Esports Evolution

Brayden Byers, Staff Writer

Released in 1958, the first Esports game was called ‘Tennis for Two’, created by American Physicist, William Higinbotham. The game was simple; it was an oscilloscope device that could be played with two controllers used to hit a ball over a net.

As technology progressed, a game called ‘SpaceWar!’ was released in 1972. With ‘SpaceWar!’s release came the first “esports” tournament. The event was organized by Rolling Stone, held at the University of Stanford, and the prize was a one-year subscription to the magazine. They played two events- a free-for-all played by five people and a competition. Five spaceships were controlled by each player to drop mines in the playing field, but there was a gravitational pool to avoid. 

Esports started to gain mass popularity in the early 2000’s when online, multiplayer gaming became popular. This began with multiplayer games like CounterStrike and Unreal Tournament in 1999 on PC, but thanks go primarily to Sega Dreamcast and Microsoft’s Xbox consoles that offered online functionality as home consoles. These were only part of the rise of esports.

At the end of the 2000’s, sites like YouTube and Justin.tv, now known as Twitch, allowed players to upload their gameplay, streaming themselves playing, or streaming it live for people to watch in real time. At the start of the 2010’s, game companies like Blizzard, EA, Epic Games, and many more started to invest heavily in their Esports tournaments.

 As COVID-19 plagued the globe, people and gamers alike were encouraged to stay inside, making gaming, especially Esports more popular than ever. 

Within the last 50 years, Esports have evolved from being held in a single university to popularity and existence worldwide. Esports will only grow in the future, with the improvements and advancements of the next 50 years nearly unimaginable.