DALLAS "We're following White Fox as he makes his way around the corner," comes the play-by-play commentary in the hushed-but-tense voice of sportscaster Tim 'Gunslinger' Lakin. "They really haven't had the need to go into the water-access area yet, the front door entrance is working fine." The play is quick, the players' reflexes even quicker as they adjust strategies in millisecond calculations. They may not break a sweat, but the competitors here at the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) Tournament say they are the athletes of the new millennium. And like 18-year-old Kyle "Ksharp" Miller, they may not eat anything special for breakfast, but they train all year with the intensity of a Tiger Woods. His Team 3D is just one of the 100 five- man teams from more than 30 countries who gathered - in person - to play multiplayer online games. An audience of some 3,000 fellow players and fans watched on big screens, as on-air shoutcasts (Internet radio) provided play-by-play and color commentary. The purse? $200,000 cash (and all the Papa John's pizza you can eat on-site). Unless you're a member of the joystick generation, you've probably never heard of the CPL games. But event organizers and sponsors are convinced that, like the X-Games before them, these are the games of the new generation. And as this group grows up, the games will grow with them. Next summer's games are already scheduled for a venue twice as large to hold an audience that more than doubles with each event. "We're riding the crest of our culture," says CPL founder, Angel Munoz. "Right now, we're under most people's radar," says the former investment banker who organized the first games in 1997. But, says the New York transplant, league-style interactive games are like smoke on the horizon, "a sign of a huge change that's already under way." Online games may not bring smiles to the faces of many American parents, already concerned about overweight kids who consume too much media violence. But Mr. Munoz says the games encourage social interaction with far-flung team members. "Our gamers are in touch with people all over the globe," he says, pointing out that most teams are comprised of individuals from every part of the country. "The CPL games," he adds, "are not limited by borders." While some may question whether online, global game play makes these competitors athletes, Munoz is unapologetic about the moniker. "Athlete," he says, "is a Greek word for competitor. We're not football players, but we're serious competitors." CPL commissioner Frank Nuccio says, "This is a viable, play-by-play sport that is in its infancy." Like it or not, he adds, technology is the dominant mode of social interaction for the next generation. The CPL games are part of that leading edge. Paid to play It turned out mothers everywhere were wrong: You can make a living playing video games. Mr. Miller, a college sophomore from Washington, says he trains online with his team (dubbed 3D for desire, discipline, dedication), going over the maps and strategies used in the game. During the school year, the 3D's compete in two leagues, one amateur, one pro. Thanks to the team's cosponsors, CompUSA and NVIDIA, players receive a regular salary - enough to support an 18- year-old while he's in school studying business (Miller declines to give a figure). Electronic sports, abbreviated e-sports is used as a general term to describe the play of video games competitively. Other terms include competitive gaming, professional gaming, cybersports and v-sports. One of the founding fathers of electronic sports leagues is Angel Munoz, founder of the Cyberathlete Professional League).[1] Games that are played as electronic sports normally belong to the real-time strategy (RTS), fighting, first-person shooter (FPS), massively-multiplayer online (MMOG), and racing genres. They are played competitively at amateur, semi-professional and professional levels including in leagues and tournaments. Contents [hide] 1 Over the Internet 2 Over a local area network 3 Electronic Sports History o 3.1 Arcade era o 3.2 Unix era . 3.2.1 Netrek o 3.3 Early PC Era . 3.3.1 Doom . 3.3.2 Doom II . 3.3.3 Quake o 3.4 Global Tournaments Era . 3.4.1 Cyberathlete Professional League . 3.4.2 World Cyber Games . 3.4.3 Electronic Sports World Cup . 3.4.4 Major League Gaming . 3.4.5 World eSports Games . 3.4.6 World Series of Video Games 4 Player Contracts & Professional Electronic Sports Titles 5 Major electronic sports games o 5.1 StarCraft o 5.2 Counter-Strike o 5.3 Warcraft III o 5.4 FIFA o 5.5 Halo o 5.6 Quake 4 o 5.7 Fighting games o 5.8 Starcraft 2 o 5.9 TrackMania Nations o 5.10 Dota games 6 Other competitions 7 Media coverage 8 Professional Leagues 9 See also 10 Associations and Governing Bodies 11 References 12 External links [edit] Over the Internet The easiest way to play an electronic sports match is over the Internet. General online play is subject to the lessened ability to detect cheating and the more unpredictable network latency not being the ideal environment for high level competition; however, due to its convenience, even players who are used to LAN games use Internet games for fun and exhibition games. Usually teams (or "clans" as they are sometimes called) contact each other prior to matches. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is very popular for doing this, due to the ability of each clan, league, or other gaming-related organisation to set up its own chat channel on the network, making them easy to find. (IRC has become so popular among gamers that the largest IRC network is QuakeNet, a network originally created for players of the first-person shooter Quake and now used by players of many different games.) The matches are then carried out on the server according to the rules of the leagues the teams are familiar with. Popular online leagues include the Canada-based Pro Gaming League, along with Cyberathlete Amateur League, Cyber Evolution (CEVO), FraggedNation, eCompete-Online (ECO), Major League Gaming, ClanBase, and the Electronic Sports League. Video game competitions have referees or officials to monitor for cheating.[clarification needed][2] These video gaming tournaments also bring in fans, that either show up at the tournament or view it online[3] Video gaming has sponsorship; for example, the CPL is sponsored by Sierra Entertainment, Razer, Cyber Shots Energy Drink, and Gamerail,[4] and some teams even have sponsorship from big companies such as Intel, Western Digital or even Steelseries. The largest online gaming network on the PC is Battle.net, used to play Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft online. These networks have over 12 million active users with an average of 1,000,000 online at any given moment with peaks up to 1,500,000[citation needed]. This service provided by Blizzard Entertainment is especially important for Warcraft III for which it features integrated ladders. The best on the one-one ladders compete in seasons stretching over a period of months, after which the top finishers gather at offline events to compete for a seasonal championship and tens of thousands of dollars in prize money. Even though the PlayStation Network currently has the most individual profiles(sitting in around 28 million), it's chief competitor Xbox Live is currently the most popular and the most subscribed to console online gaming service, with over 17 million subscribers. [edit] Over a local area network Playing over a Local area network (LAN) has a number of advantages: the network has less lag and higher quality, and the competitors can be directly scrutinized for cheating. At professional events administrators will normally be present to ensure fair play. Because there is still a possibility of gamers using Modding to alter their hardware to unfairly modify certain aspects of the game or controller inputs to their advantage, some competitions prevent this by supplying all competitors with identical hardware for the event. LAN events also create a more social atmosphere as a result of all competitors being physically present. Due to the advantages of LAN many gamers organize LAN parties or visit LAN centres and most major tournaments are conducted over LANs. [edit] Electronic Sports History [edit] Arcade era Video games have been played competitively since their inception. Twin Galaxies is known for keeping track of high scores on many classic arcade games, and they created the U.S. National Video Game Team in 1983. The team ran a number of competitions, including the 1987 Video Game Masters Tournament for Guinness World Records. Nintendo held their World Championships in 1990, touring across the United States, with the finals at Universal Studios Hollywood in California. There were 90 finalists, and the champions were Jeff Hanson (11 & under), Thor Aackerlund (12–17), and Paul White (18 & over). The Nintendo championships are notable for the gold cartridges distributed to all of the finalists, which now fetch high prices on eBay.[5] Nintendo held a 2nd World Championships in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) called the Nintendo PowerFest '94. There were 132 finalists that played in the finals in San Diego, CA. Mike Iarossi took home 1st prize. Blockbuster Video ran their own World Game Championships in the early 1990s, co-hosted by GamePro magazine. Citizens from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Chile were eligible to compete.