The final round of the collegiate championship for Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard's answer to hugely popular MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) games League of Legends and Dota 2, was broadcast live on ESPN2 on Sunday July 20, 2014 6:30PM PT. This marks the first time that ESPN aired an eSports match on live TV. ESPN also streamed the League of Legends Finals online the year before, and that brought and that brought in more viewers than the NBA Finals or the deciding game in the World Series. This created a lot of controversy online and is a big step in accepting gaming as a professional competition like it should be. Some videogames have more traits of a sport than some sports yet are ridiculed and are considered nothing but child’s play.
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The bracket system of MOBAs are also very similar, for example: the NBA and the LCS (League-of-Legends Championship Series). The NBA has 30 teams across America which are split into two conferences and play over one season, the LCS has 20 teams across the US and Europe and are split between continents and play over a period of 4-5 months. They also both have playoffs, league champs, and overall champs. The main difference between their seasons are how teams are officially recognized, and that is not a bad thing. The way the NBA works is each team has to be recognized by the NBA to be an official NBA team, limiting players to have to join those teams to get into big competitions. The way the LCS works is the MOBA teams play their way up the ranks to become a recognized group. Thus recognizing the best teams democratically without forcing them into teams before they even play. It’s a Meritocracy. Both competitions are funded through sponsors as well, just like the LA Lakers have Aaddidas and Big 5, Cloud 9 (one of the biggest gamer sponsoring teams) have Logitech and Alienware. That isn’t the only way the teams are similar though. They have managers, coaches, starters, reserve players referees just like other sports, and it’s not like they’re random people found on internet chat forums. They’re an integrated part of the team just like in the NFL. They train together, eat together, live together, and most importantly play
The bracket system of MOBAs are also very similar, for example: the NBA and the LCS (League-of-Legends Championship Series). The NBA has 30 teams across America which are split into two conferences and play over one season, the LCS has 20 teams across the US and Europe and are split between continents and play over a period of 4-5 months. They also both have playoffs, league champs, and overall champs. The main difference between their seasons are how teams are officially recognized, and that is not a bad thing. The way the NBA works is each team has to be recognized by the NBA to be an official NBA team, limiting players to have to join those teams to get into big competitions. The way the LCS works is the MOBA teams play their way up the ranks to become a recognized group. Thus recognizing the best teams democratically without forcing them into teams before they even play. It’s a Meritocracy. Both competitions are funded through sponsors as well, just like the LA Lakers have Aaddidas and Big 5, Cloud 9 (one of the biggest gamer sponsoring teams) have Logitech and Alienware. That isn’t the only way the teams are similar though. They have managers, coaches, starters, reserve players referees just like other sports, and it’s not like they’re random people found on internet chat forums. They’re an integrated part of the team just like in the NFL. They train together, eat together, live together, and most importantly play