Sargis "SK996" Khachatryan Esports is not a new entertainment field in the world. The history of it dates back to the 1950s. However, it was through the development of modern technologies that made competitive games able to attract more and more masses, up to as much as we know today. While the interest in traditional sports fades away with more youngsters getting interested in competitive video game industry, esports are stepping into its golden era, with annual improvements of its infrastructure and high-tech.
It was in 1952, when a computer scientist named Alexander Shafto Douglas worked on a thesis about human-to-computer interaction. Through his work, Alexander created the “XOX” game on a computer. However, this was somewhat human-controlled meaning that it was up to the player to decide who starts and make a move first. Quite understandable, that the needed technologies were not invented or discovered yet. After the first move the game started, and the player could battle computer in a classic Tic-Tac-Toe game.
So what was really the first esports game? Later on, the development allowed users to play a multiplayer tennis game. This was first demonstrated in 1958. The “Tennis for Two” gave 2 users the chance to compete through joystick controllers. This was the earliest form of digital competition. Back then, this sort of game was a technological achievement. The simple rules of tennis might have taken too long to be adjusted in a digital reality, but it deserves credit for being the innovative point in the origins of esports titles.
Esports in 1960s to 1980s
From the 1960s on, the esports scene was shaping up with a few selected events. Even though the word "esports" was nowhere to be seen back then. In 1962 the space-themed “Spacewar” came forth. The rules here were simple too: 2 players had a spaceship each that were fuelled and full of ammo, to get into the air fight of shooting missiles. Destroy the opponent's ship, and you are the winner!
10 years later, October 19, 1972, Stanford University AI Lab hosted the very first official student tournament with 24 participants competing in “Spacewar!” The winner would get an annual subscription to Rolling Stones magazine. The spectators were also offered free beer — the first notable attempt to get more people interested and raise engagement. Now we can truly answer the question as to when was the first esports tournament!
Beginning in 1972, first consoles appeared for gaming. These were connected to TV and were called Magnavox Odyssey. Technology was still in its earliest stages of development; the playfield had to be attached to the TV partially in order to be able to use the console to play games. Over time these sorts of consoles became more and more comfortable to use.
In public places people would start to find themselves in front of arcade machines enjoying their favorite games against the computer or later, against each other. The latter method became possible with the introduction of “Sea Wolf” machines that had the very first high score lists on the screens. These were already available in 1976.
Esports from 1980 onwards
The golden time arcade machines started in the late 1970s. In 1979 Asteroids and Starfire were created. Possibly the most exciting thing about these machines was that the user was able to type in their name near the high score achieved on this or that title. These made measuring the player skills easier, and now the bst of the best could literally capture their names in the history of their local arcades. When it comes to the tournaments of the late 1970s, the very first of them was Atari’s Space Invaders in 1978. This attracted a whopping 10,000 competitors.
NA continued to focus on games with the space theme, giving birth to the Twin Galaxies National Scoreboard — a registry of all the video game records there were. To get into it, the players had to record their gameplay and send the VHS to the Twin Galaxies headquarters for the referees to review it. The first teenager to set a record on it was Steve Juraszek playing on Defender. To keep the scoreboard clean from cheats, the rulebook of Twin Galaxies and Pinball rolled out, which was a helping hand for a long time from then on.
The historical lows of video game industry in 1983
Video game industry started to fall apart in the early 1980s. The biggest reason for that was the deficit of quality control. Atari did not measure things right. There were already 10 million consoles sold in the year of 1983, so they decided to release 12 million copies of Pac-Man. But because the quality of the game was poor in the eyes of the consumers, only 7 million of those copies released before the holidays were sold. However, this was only the beginning, as the market was flooded with cheap copycats of the popular games.
Another failure was the videogame, called E.T. It was based on a movie, and was produced in 5 million copies, while nearly the same amount was returned to the stores. Decades later, it is still one of the worst videogames of all time. Looks like Atari were rushing too much with their projects. But as other publishers were creating games in the similar manner, Atari tried to stay trendy, and that’s when they lost millions from their budget. They had to cut down video game cartridge prices tenfold, from 30-40 dollars to 3-4.
The recession of the industry took about 2 years, from 1983 to 1985. During that time, however, games like Donkey Kong and Chopper Command came forth not only in arcades, but for home use as well, making it easy for masses to enjoy their favorite games on personal computers.
Video game consoles: Atari, NES, SEGA and co.
When it comes to the home consoles of current days there are three dominant producers of those technologies: Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo. Of course, we can add the newly created Steam Deck too, but the portable device is yet to be polished in order to gain more recognition. And, as we know from the experience with Steam Machines, Valve might not want to push things this far.
Unlike these handful of devices, in the 1980s there were more than a dozen species of home consoles: Magnavox, Atari, FairChild, Intellivision, to name a few. These producers were cooperating even to make their games playable on the other consoles. They were creating special modules, to run games of Atari on Coleco devices, for example.
One more reason for the crash of the video game industry is the fact that some of Atari developers and designers left the organization, creating their own, called Activision, which became a third-party publisher. It is the same Activision branch of Blizzard Entertainment that we know today. In that era the publishing control was lost, so millions of copies of the same title but from different publishers were being added to the shop shelves. Apart from that, consoles were stagnating in terms of their performance power, while personal computers were experiencing growth, due to their multi-functionality. You could have much better graphics and audio playing your games on a personal computer in the 1970s, than on previously popular home consoles.
The recovery from the crash did not happen to all the manufacturers. Coleco and Atari, for example, gradually reduced the numbers of their business, while Nintendo changed their approach and found a solution. Easy to guess, as today we have the consoles like Nintendo Switch OLED or Switch Lite. However, the shift of the industry from NA to Japan started the console wars of Nintendo and Sega. The latter imported console parts and arcade machine parts from NA.
Sega had a handful of releases of its consoles, as they came out to be more profitable than arcade machines. However, in 1987 NES consoles appeared in the market. They introduced 64-bit system home consoles and thus attracted more and more consumers.
In 1989, Sega’s goal became the 1,000,000 unit sale of their Genesis console, which already was built in the trendy 64 bit structure. The price was 189$ for one Sega Genesis. To attract a million consumers, Sega published sports games and released them on Genesis. Their soccer simulator Joe Montana Football became a hit in 1991. During the Summer holidays, Sega released their instant success — Sonic the Hedgehog, the direct competitor to Nintendo's Super Mario.
The shift of esports onto personal computers
It was in the 1990s when Nintendo started to attract more users with their competition, called Nintendo World Championships. The NA region gave golden game consoles to the winners of Championships. As a result, 3 champions were crowned in the titles of Super Mario Bros, Rad Racer and Tetris.
4 years later, the video store “Blockbuster Video” held their own championship, in assistance with the American GamePro journal. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Virtua Racing were the titles this time.
The boom of LAN parties began in the mid-1990s, where competitions took another stage with more powerful PCs and more skillful players joining the tournaments. The outcome was the emergence of pro teams. This was the bare bones of pro play of the modern era. What could be more fascinating than teaming up with your friends to take home symbolic prizes and pleasant memories?
Legendary Esports Titles: DOOM, Quake, Street Fighter Series
As consoles were still in use, 1991 became important in esports history with Street Fighter II championships held across the NA region. This was a better release in terms of competition, as it offered not just a race in scores, but also an entertaining action of fight.
DOOM was another title that experienced the same hype, being a standalone game in the shooter genre in 1993. The growing popularity of competitive games brought the shooter genre into the center of attention.
ID Software made its legendary Quake, which was a multiplayer shooter that smoothly transitioned into the field of esports. The game had better quality than many others released prior to this one, showcasing 6 maps to play on. 3D technology was used here at its best in the late 1990s.
During the Red Annihilation Events in 1997, more than 2000 participants fought in the Quake tournament, which eventually left 16 players in the competition. Dennis “Thresh” Fong became the champion, engraving his name not only in the history of esports, but also in the book of Guinness World Records. For the 90s, the prize was quite a generous one: John Carmack’s Ferrari 328 GTS!
The Asian countries did not lag behind esports during this time, even though the crisis had hit harda country like South Korea.. PC Bangs, the hangout haven for many gamers, became the hotspot of competitions in the RTS title “Starcraft: Brood War”. Even TV channels were broadcasting Starcraft tourneys those days. Sponsorships came from Samsung and SK Telecom, so it was an environment to grow in for professional players in South Korea.
The Stunning Heights of Esports in early 2000s
Technology started to advance in massive steps from the 2000s. It is just astonishing to remember how did esports start and where it ended up now. The popularity not only shook the Asian and NA markets, but also brought the entertainment to Europe too.
In Germany, for example, there were esports events going live on TV at GIGA Television, up until 2009. In the UK, TV shows concentrated on coverage of esports tournaments in titles like CS:GO and Halo 3. In France, the reliable source of game news and competitive titles was Game One, a TV channel that was the favorite of the young generation.
Apart from European TV channels, those in South Korea and the US also featured coverage of esports events, in games like Madden NFL, Warcraft 3 and Starcraft. But it was the Intel EVO Championships Series of 2004 that demonstrated an iconic moment during the Street Fighter 3 Championship match between Daego Umehara and Justin Wong. Daego made for what is considered to be the craziest comeback from the opponents super punches and kicks, becoming the champion of the event.
The Importance of Twitch in Esports Industry
Twitch was another breaking point of esports history, that has given the chance to many professional gamers and streamers to earn a stable living from 2011 on. Growing from 3,2 million users per month to 31 million daily visits, it is continuing to be the reliable corner for fans who want to follow their favorite leagues, players and other esports events.
But why would someone like to watch another person or team play? This is similar to the hobby of watching sports. You entertain yourself, learn something new in pro play, discover some hidden tricks for you in a gameplay. Twitch is no longer just a tool to film yourself all day long, without any expectation. Many professional gamers, so-called “faces of Twitch” are co-streaming esports events, or doing subathons to get donations for this or that accomplishment. All of this might have been less popular, on the other hand, if big brands were not involved in the game.
To be short, advertising products of sponsors has become more profitable for both the content creator and the producer that pays for his offer to be advertised. Streamers are already making their own strategies both for gaining more audience and keeping the sponsors engaged. Creative content, various challenges, and maybe sometimes giveaways is what the viewer likes, when they follow a streamer.
Finalizing all the breakdowns, esports history has gone through a plethora of events, making it what it is today. Starting slowly, but gaining immense involvement, it feeds on the comfort of modern technologies that are accessible to various age groups.
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