The Future of e-Sports

E-Sports is a growing industry with audiences, revenues, and prize winnings already outstripping many professional sports. The category includes any kind of video games, electronic assisted games, and games with remotely controlled or autonomous robots. Competition includes person-to-person as well as team-based contests, and many have large audiences live streaming or watching in arenas. Players and teams are sponsored by major brands, just like conventional sports, and teams themselves are run like businesses, being purchased for hundreds of millions of dollars, with players training and quartering together. Most e-Sports have been played with hands so far, but players will soon use more of their bodies to control gameplay, using VR and AR tools to more fully immerse and specialized equipment to play. Players will be vulnerable to injuries and physical differentiation will compare with what conventional athletes experience today. Numerous wearable electronics will also allow viewers to feel as if they are on the field. Beyond supremely teched-out players, arenas will also host all manner of unmanned machines, from drone racing to total bot mayhem. The flow of money into these sports will increasingly include betting, and some will have economies built directly into them, using blockchain and cryptocurrencies to reward in-game achievements. With the vast quantity of statistical data being collected during these contests, fantasy leagues will be massive, further growing attention and revenues. In the next ten years, we'll see e-sports playing some role in the Olympics. By that time, we will probably drop the "e" and these games will fully join the broader pantheon of Sport.
This video on “The Future of e-Sports” was commissioned by China Mobile as part of an online course. It is one of 36 lecture videos. A version with Chinese subtitles is available at Citic Migu: citic.cmread.co...
A transcript of the lecture in English is available here: drive.google.c...