Living in a world of advanced technology made our lives easier. First of all, we can now easily communicate with people around the world. However, good communication is not the biggest benefit of all. We got the opportunity to change our daily routine and make money in different ways. The opportunity like that is available to everyone with a stable Wi-Fi connection and a decent device.
One of the things that became popular around the world is eSports. Logically, the majority of people use eSports for fun. It is interesting and it can make their free time more entertaining. However, the huge popularity of the eSports field made the entire industry profitable. You can now see many gamers streaming and earning a decent amount of money from playing different games.
Some people believe that eSports are new and that especially counts for the young generations. However, believe it or not, the field itself has a long history. Be sure that different video games haven’t become popular over the night. Because of that, we would like to analyze the evolution of eSports. After reading some interesting facts, you will understand better how valuable the industry is. Believe it or not, the eSports gaming field has come a long way in turning to today’s industry with billions of net worth. If you want to learn more about that, you might want to check evolutionofesports.com. You can find out some interesting facts about the evolution of eSports that might motivate you to start improving your gaming skills as soon as possible.
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Everything Started in 1958
It might seem fascinating that the first traces of eSports were visible in 1958. Logically, the graphics and other features of the games from that period were low compared to today’s ones. The game that became quite viral in that period was Tennis for Two. It was a sports video game that was stimulating the game of tennis.
The creator of the game was physicist William Higinbotham. From today’s perspective, he caused some sort of revolution in the gaming industry. He designed the game for display at the Brookhaven National Laboratory’s annual public exhibition. He managed to achieve his goal after discovering that Donner Model 30 analog computer can stimulate the trajectories with wind resistance. The opportunity like that told him that he can do the same by stimulating the “real-life” sports games such as tennis.
After 3 weeks of hard work, he managed to design the game. Before releasing the game, he played it with a technician under the name Robert V. Dvorak. He wanted to confirm that everything around the game works fine. The game allowed players to view the tennis court from the side. However, the players also got the chance to adjust the angle of shots with a knob on the controller. Logically, the only had to press one button to hit the ball over the net.
We believe that younger generations would consider the game like that silly. However, keep in mind it was a revolutionary discovery for that period. Because of that, it is quite significant for the evolution of eSports.
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1972 – The Next Important Year
The progress of the gaming industry went slow. Between 1958 and 1972, developers were trying to improve the quality of multiplayer games. However, the significant moment in 1972 was the first-ever esports tournament. Thanks to Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence at Stanford University, the world got the first eSports tournament.
You may think that the number of participants was huge. However, only 24 players were attending the tournament. The winning reward came in the form of an annual subscription to the Rolling Stones magazine.
We know that is one more thing that will seem silly to today’s generations. Winners of different eSports tournaments are now receiving a huge amount of money. Yet, keep in mind that the eSports industry wasn’t popular in that period. Playing games was just a way to have fun and compete against other players. Because of that, the reward of that type doesn’t need to surprise us at all.
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1978 – The First Big eSports Tournament
It passed more than 6 years until we got the first major eSports tournament. More precisely, Atari laid the cornerstone for the highly popular tournament of that time.
Only 2 years later, the number of participants in the “Space Invaders Championships” was around 10 thousand. All these players were competing against each other and their goal was to win a version of “Asteroids”. Finally, in October of that year, we got the first winner of the major tournament. The name of that person was William Salvador Heineman.
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1988 – Finally, the First Multiplayer Online Game
We believe that many young gamers won’t believe that the first multiplayer game was invented in 1988. The name of that game was Netrek. Logically, the number of players that could play the game at once was limited. More precisely, only 15 participants could compete against each other. Fortunately, the could all do that from the comfort of their room via the Internet.
The function of the came seems basic compared to today’s multiplayer online games. It was using different meta servers and locating open game servers in that way. Despite that, it was one of the first games that had persistent user information. However, 5 years later, Wired Magazine credited this game as the first online sports game.
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1997 – The Year of Revolution
Netrek was more of a strategy game. Many gamers of that time will tell you they don’t consider it as an eSports game. However, we can’t say the same for the game under the name The Red Annihilation. That game was released in 1997 and more than 200 participants got the chance to face each other one-on-one. However, after a short period, the entire field was whittled down to 16 players.
Because of that game, 15 players got the chance to compete at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. The event was held at the World Congress Center. It was the first competition of that type that gained huge popularity. Many spectators were enjoying the game online and in-person.
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Conclusion
We highlighted some of the most popular years and moments of the evolution of eSports. The story we analyzed confirms that eSports haven’t become popular and profitable over the night. You can find out some interesting facts about today’s eSports gaming industry. Those facts might motivate you to start improving your gaming skills as soon as possible.