And the next sport the ACC sponsors will be..Overwatch?
eSports are happening folks. Check out the linked article from WIRED magazine.
Overwatch is a 6 on 6 video game. The teammates are housed together to improve their communication with each other. They put in 8 hours a day of training and scrimmages. Pro players start at 16 years old, so no the ACC won't sponsor e-sports, simply because class gets in the way of practice.
Salary is $50,000 min, up to $150,000.
They have live audiences for games, which are conducted in the Burbank studio thet Johnny Carson used for the Tonight show.
The league is run by a former ESPN executive.
Key quotes:
"Every major sport in the US has seen the average age of its viewership increase since 2000. The NBA’s average fan is 42. The average NFL fan is 50. The average MLB fan is 57. What’s more, these audiences are limited almost entirely to North America. The Overwatch League, meanwhile, will begin with nine US teams and three from abroad—Shanghai, Seoul, and London (with more, I’m told, on the way)—and its average fan is a demographically pleasing 21 years old."
"It’s a reminder that this is truly a young person’s game—not just in its audience but also in its players. When I asked Christopher Schaefer, aka Grim, how long he thought he’d be a pro, he didn’t have high hopes. “Normally you can compete until you’re about 25,” he says. “Right now, up until when I’m around 21, 22-ish, I’m going to be the sharpest. But as soon you hit 25, your reaction speeds are going to slow down.” [Post edited by PadrosWindup at 01/21/2018 2:36PM]
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Link: WIRED
Posted: 01/21/2018 at 2:36PM