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Esports Facts & Worksheets

eSports describes the world of competitive, organized video gaming.

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eSports describes the world of competitive, organized video gaming. Competitors from different leagues or teams face off in the same games that are popular with at-home gamers.

See the fact file below for more information on the Esports or alternatively, you can download our 24-page Esports worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

History

  • The early days of competitive computer games date back to 1952 with the human vs. computer game XOX, better known as Tic-Tac-Toe or Three Wins.
  • In 1958, the first multiplayer game, Tennis for Two, was developed. It allowed two people to play against each other using an early form of the joystick.
  • In the 1960s, Spacewar was created. This video game was set in space where two players in spaceships played together.
  • The first unofficial event involving video games was on October 19, 1972 – the Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics, held by the University of Stanford. Spacewar! was competed by 24 players.
  • The grand prize winner was awarded a one-year subscription to the famous Rolling Stone magazine.
  • That same year, the first game console that could be connected to a TV was also introduced by Magnavox Odyssey.
  • Seven years later, the first official competitive gaming event, a Space Invaders Championship, was attended by 10,000 players.
  • William Salvador Heineman was crowned the first winner of a national video game competition.
  • Between 1979 and 1982, the games Asteroids and Starfire by the Twin Galaxies company held the record of top scores worldwide with a personal name abbreviation.
  • Walter Day formed the world’s first professional gamer team. He also hosted the North American Video Game Challenge, the USA’s first video game masters tournament.

1990s Esports

  • When Nintendo’s Sega Genesis came out in 1989, video gaming went up a notch. Classic games like Super NES, Super Mario, and the  90s’ biggest game, Street Fighter 2, The World Warrior, came out.
  • In 1990 and 1994, Nintendo opened competitive gaming opportunities to more players through its first World Championships.
  • Using the local area network (LAN – series of computers linked together), gamers were soon able to compete against each other in real-time.
  • Towards the end of the 1990s, the internet made it possible for the gaming community to introduce more competitive games held by Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL), the Professional Gamers League, and Quakecon.
  • First-person shooter games were introduced, with Counter-Strike released in 1999.
  • The game spread, along with Warcraft, and became a real multiplayer hit. These are still some of the most successful eSports games today.

21st Century Esports

  • The first World Cyber Games (WCG) were held in Seoul in 2000. Three years later, the first Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) was held in Poitiers, France.
  • Internet cafes started catering to video game players with multi-player games on high-powered PCs.
  • In 2005, the CPL World Tour (Cyberathlete Professional League) became the first eSports event to award one-million-dollar total prizes.
  • The Championship Gaming Series (CGS) in 2007 then increased the prize money for the winners.
  • The era of the Twitch game stream widened the international audience and became the number one streaming platform for gaming and esports.
  • The platform helped worldwide audiences to watch competitive gaming on a more personal level.
  • The online broadcast of popular games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), League of Legends (LOL), and Dota made them accessible to everyone.
  • In LOL alone, the 2019 championship reached 44 million viewers

The Future of Esports

  • When video games reached homes, even kids got access to games. The Guinness Book of World Records recorded the youngest esports professional started at six years old.
  • The highest single-player tournament payout was received by 17-year-old Kyle Giersdorf, who won the Fortnite World Cup, taking home a $3 million prize.
  • As of 2020, global esports gaming revenue was projected to be $3.5 billion, with Asia holding a considerable number of players and games played.
  • Today, the United States legally recognizes esports pros as professional athletes. 
  • The Fusion Area in Philadelphia was built exclusively for esports with 3500 seats allowing it to cater to a bigger audience.
  • The 2020 LOL tournament drew more viewers than the Super Bowl or NBA finals.
  • Esports has become organized with professional players having sponsors, coaches, teams, and practice schedules like other organized sports.
  • Amateur, casual, and streamer players have also found ways to earn money via live streaming games other than LOL, such as Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto, and DOTA.
  • Worldwide, it is estimated that more than 500 million people participate in Esports every year, and 500 of those fall into the category of highly paid professionals.

Esports Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about Esports across 24 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Esports which is organized video gaming where different teams face off playing popular games.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Esports Facts
  • Types of Esports
  • Evolution of Esports
  • World of Esports
  • My Game
  • My Character
  • Ask the Gamers
  • Pros and Cons of Esports
  • Esport vs. Sport
  • Healthy Limits on Playing
  • Reflection about Esports

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Link will appear as Esports Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, September 29, 2021

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.