The Clackamas print., April 22, 2015, Page 7, Image 7

APRIL 2 2,2 01 5 • CLACKAMAS PRINT
An opening screen shot of Blizzard’s online card game, Hearthstone.
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These “couch potato athletes" have raised up a new sports classification as Hearthstone player PastramiPJs starts up a round.
Couch potato athletics
Gamers enter into the sports category with new media wave
called “e-sports”
by Jack Spencer
No longer w ill th e w orld o f profes­
sional competition be dominated by the
physically gifted, athletic type. It’s tim e
to make way fo r the people w ho don’t
compete on a field or In a gym, but those
w h o com pete In th e co m fo rt o f th e ir
own chair. The w orld is finally ready to
w elcom e a new breed o f athlete, the
kind th a t plays e-sports.
Sports fans happen to be spoiled rot­
ten w ith the am ount of coverage athlet­
ics get. From ESPN to NFL Network, it Is
ridiculous how much sports dom inates
media coverage. Countless channels are
purely dedicated to sports, but e-sports
never used to get any coverage, until
recently. W ith the emergence of Twitch,
tv, the e-sports view er experience has
reached all new heights. Twitch allows
Its viewers to watch live streams o f par­
ticular games, players and e-sport com­
petitions. E-sport fans now have a way
to n ot only w atch th e events or games
they w a n t to, b u t w ith th e chat feature
Twitch allows the viewer to directly In­
teract w ith the player or event they are
w atching. This Is som ething th a t your
everyday sport fan has no chance to do
unless he starts a fig h t w ith an athlete
on Twitter. The e-sport fan may not be
as spoiled w ith the quantity of coverage,
but when it comes to quality, it w ould
seem the e-sport viewer experience is
a little more advanced.
It may be a m ore pleasant experi­
ence fo r th e e -s p o rt view er because
the w orld o f e-sports is com pletely on­
line, b u t w h a t a b o u t th e player? The
great thing about athletics is people of
all ages and sizes can play it at one level
or another, b ut w hen it comes to the
professionals only the best o f the best
g e t to com pete against one another.
This is another aspect at which e-sports
seems to be a little more interactive than
athletics. W ith m ost games you have a
chance to take on th e best o f the best
whenever you w ould like to.
Another great fact about e-sports be­
ing online is the ability to team up w ith
your friends w itho ut having to be in the
same place.
“That’s the best option to have a mic
or to be Skyping because communica­
tio n is key,” said fo rm e r PCC stu d e n t
Zack Taylor. “Com m unication is key in
the game because you can’t predict ev­
erything th a t your team m ates going to
do, so if you can talk, it’s the best way
to w in the game."
A standard In m ost video games th a t
fall under the e-sport category is online
m atchm aking. It doesn’t always w ork
out where you and your friends can all
play at the same together and when you
can’t you play the matchmaking. If it’s a
team game, being paired up w ith people
you don’t know puts you at a disadvan­
tage against parties of people who know
one another. So it’s always fun to get
to g e th e r fo r a good old e-sport party
and dominate w ith some solid team play.
“We usually have a party at someone
else’s house and we just group the heck
up and still lose," said PCC student Adam
Srivilai.
Just like athletics, everyone has his or
her own go to game style in e-sports.
From MOBAs (m ultiplayer online battle
arena) like League o f Legends to strat­
egy games like Hearthstone, there is a
game style fo r everyone.
“Sometimes I get mad and today I lost
a lot right and then I’m quitting proba­
bly until tom orrow ,” said Srivilai, talking
about his favorite e-sport League of Leg­
ends. “That’s not long but you know, it
gives me a tim e gap to like cool down."
E-sports carry a lot of the same traits
th a t athletics hold. The frustration, the
drive for competition not to mention the
need for good team play make e-sports
an attractive new way to compete. The
best part about e-sports, even if you’re
under 6 feet, you still have just as good
o f a chance to win.