History of esports

Esports has undergone a huge transformation in recent years. From small LAN parties, it has reached the stages of large arenas worldwide.

Today, esports is already a sprawling global industry, encompassing hundreds of competitive events, thousands of organizations, and players. Where, when, and how did it all begin? And what was the path of progaming to today’s sold-out arenas?

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First esports tournament

The beginning of esports can be dated to 1972, when the Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics was held at Stanford University’s artificial intelligence laboratory. It was played in the world’s first digital game – Spacewar, in which two players with their spacecraft had to shoot each other down. The winner from the total of 24 players took home a “mere” one-year subscription to Rolling Stones magazine. The participants of this tournament and the early gamers in general were mostly students or employees of universities, as they were the only ones with sufficient technical equipment. It was only with the transition of technologies into everyday life that the first gaming consoles emerged.

First consoles, arcades, and leaderboards

You’ve probably never heard of the Magnavox Odyssey, but it was the first video game device that could be connected to a television, but a game board template still had to be attached to the screen. This gaming console took the first step towards making the video gaming world accessible to the masses. There was development of arcade and simple games, like the legendary “tennis simulator” Pong, which could also be played on various slot machines. The competitive side of gaming reached a new level with the introduction of permanent display of high scores. The first to offer this feature was the game Sea Wolf in 1976. Here and there, a local tournament or competition for the best placement appeared, but there was no leaderboard on a world or even national level. That kept one of the arcade house operators, Walter Day, awake at night, who partnered with the game machine manufacturer and game developer Namco. They founded the company Twin Galaxies, which physically traveled to arcades in North America to record the highest scores achieved. Walter Day also founded the first professional national video game team: U.S. National Video Team and organized a tournament called North American Video Game Challenge, the first of its kind. Walter can definitely be considered one of the main pioneers of esports and that was at a time when society looked at video games with some disdain.

Newer technologies, better consoles, and more sophisticated games

The rest of the world soon followed in Walter’s footsteps and the first organizations and larger tournaments began to be held. The development of new technologies continued to accelerate and humanity witnessed consoles like Atari. This was followed, for example, by the German Atari VCS Bundesliga in 1982, which was not a classic tournament but the first esports league. Gaming consoles Super Nintendo and Sega Mega Drive led in sales, and Nintendo was aware of the strong competitive scene. It therefore organized the Nintendo World Championship, whose three winners (played in three different categories) received golden game modules. Games like Super Mario Bros, Tetris, Virtua Racing, and Sony Hedgehog dominated the global gaming industry and naturally appeared at tournaments. This also included the world one, organized by the company Blockbuster in cooperation with the American magazine GamePro in 1994.

Computers at the forefront of development or a turning point in the history of esports

Over time, it became increasingly clear that the future of esports would be in PC gaming. These began to be more accessible and cheaper than traditional gaming consoles and offered far more options for use. In the mid-1990s, the first big LAN party took place, and it was already common for small groups of computer gamers to meet and play together or against each other.

From these gaming meetings, the first video game clans and clubs emerged. Larger tournaments were soon to follow. Thanks to advanced technologies in the field of computer networking – the internet – PC games (Doom, Quake, Unreal Tournament, StarCraft) became increasingly popular and newly formed amateur esports organizations could compete against each other regardless of distance. By the end of the nineties, the first official esports leagues (e.g., Electronic Sports League) began to form.

German craze and the arrival of Counter Strike

An event called Gamers’ Gathering, held in 1999 in Germany, attracted more than 1600 players to one place. Competing in popular titles also attracted media attention and it was clear that the topic of esports could no longer be overlooked.

In South Korea, the Korean e-Sports Association was founded a year later, which focused on the marketing aspect of things from the start. Thanks to it, cybersports made it to television screens in Asia. The first World Cyber Games (WCG) tournament was held that same year in Seoul.

At that time, a huge stir was caused in the gaming community due to a new multiplayer game, which started as a small project by a group of students. Counter Strike focused on player versus player combat and brought a completely new concept to the shooter genre. The first CS spread like lightning and became one of the biggest hits in esports history.

	Counter-Strike 2
	CS:GO

New millennium

The international competition Electronic Sports World Cup was held in France in 2003 and was one of the biggest events in esports. PC games were in the forefront, but console titles were not missing either (notably the game Halo).

In 2005, the CPL World Tour followed, in which the prize money for winners reached one million dollars for the first time. It was a year-long competition held in a total of nine different cities around the world. The final took place in New York and was broadcast live on MTV. The main game of the entire tour was Painkiller, but “support” organizations that managed the events also added smaller tournaments in Counter Strike.

Two years later, the Championship Gaming Series (CGS) was held, whose prize pool exceeded one million dollars. Along with salaries and rewards for professional players, the final amount for this competition reached six million dollars, making it the most expensive esports event in history.

Everyone wants their piece

Esports teams, organizations, clubs, and sponsors soon realized that progaming is a very lucrative environment. Game developers therefore began to take the esports scenes of their game titles under their wings, but large tournaments organized by third parties were also not lacking. Production and organizing companies such as the oldest ESL continue to this day to hold some of the best-managed esports events (see IEM Katowice).

With the gradual improvement of technologies, gaming itself is naturally evolving, which causes the arrivals and departures of games within a few years. For example, Warcraft III disappeared from the esports scene, but the game League of Legends appeared. For developers, it has become necessary to take care of their video game titles at an unprecedented level, continuously releasing new updates and improving the game to meet current standards.

Today’s form of esports

In more than fifty years of developing a brand new entertainment and (e)sports industry, we have moved from simple games of bouncing a cube to sophisticated shooters and tactical MOBA games, which have their development future planned for several years ahead. Playing (both amateur and professional) has moved from the dark corners of the world to the spotlight, and the public has no choice but to accept it.

This can be observed in recent years at betting offices, which have started to take an interest in esports (and education around it). Similarly, even in our country, progaming matches have made it to television screens (Prima Cool) and the annual Czech Republic Computer Games Championship (MČR) is getting bigger with each passing year.

While we can’t tell you for sure where esports will head today, one thing is certain: it has built a solid foundation and won’t just disappear, so we are happy to guide you through the extensive topics of progaming and its games. In our articles about cybersports, we strive to focus on the issue from all sides, so that you, the bettors, understand how to bet on them most effectively (and there are plenty of options!).

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Peter Broz

Article author – esports expert Follow me: LinkedIn | Facebook Email: peter@slothbet.com I came into contact with playing computer games long before a billion-dollar business with professional teams emerged around them. Although I never reached the professional level, I still have many acquaintances among the top esports players today. At SlothBet, I will primarily contribute to the esports section.