As everyone inside the gaming community can see, the stock that is competitive gaming is continually on the rise. Even outsiders have to notice the increasing amount of news coverage concerning tournaments, gaming contracts, and even our own media coverage. Our community of gamers has recently received some impressive publicity. Many articles explaining the exponentially huge increase in gaming worldwide have been featured in acclaimed news magazines such as Business Week, MTV News, and even the famed Sports Illustrated. But even with the recent influx of attention on our community, there still remains a problem that hinders one of the major factors in the development of eSports: image.



Our world of gaming has never lacked love and dedication from its many followers, but it has always remained very private nonetheless. What I mean is that the community we are a part of is very misunderstood by outsiders, thus they remain uninterested. For the average Joe, hearing that 3D recently beat Complexity in back to back tournaments does not mean much. For all those who follow competitive gaming, they realize the importance of the news, but to those who don’t understand the ins and outs of our gaming world, they simply turn their heads elsewhere. To many, gamers are written off as some kind of social aberration and not as legitimate competitors.

Why, you ask? Simply because people don’t enjoy watching something they don’t understand. There is a reason why Olympic curling doesn’t get very high ratings.

Similarly, this is the same reason that I don’t follow lacrosse or hockey. I’ve never played either sport nor have I had anyone explain them to me. When I watch either, I have no idea what to look for, so I just change the channel. I have absolutely no idea what is good and what plays are supposed to be sensational. The same exact problem exists with games like Counter-Strike. Someone who doesn’t follow the game wouldn’t know what a flashbang does, they don’t realize that the Terrorist objective is to plant a bomb, and probably couldn’t even tell you that a headshot is different than any other shot. I mean, both make blood come out of the computerized model, so what’s the difference, right?

The point is, plain and simply, our community is too closed off to outsiders. The problem is partially our fault, as fans, but also somewhat inherent in Counter-Strike. The game can be compared somewhat easily to football. Though most Americans have known and loved football from a young age, many foreigners who try to understand the game are baffled by many of the specific and less obvious rules at first. The same idea applies directly to CS. It is not realistic for us to think that others will just hop on the gaming bandwagon with no background information to draw them in.

Though important news magazines and journals have recently been supporting eSports' growth with provacatively interesting articles, that will not be the only contributing factor to push eSports over the edge into the mainstream. It almost becomes our responsibility as players and fans to take this burden upon ourselves. Personally, I used to tell very few of my friends about my involvement with competitive gaming. You could almost say I was ashamed of it. But that’s not how we should treat a community that we are all so closely bound to. We shouldn’t pretend it doesn’t exist. More and more, I tell my friends about it and I tell my journalism professors about it; I tell most everyone I know. Honestly, it is all in the way you convey it.

If you are telling people, “I like to play video games a lot and I even play on a gaming team”, you probably won’t get anyone you know interested. On the other hand, if you talk it up and relay the more interesting aspects of the game, people will become intrigued and ask questions about it. One way I have learned to explain eSports is by explaining how similar it is to playing a high school sport.

Like football, each round can be compared to a play, with a defensive call and an offensive call. Sometimes the offense’s play is tricky and employs a fake, and just as defenses in football use stunts to stack several players on the defensive line, CS defenses can overload a bombsite with 3-4 players. Regardless of whether our sport is played through an electronically generated world, it still is made up of the finer points any other mainstream sport is.



I also tell people about the cameraderie involved with a team. Though not outside sweating and running sprints, gamers who want to be successful still have to be intensely concentrated during their daily practice, which can last up to 3-4 hours per day. It is a great way to compete with friends and also a great way to meet new people.

Let’s all be honest, not every kid can be a varsity football or basketball player. Just because a kid isn’t athletic, does that mean he has no desire to compete? Competitive online gaming is a perfect outlet for kids who want to find people who have similar interests and want to be the best at their sport, just like any other competitor.

If people still don't get it, spend some time surfing the net for examples of eSports in the mainstream. When a person sees an in-depth article portraying eSports in a good light, it can serve as quite the eye-opener. One recent piece I had the luck of coming across was a look at the gaming life of John "fatal1ty" Wendel, the infamous Quake3 and Painkiller star. A well written article that not only covers Wendel, but also delves into gaming as a whole, is on display at businessweek. Having several sources just one link away never hurts when you have people in your life who just don't get eSports.

If nothing else can grab someone’s attention, it never hurts to mention the hundreds of THOUSANDS of dollars that make up the prize purses of the larger world tournaments. Of course, the recent jump to the next level was performed by the CPL’s $1,000,000 world tour announcement. Also notable is the increasing number of gaming contracts being signed. You cannot argue that times are changing when we live in a world in which young men can be signed to a $60,000 gaming contract. As we all know, money can take you a long way in this world, and eSports is no different. Without a doubt, the increase in prize purses and addition of contracts continually helps our community grow.

Overall, we as a community have to help ourselves out. The institution of competitive gaming is not a popularly established one…yet.

Trevor Yuen, a former competitive gamer turned Counter-Strike movie producer, was able to describe gaming very effectively, "No one understands gaming because there is a certain 'nerd stigma' attached to it. People are turned off because their perception of gaming screams basement-dwelling nerds with bad acne".

If gamers can dispel this common misperception and individually emphasize the depth of the game and how it creates a truly competitive atmosphere, we will find our community opening its doors to all kinds of new players and spectators.

Just remember this the next time you’ve been practicing with your team, pubbing, or even just spectating a match, and your friends ask you what you’ve been doing. Don’t say you’ve just been watching TV or doing homework. Explain to them what competitive gaming is and how games like Counter-Strike work. Try to get them interested, too. It’s time that people understand our world of eSports. We’re here to stay.