How video games became a spectator sport
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- Video games are fast becoming the biggest thing in the entertainment world. Why? Correspondent John Blackstone looks into the worldwide explosion of "eSports," the athletes who play them, and the millions of fans who pay to watch them play.
"Im too old to understand whats going on in online gaming"
"Ok you probably are"
LOL
One of the best, most balanced surveys of eSports I have seen from mainstream media. CBS is actually doing eSports a service by giving such a straight-up assessment.
I totally agree. In addition: they re running ongamers.com
balanced but it doesn't mention the 2nd most passionate e-sport of all time, Counterstrike or idk...the $10,000,000 Dota 2 Tourney? I mean the video was good but they really could have allocated like 20 seconds to discuss that
darkowin They said how they became popular. Starcraft made e-sports popular in Korea, and it translated a bit in the western society. Then League of Legends came out -- and single-handedly revolutionized international e-sports. Just because the game you like isn't in there doesn't make this segment 'un-balanced'. If it was 'un-balanced', they would be reviewing World of Warcraft LAN competitions without mentioning the big baddies. Suck it up, idiot.
In fact, this is one of the most unbiased reports of video gaming that I've seen on national news. Good job, CBS.
Wow, seriously people?!?!? I'll hand it to CBS for doing a good job BUT, they didn't do as good a job as PBS did on a story about e-sports. & PBS talked about all forms of e-sports & they did it in one minute less than this video. So don't even say CBS "didn't have enough time" they had more than enough. You wanna see the story I'm talking about look up (on here) "The Rise of Competitive Gaming & E-Sports" it's from PBS's Off Book series.
Really liked this reporter, he went in with no prejudice and asked the objective questions without being condescending, really great job!!
That was honestly what was missing from this video.
The first well rounded and non-bias report I've seen yet. Good job CBS, you did this report well. And bonus points for not butchering it like HBO did.
Check out PBS's video on e-sports in their Off Book series.
the problem with professinold espot is a lot of gamers such as myself face is we cant be professinold because we consistently get bad teammates (bronze elo hell, redditers will understand this) this is a serious problem that blizzard doesnt acknowledge, i have very good mechonics on a heroer called lee song (fictional korean blind monk), but no matter how perfect my skill is, my teammates are always holding me back from being pro, dont support espot until valve fixes leagues server, gg
God dammit vvvortic.
What are you doing with your life?
So true. And riot never nerfs stalkers in Diablo III -.-
No life detected.
sorry no speak erngish
I can't understand anyone watching a golf game. Can anyone?
I don't either....hell it's more entertaining for me to watch a loading screen
nah... hella boring
It's fun to play but it's impossible to watch
people seem to forget that football and golf etc are also games
yeah but there not virtual games.
***** E-Sport is will soon replace NFL. ESPN will have no choice but to accept it as A sport
We grow up revolving around sports and fail to realize that any sport is just a game. The word 'sport' means way too much to people and at the end of the day whether Esports are actually sports or not, they will still be as successful as actual sports.
And the fact it is sport or not does not matter, all that matters is the money to be made
Aaaaaaaaaaaand don't forget Chess..
About 5 years now since main stream media has started doing periodic e-sports stories. First time we've had a somewhat accurate report and not just a bunch naive undertones about loners who live in their parents' basement.
Great segment! Describes esports very well. One thing you missed was Valve's International with a prize pool of over $10,000,000 for a Dota2 competition. The winning team received $5 million.
Shut up bitch
USBCords whelp, that is one short and clear comment
USBCords Don't be mad.
WHAT?!?! 5 Million?!! GIMME DAT!
Too bad 90% of that money goes to organisations.
Well, I told my wife a year ago video games would earn their spot on the big stage. Can't wait to share this video with her :)
Thanks CBS for giving players like Nadeshot and Scumpii the exposure they have wholeheartedly earned within this segment!
Not at all a Call of Duty fan, but Nadeshot is a brilliant poster boy for e-sports. He's humble yet outgoing and charismatic. He did very well on this interview.
I think the game however lacks something overall as a spectator sport. It's very easy to miss a great kill.
***** I'm all in for more e-sports. But Activision should do something to improve the spectators experience. It's the same problem Counter Strike has. The one reason why Moba, RTS and fighting games does well, is because you can see everything much easier.
But it should be possible to do it with an fps.
I like how unbiased this is. A lot of these tend to lean heavily one way or another, but this just sits right in the middle perfectly. Really good job
This was actually very well done, no dumb stereotypes and the research was done well.
WHOA CBS. That was a very well made segment. Good job. :)
6:27 I dont think anyone would turn down a Yoga session with a teacher like that!
I saw that booty, and let out a Chris Tucker, "DAYUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMN!"
Ismael Carrasco What booty? that chick's a stick. She obviously works hard to get the body shape she wants, but she has no ass.
Thatsspirit What? Her booty is nice!
Thatsspirit Not all asses have to be phat to be nice. That's like saying only giant titties are nice titties. She's got a tight, shapely ass.
Hyejii o
This was some fine journalism. This segment is great in all aspects.
I love this video, it hardly shows any heavy bias from the man trying to understand, and his willingness to understand also makes it better. Most people who do these types of videos tend to just continuously cal us all "nerds and geeks" all throughout the tv friendly videos as if they have any reason to insult something they don't understand. Overall great video though.
League of Legends. E-sports is where it's at!
Hawt, i will ***** you Ms.Grill Kappa
Pay no attention to the 12 year old behind the curtain :p
DWLooney1 $20 says thats a fake account ran by 13 year old tubby child
SC2
Fancy seeing you here Aly, when are we shoutcasting another event again :P?
Well done CBS, really refreshing to see a well done segment on gaming/E-sports.
I really liked this piece. It showed just about every major esports game, and I think that is definitely a good thing.
This was a bloody good segment, well done!
Hey! A mainstream media segment about eSports that isn't shitting all over it!
Great job!
A very informative. unbias look at the E-Sports world. Quality journalism right here. Wished they covered a bit more on DOTA 2's TI4 though, that garnered the biggest prize pool in history.
Until TI5 :)
Watching this for a college course on game development. Seeing these old teams and watching Scump and Nadeshot is overwhelmingly nostalgic.
Compared to the absolutely terrible segment done by BBC about 6 or 10 months ago, this one is quite alot better. I would say if someone you know watches this and still doesn't get it, I would advise going to Totalbiscuits youtube channel and looking up his "Why we watch" video, as it gives a very very basic look at twitch.tv and esports in general.
Or if you like more of a "hype" video, look up "this is esports" by youtuber aiden calvin.
More reports need to be fair and unbiased like this one was. It delivered straight-up facts and covered the growth of e-sports with a very neutral stance that highlighted skeptics but also highlighted what pro gamers actually go through to be the best at what they do. This wasn't some old guy ignoring facts and slamming e-sports as being something that just a bunch of teens are into, and that's really nice to see for once.
I agree with that one pro player who said that they shouldn't be held to the same level as athletes, but the amount of work and stress they go through each day shouldn't be downplayed or diminished either just because it's a video game and not a physical sport.
So major props to CBS for actually giving e-sports the serious coverage that it deserves while avoiding the biases that most other media sources bring to their "coverage".
I love seeing the progress for all eSports even if I don't watch or play the others. In this together
I actually went to ignite to watch the international 5 last summer. It was such a blast, and I cannot wait to go to Seattle to see it in person this year!
really gj, such a professional assessment.. first time i have subscribed to a channel
I saw that Gurren Laggan wall scroll... Believe in the kamina that believes in you
Awesome video, but how the hell did they leave out any trace of counterstrike's 15 year history or any mention of fighting games? DotA as well is the 2nd biggest online game next to LoL and no mention of it anywhere, kinda makes you wonder who CBS hired to make this short.
any problem with that ? at least Riot did something to make E-sports bigger.
My guess is that they wanted to cover all areas. They probably choose league over DOTA because of the viewer count of worlds and choose Blizzard and COD because they are big corporations that are more well known with gamers and non-gamers.
well they didnt go deeper on all of that, but they covered all whats apparent on e-sports right now
Actually ack in '06 CBS did report on Counter Strike they did a story on Fatal1ty
I think dota is more than LOL..
6:26 Thank me later guys
+JK HighLight thx dude
I'll thank you in about 10 minutes.
Your not the hero we asked for but the hero we need
Very nice
Thank you
I just want to say. Gaming is not a sport. Because sport means nothing anymore. When "Sports" were invented. They were activities. A set of rules to win. Over time they became physical. People started to praise the more physical it is. Like American football. One day a sport will be the hunger games. ESports are real sports. Not bashing into another person. But beating someone in a activity
+The Ragerr Wait, what? You said gaming isn't a sport, but ESPORTS, which is is competitive gaming, is a sport...
You obviously didint read what i put
isnt chess a sport? isnt poker a sport? dude mobas like dota and league or shooters like csgos are similar to this sport where critical thinking is required BUT its on steroids faster reflexes muscle memory and critical thinking Xfucking10 go back to the old ages old man dont come with us to the future this sports are as stressful and tiring like any othet sports,, rulea are refined go back to 1900's old man
+Nico Ligayo Go back to preschool and re learn reading
Nico Ligayo
.Did u not see me say at the end? Fucking idiot
FINALLY! An esports documentary that doesn't come off as degrading or condescending.
This was a great report! Thanks for making it. :)
"Good stop, Proof. Nice job."
Man, such nostalgia. Here's to my favorite OG squad: Scump, Nade, Clay, and Proof. Though disbanded, I'll never forget 'em.
Yeah, nostalgia....the team was together like 2 months ago. Super retro...remember way back in the day when OG was Nade, scump, proof, and clay?!?! Oh man, that was such a long time ago. I can hardly remember.
USBCords I do not watch any shooter eSports, but I think you owe him a bottle of aloe vera.
It's about damn time the media showed some respect for games! Whenever I hear anything in the news that involves video games, it's always negative. _Always._ And I've even seen examples of local news stations going out of their way to avoid reporting on anything positive about them. For example, I saw that there was a huge game-a-thon charity that raised a ton of money/food (I don't remember which). Then when they contacted every single station in their area, not a single one of them wanted to touch it despite it being a successful fundraiser (which the media always seems to love). This is the first time I've seen a major media outlet show any kind of respect for video games. I think we're winning them over.
Well balanced and practical look at gaming back in the day when MSMs hated eSports.. Well done CBS..
6:27
Ayyy ;)
Sir I can confirm that you have a good eye for tallent
Sign me up!
Looking to forward to spectating esports with technologies like Oculus VR and Microsoft HoloLens!
its kinda not the same but me too
its there... the new steam vr os good for spectating
Haha yea especially Dota. Fucking awesome!
micheal pachter:" you probably are" xD i love that dude.
I remeber watching this before I got into esports. It's now all of my spare time and 90% of my life
Very insightful video...
The whole THIS IS FOR KABUM! Thing is my fave thing at worlds this year
2:25 He said it perfect right THERE! if you aren't a (fill name here) it wont appel to you.
Just wait till the people who don't play these video games, particularly the "team" ones learn how the ranking system operates. e"Sports" will be a relic of the past
I like how everybody ignores the fact the PBS did a video/story on e-sports too. Yeah because you know CBS talked about every game genre participating in e-sports. Not to mention everything else pertaining to it as well.
Admit it that melee jz the best fighting game ever!
truu
All fighting games are great :p
Justin pls
yasssssss melee community Poppin up in the comments
Not a single mention of CS:GO? It's prolly more popular than Strcraft by now
But they had cod and Minecraft lmao
VStrizzy ikr XD...COD competitions are nowhere near the size and Mincraft? DAFUQ?
+Jaafar Al-Shamari This video is from 2014, I don't remember csgo being that big then.
well i'm disapointed that Dota wasn't in the vid. He had to mention the biggest prizepool of E-sports
xYuushax If someone types DotA they probably refer to DotA 2. Keep that in mind
It would be awesome if we could get closed captions on this (especially in Spanish, but any would work), as we would be able to share it with "older" generations who do not understand us :)
I'm really sad they left out CS1.6, Quake World, Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, etc.
All you see here, are the stuff that these people built on the shoulders of these giants.
Helder Pinto Because they’re not relevant anymore.
Well-made piece.
2:15 guy in light blue shirt plays runescape. what a awesome job!
the international has the biggest prize pool in the history of e-sports
for anyone who doesn't understand e-sports, recite 2:25
You did good CBS
When he say do you think we should look at e-sports like NASCAR someday, and the funny thing is some people don't even think NASCAR is a sport.
I can't help but hold a shift-faced grin knowing I turned on Nadeshot in a Ghosts GB. I was a casual though and don't even play call of duty anymore cause I'm no good at it. I'm still very proud of myself though.
15 years ago, Blizzard sold 1 million units of Starcraft in Korea, one for every 12 people at that time. One million uints were also sold In the USA, one for every 250 people. Starcraft is used a measure of aging in people based on reaction times, Reaction speed starts falling off at 24, according to the study.
Where's Super Smash Bros. Melee? Now THAT is an intense eSport to watch!!
Now if only real wars could be fought this way
There is no comparison of thumb cramps to the strength you need for golf.
nice job, wasn't perfect but it was definitely a fair representation and had people who knew what they were talking about.
3:32 that guy has a gurren lagann poster lol i love that show
Its like when the promotion series come up it set me up with the worst team mates ever and usually end up losing the series ,but all other games are decent players but when come promotion it picks the 4 biggest trolls in my league.
I dont know if i would describe twitch chat as "like being in a crowd." *shudders*...on second thought they're pretty similar
Ahahaha atleast there aint no riots xD
Finally!! A good representation of gamers in the mainstream media!
Host asks to compare Nascar to Esports. He got it wrong, Esports is going to be Wayyyy bigger than Nascar or Golf. It’s going straight to the top.
Imagine Dragons - Warriors in the background... yeah! :)
The media just doesn't understand.
how many people play football and how many watch it?
why people keep forgetting the whooping 18 Million dollar prize pool of Dots 2 TI
Constantly blasting different songs from lol in the background
Do they do esport competitions over games like Age of Empires, or Age of Mythology?
How can he understand people watching golf lol, that's literally the most boring sport
+Adam Taylor thats probably because you're not a golfer
+Damokles “UndeadBBQ” Sword
fair enough 😂😂
+Adam Taylor And that's how people view Esports. You really have to understand it to really get a feel of it and enjoy it.
Good piece. Had to turn on my vpn to watch this though. Don't block Canadians CBS!! We'll get around it anyways :P
watching people play with an Xbox/PlayStation controller makes me wanna vomit
+Pductions it's called Unity. same with playing a PC/Mac with a controller
+Jチヌびゅ Well you're right for fps-games but not for like racing or fifa and so on. Btw i'm a pcgamer so don't count this as a hate comment
I'm sorry the MLG sign is a controller
chinubyu u :| BOI
Fariko 15 im sorry the pc games are big enough for their own leagues and dont need mlg. litterally all big games except csgo. and esl is way bigger than mlg anyway
People need to understand that gaming may not be a physical sport, but it definitely is a brain sport. Look up the effects video games actually have on brains.
polt polt polt polt polt polt
0:19 miss santa clause is bae
people don't look at the thousands of players who actually fail to make a living of their game and that's why it's a legitimate concern when people tell them that it's just a waste of time to completely stop pursuing education
These days if you go pro it's not failing, which is like any other sport, RMU is taking a step to stop that since you can play and finish education at the same time, this is ideal, you also need to be honest, very few players actually dropped out of school to try and go pro before they knew they were good enough, we've seen several potential pro's say they wanna finish school first as well so...
You forget that failing is not just an e-sport thing. People dedicate their lives to football, soccer, golf and so on and fail and never go pro. So no, it's not a waste of time or any different then wanting to go pro in any other sport. Do you think everyone who wants to play pro football makes it? No so its not a concern, just like any educated person have a back up plan.
that's mainly because you almost exclusively here about the ones who made it, Sneaky said himself that he would have failed every course if he wouldn't have made it with C9. ............
Ben Hampton
This. Take football in the UK for instance where approx 75% of players currently in academies will never get a pro contract at any level of the game, let alone at the top where big bucks are really made.
I actually thought THAT is what makes Esport sports. Its only really sports when failing to make pro hurts you in ways you never thought possible.
The problem is, that we're so focused on proving that *"it's a real sport!!!!111"*, that we can't stop to see that it's already corrupted as much, if not more than the "actual" sport.
Why are you trying to prove something to people that won't even care about e-sports to begin with? Focus on making e-sports better instead.
Corrupted how?
Hunter7023
I think you can do your own research.
But just think how ridiculous is the idea of someone "owning" football/baseball/basketball/etc and dictating whether you're allowed to organize tournaments or even play the game or not.
Hunter7023 Hes right. There are organizations and teams owned by few individuals, who make irrational decisions usually do to lack of experience or corruption. You can find several articles on players not being paid or contracts being violated and action not being taken.
Not sure why this is at all relevant.
This content was made for people who have never heard the term "e-sports"...
Not really seeing how the two are mutually exclusive either. Growing eSports won't necessarily take away from improving eSports
6:27 Best part
When they make a tatical fps focused on small team vs small team, then thats the day fps will be a famous e sport.
AnselmoLB Counter-Strike?
People laughed at guys who said they were going to play pro sports too, when those sports started out. Ask the GOATs who are still alive and they'll tell you they got laughed at when they said they were gonna play pro football.
When he asked about e-sports being as big as NASCAR, I thought "NASCAR!? wth??" but I expected the man to reply with "well, it already is!" Not "I hope so"!
I think he meant esports to be respected as NASCAR is respected by Americans. I am European so I don't understand why NASCAR is so big in America, but esports just in the USA isn't as big the NBA or baseball. Internationally yes, but we will have to wait for it to reach that level. And to be fair this is from 2014, it probably passed NASCAR last year.
14 million in 2016 it was like 100 million thats embrarrising
lol CoD, what about the best game ,,, CS:GO
Ganta Igarashi ...because obviouly, CoD's community is far bigger and more committed than the CS: GO community.
Ganta Igarashi ...not that I don't like CS: GO.
Reaperr™ CoD community is bigger than the CS:GO one? In what planet do you live?
Reaperr™ Why do you need to insult? If we live on the same planet, CoD is getting smaller and smaller, CS:GO has already became way larger than CoD.
+Hyper
Too bad cod has over 3x the player count.
6:25 that yoga girl KreyGasm
Please, LoL is so casual it shouldn't be called an eSport.
HEY GUYS! THIS GUY DOESN'T LIKE LOL! EVERYONE CHECK OUT HIS OPINION! IT'S SUPER RELEVANT!
PuroYO What would you vote for as an e-sport? Minecraft? Tzzk
did u mean DOTA2? Kappa
***** StarCraft, CS:GO, fighting games are all less casual.
Not the same guy btw (of course LoL should be considered an eSport)
Awww...someone's game was not mentioned.. Q...Q..
2:01 *starts convulsions after sick burn*
RIP SSW
We made it guy!
The fact that Call of Duty is an esport with it's aim assists is just baffling to me.
I consider it the checkers to CS's chess. It may not be all that challenging, but really the stuff like reflexes are what I think make Competitive CoD actually difficult in comparison to casual.
No mention of the international? Come on, CBS!
I just clicked because of Polt in the thumbnail...
yo same
Pause at 6:27 you're welcome. :]
well put video, good guy cbs
Well done, CBS
7:09 Zuna wtf are you doing LOL
edit : Fucking Bischu and Jintae there also