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What are esports? By wikipedia definition they are "Organized competitive video games". This includes all games with competitive scenes. However, there is one game that has pushed esports to the front pages of newspapers and magazines. That is League of Legends, which is published by Riot Games. But it would not be wise to not mention the other games that helped pave the way for Riot Games' biggest and only title.
Before esports were truly big, there were many local tournaments, and even tournaments at a national level for esports that went unnoticed by the greater majority. Only those truly devoted to the games would know the schedules and where to find the few broadcasts that existed of these events. Games like Counter Strike 1.6 (now CS: Global Offensive), Super Smash Bros. Melee, and the Call of Duty franchise. All these games had their own competitive scenes that went unrecognized until esports truly became popular recently.
But what exactly separates League of Legends' competitive scene from the rest of esports? The best way to observe this is by looking at one of Leagues' number one competitors, Dota (Defense of the Ancients). Dota is a very similar game but has a much higher learning curve to get into, while the competitive scene requires somewhat similar skills to League. However, because of that steeper learning curve, Dota is a much worse spectator sport per say. In other words, it is much harder to follow what is going on in a competitive game of Dota as compared to League. In addition, the way the competitive scene is set up very sloppily in Dota. There are multiple matches in the professional leagues that are at the same time or there are large gaps where there are no matches whatsoever. In addition, the way this information is presented on Dota's website is very hard to follow and even avid fans have complained about this on both the Dota and League of Legends subreddits on Reddit.
One of the biggest things that League of Legends has is its format. Riot Games copied one of the most popular professional sports in America in order to optimize its appeal to fans, football. Riot Games created the LCS, League of Legends Championship Series, in order to mimic the NFL's layout for the most part. There are two different LCS Leagues, EU (Europe) and NA (North America). However, there is also a third series called OGN, (OnGameNet) that covers the Asian teams. In the LCS, 10 teams compete in NA LCS as well as another 10 in EU LCS. There are preset "Splits" in the spring and summer followed by an international "Worlds" tournament in the fall. This regimented schedule allows viewers to know exactly what is going on when. All matches are broadcast through Riot Games' official channel on both Twitch.tv and Youtube.com. In addition, by just watching the streams, you can see how professionally the casters act and speak. In a lot of the other esports, the fan base consists mostly of younger individuals who have no experience with appearing on video at such popular events and sometimes don't have the confidence necessary to provide good commentary during the game. However, because everything is done in-house at Riot Games, they are able to put together a very professional ESPN-like experience for the viewers.
These few points are the reason behind why Riot Games was able to make such a new game like League of Legends truly stand out in the public eye and in turn, be shown on ESPN. Like the article stated, ESPN is working with the major names in esports to really have a presence at well known sporting events such as the X Games. However, as League and other esports grow in popularity, it is possible that there will be dedicated time slots for professional gaming events much like there is now for baseball, football, soccer, etc.
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