious as a sports league. That being said, its nothing for me... Just like with football, I rather play the game than watch others. 

CrazKanuk

Tofke said:

Well, it's a step in the right direction if they want to be professional/taken serious as a sports league. That being said, its nothing for me... Just like with football, I rather play the game than watch others. 

Totally agree. It's two-fold, though. So this development means Pro Gamer is a viable career path (so it might seem). Secondly, it will, hopefully, stomp out that persisting argument that "Anyone could do it if you just sat at home all day." Now it'll be like, "Sooooooo, if you can do it so easily, why wouldn't you take the $50k minimum + healthcare?" 

bartoni33

Torval said:

Phry said:

Sovrath said:

Gruug said:

So-called "e-sports" just is not entertaining to me. Why would I rather watch people playing games when I can be playing games myself. I really don't care to make anyone wealthy by taking away my leisure time or my time from playing games myself.

Curious, are you interested in actual sports and if so do you ever watch them or just play them?

Not particularly interested in watching sports myself, even though i do enjoy some of them, like tennis and volleyball, but watching is far less fun than doing in my own experience, i think for esports its much the same, i enjoy playing cs:go, but don't have the patience to watch others play it.

This is me watching sports:

Well yeah, it's Soccer. Of course their bored. Try something more exciting.

I see where @Sovrath is going with his question. While right now it's ridiculous to compare real sports with video games if these competitions do become mainstream and are watched/followed by non-gamers then the comparison will work.

I look at it this way: In ancient times if you would ask a gladiator what he thought of a game where people ran around a wooden floor bouncing a ball and shooting it into a hoop he would laugh and say "that's not a real sport! What I do is a REAL sport!" In 40-50 years time e-sports might be valued the same as "real" sports are. Especially considering the medical issues that can plague people for life involving real sports.

ConstantineMerus

Sovrath said:

Gruug said:

So-called "e-sports" just is not entertaining to me. Why would I rather watch people playing games when I can be playing games myself. I really don't care to make anyone wealthy by taking away my leisure time or my time from playing games myself.

Curious, are you interested in actual sports and if so do you ever watch them or just play them?

I think real life sports is a bit different. On one aspect, we've known them all our lives. So we can spot skill, understand a good play and so on. 

There's also the element of being a fan of one's home team. That has a big role. Sports are part of our culture. We are emotionally attached to them. 

As for eSports, I used to play Q3A professionally--literally I mean, I made my living off playing the game. I also watched a lot of competitions and recordings of other players matches, not just to better myself but because I enjoyed it. I think in eSports, you have to play a game yourself to some extend, then you'd realize what's going on in the game, only then you can appreciate the skill of others. 

Try to watch a LoL match on YouTube. You realize the commentator goes ballistics sometimes and screams in joy and amazement. If you haven't played the game yourself, you'd no idea wtf has just happened besides just one team killed off the other. But if you have played it yourself, then you'd realize the level of skill, synergy and teamwork. You'd know they had to have practiced that move hundreds of times. I guess, then you'd enjoy watching others play as well. 

Hatefull

Panther2103 said:

Hatefull said:

Cleffy said:

The question will always be is it entertaining enough for the audience?

Guess so Reference and Reference I think online views will always eclipse attendance but I think it will continue to grow.

If the games are popular the attendance will be big. I enjoy watching the games I like to play, maybe I would go to an event if it were ever where I lived. 

Did you read the numbers there...or maybe I am not understanding your comment, are you trying to debate the live vs online attendance numbers? Or just saying that popular games will see higher over all attendance as opposed to less popular games?