The General "E-Sports" Thread, or 'making a living from being dead good at games'. - The Bear and Badger

Blue Swirl

I just see so many YouTube videos of hardcore PC gamers bragging about their frame rates and screen resolution, then being absolute arse at the game they're playing. One of them things that makes me laugh.

nick_md

All the gear, no idea. Classic.

dynamiteReady

Interesting graph, this:

I don't think I enjoy watching any of the better paid ones, barring Starcraft 2.
That said, both Smash and Project Gotham make brief appearances, amongst others, so I should take a longer look at it.

hylian_elf

Only interested in Halo 5 out of that top 15. Even then... meh. I still watch SFV matches regularly. The Boy is really into ot now too.

davyK

DOTA 2 eh?

Bonkers. I had to look at a video to see what it is.

Heh. Atari didn't know what they were onto when they developed Gauntlet.

dynamiteReady

DOTA2 is interesting for the way Valve inflates the prize pool (someone at work explained it wasn't just popularity):

https://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/9ia39c/can_anyone_explain_why_dota_2_prize_pools_are_so/

hylian_elf wrote:

Only interested in Halo 5 out of that top 15. Even then... meh. I still watch SFV matches regularly. The Boy is really into ot now too.

Who's he playing as? My nephew's gone the other way. Deep into Tekken 7. He good, but splits a lot of games against me, so can't be that good. X'D

Might introduce him to some of the hardcore online, and then in person, ~~once~~ if the world is gets back to normal.

mk64

thats alot of money

hylian_elf

Boy has started off as Ryu upon my suggestion. But played as others, he just plays around. Likes Akuma too I think. And Guile.

Blue Swirl

hylian_elf wrote:

Likes Akuma too I think.

Good lad.

davyK

So.....demo event(s) at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham then.

Someone needs their head examined.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more-sports/commonwealth-games-confirm-esports-will-be-pilot-at-birmingham-2022/ar-AATE9dF

davyK

Also - caught the tail end of a FIFA competition on BT Sport.

Really?

Blue Swirl

No weirder to me than watching people play chess or poker.

davyK

Suppose - but BT Sports?

It provided a great bit of TV. The last match I caught. And the winning goal was in the dying seconds. The goalkeeper AI seemed to take a dump and let a slow ball through "his" legs.

The guy just sat there staring at the screen while his female opponent was jumping for joy. They seemed to be playing online but in different parts of the studio.

After talking to the winner they went back to the loser and he was still staring at the screen. Quality.

Blue Swirl

Companies do whatever makes money. Hence live televised darts.

Diluted Dante

Blue Swirl

Ruined the 'sport' for years, apparently.

nick_md

Darts is great you madmen.

mannaboy

Not sure if it counts as esports, but the Ohit Dark Souls league hosted by The Happy Hob is keeping me and my boy entertained with the ensuing chaos.

Ten DS streamers, many with zero hit experience, playing in 45 minute matches on randomized enemies/bosses. Each match has 5 or 6 designated fog gates, make it to a gate with zero hits to score a point.

Matches on Wed/Sat around evening UK time. They’ve just about wrapped up the first season, as they’re all moving onto Elden Ring of course.

davyK

I enjoy the NES tetris tournament that happens in December, though its an all year 'round thing. I prefer it when it isnt virtual.

Blue Swirl

I've been watching a lot of *GDQ recently, and I reckon I'm going to give up on modern games. At least, modern 3D games. Too many of them (off the top of my head, the new Dooms, the Halo games, and the Dead Space series, GamCube/Wii Zeldas) just boil down to "I futz with the geometry like this, press this arcane button combo, and voila, I'm out of bounds. Then I just walk to the end of the level." Fuck that noise. There just seems to be no skill to it. It's just finding the quickest way of getting out of bounds. Hell, the Dead Space guys mod the game so they can skip unskippable cut scenes.

Rather than being super skilled at the game, or finding interesting unintended ways to play it (see: Quake and rocket jumping), they're just finding bugs to skip playing the actual game, and get to the end credits. It's not speed running any more, it's a glitch showcase.

nick_md

Glitch showcases can be fun though right? The wrong warp stuff in SMB3 or the crazy re-programming bug in SMW for example.

nick_md

There are always glitchless run categories.

davyK

I like seeing both but I have a strong preference for glitchless runs.

That SMB3 glitch that has the player injecting code into the game via controller keypresses is perhaps the ultimate one. I remember it being combined with a TAS to create and execute a Pong game.

A TAS leaves me colder than glitches though. I literally do not see the point of them in the context of GDQ. They have a role to play in identifying what is possible for example in investigating suspected cheating but as a source of entertainment it's a slow hand clap from me.

Dark Soldier

Theres a reason there's Any% runs and Glitchless%. GDQ is designed to fit as many in as possible, so Any% is usually the go to unless specified due to time requirements.

Every single game is broken as fuck. You can 'finish' Super Mario World in under a minute. Super Metroid has broken as fuck tech. Most 2D games do. It's not just 3D.

nick_md

Re. TAS, it's worth noting that there's been 'TAS only' glitches that then actually get worked into runs once a ceiling is hit. Always great when a TAS trick thought impossible for humans is woven into human-play by some mentalists.

Dark Soldier

TAS can be amazing. Check out the Trackmania TAS runs, or Trials. Some of the stuff, particularly Trackmania, is astonishing to watch, pushing each track to its limits. I love that shit.

When it's code injection and all that, yeah it is dull to watch.

nick_md

Hah, that Track Mania drama last year (?) was ridiculous - like loads of their top players found to be cheating.

Dark Soldier

Their best speedrunnwr, Riolu, was the main lad. About 500 cheated world records. He's not been seen since, anywhere.

And Wirtual got huge off the back of it, gets 7-10k viewers and it set now.

Dark Soldier

Best bit was, even without cheating, Riolu was like top 3 in the world. Had a Twitch career. Boggles the mind.

davyK

Watched a video about a Guitar Hero cheating scandal recently. Same deal - the guy was a brilliant player but felt the need to cheat.

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