Understanding the Transition of Esports: from Subculture to Mainstream
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Understanding the Transition of Esports: From Subculture to Mainstream By Kern John-Justin University of the Arts London London College of Communication Games Design – Year 3 January 2019 Acknowledgements The minutes, hours, and days spent writing and researching for this thesis has become immeasurable, but thank God it is over. However, as I sit here constructing the final part of my thesis I realise it is not entirely over without showing my gratitude for those who helped me write it. Firstly, I would like to thank my closest friend Danny Baalbaki for the immense support he has provided over our ten years of friendship. His guidance has propelled me into the position I am in today; finally writing the last section of my thesis. Thank you, brother, for all the support; I could not have done it without you. A thank you to my tutor Chris Lowthorpe for sitting through all my ramblings on Esports and helping me arrange them into an academic paper. Your knowledge and advice have significantly shaped this thesis, and I am incredibly grateful for it. To all those in the Esports industry, thank you for pushing the boundaries. Thank you to those who went above and beyond that, (OpTic Gaming especially); for creating the content and storylines that supplied me with countless hours of entertainment. And finally, to my parents who continuously believe in and support me, I cannot say anything more than, thank you. i Abstract With Esports’ growth in popularity and recognition, there is a burgeoning need for more academic research and study on this new, growing, media industry. Although Esports has only recently become a form of media which garners mainstream attention, it is essential to understand its past and the academic literature that followed it. As such, this thesis will view and evaluate: Esports’ initial attempt at legitimising itself (what could be considered as its past), Esports’ non-traditional approach towards legitimisation (it’s present), and finally its industry prospects as a dominant cultural product (what can be considered its future). Part of this thesis will employ media theories to understand the reasons why people watch Esports and how it resides in broader media contexts. Keywords: Esports, Twitch, spectatorship, video games, mainstream, subculture, game culture, legitimacy, media theory, ii Contents Title Page: Understanding the Transition of Esports: From Subculture to Mainstream .......... 1 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. i Abstract .................................................................................................................................. ii Keywords: ........................................................................................................................ ii Introduction............................................................................................................................ 1 Terminology .................................................................................................................... 2 Chapter 0 ................................................................................................................................ 4 0.1 The Battle for Legitimacy .......................................................................................... 4 0.2 The South Korean Model .......................................................................................... 6 Chapter 1 ................................................................................................................................ 8 1.1 Formalising Esports ................................................................................................... 8 1.2 Early Commercial Spectatorship ............................................................................... 8 Chapter 2 .............................................................................................................................. 10 2.1 The Rise of Twitch ................................................................................................... 10 2.2 Learning from Tradition .......................................................................................... 11 2.3 Esports in the Mainstream ...................................................................................... 14 2.4 Why We Watch ....................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 3 .............................................................................................................................. 19 3.1 Gender Diversity ..................................................................................................... 19 3.2 The Global Governance of Esports ......................................................................... 21 3.3 Amateur vs Pro ........................................................................................................ 22 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 24 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ I Ludography: ..........................................................................................................................VII List of Figures: .....................................................................................................................VIII iii Introduction Electronic sports (Esports) inherently challenges the traditions and preconceptions of traditional sports. With the assistance of live streaming, it has become the sports of the digital era, categorised into a variety of different genres. From first-person shooters (FPS) such as Call of Duty (CoD) to multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBA) such as League of Legends (LoL), Esports offers a diverse range of games played at the highest levels of competition. With the rise of live streaming platforms such as Twitch.TV, Esports has become one of the most successful new media industries. Roughly 215 million unique viewers watched Esports in 2018, and the industry is currently valued at $906 million (Pannekeet, 2018) proving that Esports is growing at an extreme rate. Moreover, In her summary of live streaming's effect on Esports, T.L Taylor encapsulates the subject of this research; “The rise and amplification of these massive events via live streaming […] highlight how the long trajectory of a subculture [Esports] can often burst through in, unexpected, unanticipated ways” (2018, p.192). As such, this thesis will partially focus on how Esports has moved from a niche sub-genre of game culture; to its new position within the mainstream. Although this thesis will primarily focus on the transition of Western Esports, specifically in areas such as: the United Kingdom, the United States and Continental Europe, a section shall be dedicated to the development of Esports in South Korea. This segment will be termed ‘The South Korea Model’ and will concentrate on providing a brief history about the formation of Esports in South Korea, and how it has been able to succeed in entering the mainstream. The choice to focus on the Esports of the West is based on two reasons. Firstly, due to the accessibility of research in the UK and secondly, due to the cultural similarities between the UK, US and Europe. One significant difference between Esports in East Asia and the West is the genre that is most popular in each region. Whereas MOBAs are favoured in the East, FPS titles are preferred in the West. A look at the past is required to understand the attempts that Western Esports has made in order to gain legitimacy. The first chapter will examine Esports’ use of traditional sports and media models, to formalise itself and gain legitimacy. 1 The second chapter will cover the Esports industry and live streaming, focusing on the break away from traditional methods of gaining legitimacy. Platforms such as Twitch are used to construct a business model of sports and media that is integrated. As many scholars have noted, spectatorship in the realm of Esports has strong ties to theories of remediation, cultural participation, uses and gratification (UGT) and self-determination (SDT) (Hutchins, 2008; Seo, 2013; Sjoblom & Hamari, 2016; Taylor, 2018). In light of this, these media theories will be applied to analyse live streaming as a media form and to gain an understanding of why people watch Esports. The third chapter will take a sociological standpoint on the current state of Esports. It will look to raise, and perhaps gather answers to, questions on the issues that are present in Esports such as: its proposed lack of inclusion (Taylor, 2012, 2018) and the regulation of the community. This chapter evaluates what Esports has become, and what it may need to consider moving forward. A closing section of the thesis will propose possible measures the Esports industry can take as it advances. Terminology Esports is still an ambiguous term that many in the field have tried to define (Wagner, 2006; Seo, 2013; Sjoblom & Hamari, 2016). In order to conclude how the term should be defined it must first be understood that Esports is made up of two different activities: The first concerns “competitive gaming” and is the act of competing against other players through game systems. Michael G. Wagner, in his definition of Esports, is closest to defining this aspect