History of e-sports from ancient times to million-dollar competitions

Kapanlagi.com - In the past, playing online games may have been looked down upon as useless and a waste of time. Now, times have changed with the growing popularity of e-sports. What used to be just for entertainment has now turned into participating in tournaments with million-dollar prizes. Not many people know that the development of e-sports has been going on for a long time. Let's take a look at its journey!

1. Starting from the 1970s with Spacewar and Space Invader Video Game Competitions

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The 1970s can be considered as the birth of e-sports, coinciding with the beginning of the video game industry. But don't imagine players in front of laptops or computers with stable internet connections. During that time, computers were still considered luxury items and were only owned by offices or university learning laboratories.

The number of games played back then was not as many as now. Spacewar, created by Steve Russel and his colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, became a favorite among technicians and computer science students. The history of e-sports began when the world's first video game tournament titled the Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics was held on October 19, 1972.

Interestingly, the prize at stake was not millions of dollars, but simply a one-year subscription to Rolling Stone magazine. In addition to Spacewar, the popularity of the arcade game Space Invader also started to attract gamers, leading to Atari holding the world's first large-scale video game competition in 1980.

2. The Presence of Twin Galaxies that Makes Gaming Culture More Mainstream

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Although game tournaments began to emerge, most games are single-player and competed by comparing the scores obtained by the players. Walter Day, an American businessman, saw this phenomenon and conceived Twin Galaxies.

This organization, which records the highest scores achieved by video game players, popularized gaming culture in the United States. One of them, Billy Mitchell, successfully achieved the highest records in several games such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Centipede, and Burger Time. He even managed to record his achievements in the Guinness World Records in 1985.

3. The Emergence of the Largest Fighting Game Competition, Evolution Championship Series

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A decade passed, entering the 90s Capcom made a breakthrough by releasing Street Fighter II: The World Warrior. If initially gamers' abilities were only judged by scores, then this fighting game introduced one-on-one digital battles to determine who is the best.

The intense competition among Street Fighter II players gave birth to the Evolution Championship Series. The competition, initiated by Battle of the Bay in 1996, not only became the birthplace of the best fighting game players, but also inspired the emergence of other games like Doom, Quake, and Half-Life.

4. e-Sports Becomes a Global Phenomenon Originating from South Korea

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Not only the United States, South Korea also plays an important role in the development of e-sports. Starting from the financial crisis that hit Asia in 1997, the Ginseng country focused on developing telecommunications and the internet, which triggered the emergence of gamer communities.

Not only providing internet networks, the South Korean government also supports the emergence of the gaming industry by creating the Korea E-sports Association in 2000. As a result, e-sports tournaments in the country are held professionally and accepted by the general public, spreading to the global level.

5. New Trend in Global e-Sports: Mobile Games

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Not only stuck on computers and arcades, e-sports continues to enter the mobile technology, which was initiated by Super Evil Megacorp by launching Vainglory in 2014. Becoming a pioneer in mobile e-sports games in the world, it only took them a year to hold the Vainglory World Invitational. The success of Vainglory was followed by other e-sports events such as Mobile Legends in 2017 and PUBG Mobile which is now increasingly popular.

Various mobile games that are available also contribute to the development of e-sports. Moreover, now the access to games that are often used as global tournaments is also getting easier, for example, Mobile Legends which can be downloaded directly from the App Store for Apple users. This ease of access further nurtures the growth of e-sports, starting from children who also become the seeds of e-sports athletes if they succeed in honing their skills diligently.

This ease of access is also supported by the increasing number of payment alternatives available in the Apple ecosystem. One of them is using DANA as a payment method for purchasing items in the App Store, subscribing to iCloud Storage, or streaming Apple TV and Apple Music. In addition, there is good news for Apple users who make transactions with DANA on the App Store. Any transactions you make on the App Store can give you bonus items for your favorite Mobile Legends game, you know.

Find out more information about the DANA application by clicking here.

(adv/wri)