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Whether it’s being a part of a sports team, doing a pub quiz, trying to get your work done earlier than someone else or if you’re sat around answering questions while watching a quiz show, everyone has a competitive side to themselves. For some people it will only come up every now and again or it can be a major factor in someone’s hobby or personality. This can be perfectly personified in video games.
Competitive gaming has become more and more popular over the years, thanks to an increasing number of games adding online functionality, as well as platforms to share and speciate, such as Twitch or YouTube. There is now a wide variety of competitive gaming events and platforms and anyone can grab a controller, a keyboard and mouse or an arcade stick and try it our for themselves.
One of the most popular competitive gaming scenes is League of Legends. Teams of players select from a huge assortment of heroes to battle and conquer the map and complete other objectives. The game can be played for free by anyone and with it’s style and character, it has attracted millions of players. You can compete at the lowest level, simply by logging on and having a match, but the higher levels feature professional teams who regularly compete for big prizes. The accessibility and diversity of the game is what attracts people to it and it’s in depth and strategy keeps people playing.
Fighting games have always been a big part of the competitive gaming scene. An event used to be maybe one hundred people squashed into an arcade, but the fighting game community (FGC) has taken off in a big way. With the resurgence of the genre, competitive fighting game event the Evolution Championships Series, better known as Evo, attracts tens of thousands of people each year, with around seven main games being competed in. Evo 2016 attracted over 5000 players for Street Fighter V alone and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U had 2600 plus entrants. People travel around the whole to hone their skills to win the prizes and glory Evo offers, and there’ll be over one-hundred thousand people watching at home for the finals.
Competitive gaming can take it’s influence from real life games. Card games have always been popular and thanks to online play, people can experience them on new levels. Playing poker can be more than evening entertainment with Coral’s online casino as you can play a wide range of games against real people for real prizes. It’s more skilful and competitive online as you can play against the best players in the world and achieve larger prizes. You will need new strategies, plays and mind games in order to compete and you can perfect your skills at any level, allowing you to develop your abilities and knowledge.
Starcraft remains a huge draw in competitive gaming. A sci-fi strategy game first released in 1998, it is one of the most followed and competed games in the world, but has become a phenomenon in South Korea. While pro-gaming is still a niche in most parts of the world, it is becoming more prominent here. Top teams can earn a comfortable living and their success and fame reaches beyond the internet. Starcraft is broadcast on major TV channels in South Korea and shows the potential that competitive gaming can achieve.
These are just some of the games you can expect from the competitive game circuit. Hearthstone, Dota, Counter Strike, Overwatch, Call of Duty, Pokémon, Tekken, Marvel vs. Capcom and speed running all have people trying to win for fun or money and the communities, exposure and skill will only grow as time goes by.
