ESports

• I found it interesting that throughout time, technology evolved, and esports went along with it. From the Atari, to varying Nintendo systems, to pc gaming, it moved forward but still retained some of the systems / companies along the way. Later on in the 21st century, internet cafes popped up for those who don't have the chance to use high-powered pcs, it's a good opportunity and though I've heard of them in media, I've never been to one.

• I was shocked to see that in the 1990's for esports, Counter-Strike was featured in events. I didn't think it came out that early. I knew later on it became a major esport but I thought it came later, maybe in the early 2000's or something similar. Then, Nintendo was brought back in the game when pc gaming was rising, with Super Smash Brothers. A competition was held with 400,000 members and being one of the most popular at the time. I was surprised to say the least but I'm also not too surprised because it's a big game in the community, even I, myself have played it in a small competition once and play it on my own from time to time. While being the one of the biggest categories on Twitch, I'm not completely surprised League of Legends was big in esports too, but seeing a game I like a lot being really big in the scene makes me happy and surprised for a moment. Especially with all of the popularity, it surprises me to see so many aspects I'm intrigued in being such a big thing here. Personally, I know some of the teams and games, I find this really interesting overall because it's something I'm so passionate about. Something random mentioned is that Imagine Dragons was played at a LoL tournament and drew people in, I remember it being played and being associated with the game's music.

• Another thing that surprised be would be that a competition was held in Atlanta, Georgia and it received news coverage from newspapers and television networks though it was and has been discouraged and looked down on for a long time now, along with the prize for a big competition being a Ferrari which seems like a really impressive prize but well deserved. Later on, more prize pools were growing like another example being 71 players competing for a $1 million grand prize. With popularity, I didn't think it would get much higher than bigger sport leagues like MLB and the NBA, but one of the LoL tournaments outshined them in viewership totals, which is pretty surprising to me with how people feel about esports. 

Though I've watched a good bit of esports with Valorant and maybe briefly with Overwatch League, personally I've participated in a few but they were primarily Nintendo games, excluding ones with my friends, of course.  One was a very long time ago in the mall, I have pictures from it and I even got, I believe, it's second. It was a serious event to promote different Nintendo games and they ended up running a Mariokart tournament in the middle of the whole event. I had a lot of fun and it sparked my interest to participate in more. Years later, I participated in two different Abari tournaments, one being Mariokart again, but on a console I was fresh on and never played on before, and Super Smash Bros. These were mostly for fun because I was new to them, but it was a nice experience trying to win.

If I had the decision to do this for a living, it'd be an interesting career to go into, but I don't think I would do it. It'd make the games I play more serious and though that would be interesting in a sense, I'd lose interest in playing them for fun from that point on. I don't think I'd want to give that up because games are something I do for distracting myself and enjoying them. Though I will add that it'd be a good experience to meet more people that are interested in the same hobbies I am and be part of a good community, including being supported by them.