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The Roar

The Roar

Max

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Joined December 2016

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Hey Dan,

So Esports articles have been tucked away in the Other Sports section of TheRoar for a little while, although I’m not exactly sure about the specific dates/timeline of how long the site has had Esports content on it.

I’ve been with TheRoar since December of last year, and have written a fair few pieces that focus on Australian Esports in particular, or more general Esports topics. There are also some other talented writers working with the site, and we have an esports editor now as well which is exciting.

There’s no set schedule of publishing – at least on my end – due to the volatile nature of when and where Esports content ideas can crop up, but I definitely aim to pump out at least one piece a week for TheRoar in particular, and I know my Esports peers share similar goals.

If Esports is something that you’re interested in, then definitely keep an eye on this section and follow some of the writers on Twitter to keep up-to-date. We’re a small, but growing section and appreciate the support (even if certain acronyms might feel on deaf ears)!

My handle: @max_melit,
Jayden Perry’s (Esports Editor): @_JaydenPerry,
Kwanghee Woo’s (Other Writer): @SaintSnorlax,
Jess Carruthers (Other Writer): @fauxverlocking

Team Immunity and missing a piece of the OCE CS:GO puzzle

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Esports
 
2017

From memory, I looked at every region, but the numbers themselves might’ve changed since the piece was written/published.

There were some cases where Ivern was only played like once or twice and won in both games = 100% win rate, but I didn’t factor those in for obvious reasons.

Thanks for your interest in the piece!

Dissecting why Ivern has the highest win rate in the OPL

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Esports
 
2017

Do think that the actual games themselves may also holding the field back and creating a disconnect with a wider audience?

Well, you have to break it down game by game. I talked fairly ambiguously in this piece about ‘eSport’s’ as a whole, but as I’m sure you’re more than aware each game has it’s own audiences of vastly different sizes and totally different approaches to the spectator experience. I think Counter-Strike is the most viewer friendly ‘big’ eSport out right now. As on the surface, it is very easy for anyone who has played a shooter in their life to simply appreciate the hand-eye coordination that is involved in moving a cursor from point A to point B in quick and accurate fashion. Then, the actual mechanics of the game itself isn’t that hard to understand, and the rules are pretty straightforward as well. The only rough spot for CS is the first-person perspective which CAN be overcome through talented observers that catch most of the important action – though, that is obviously easier said than done.

That is the reason why Counter-Strike is the only eSport televised (TBS in America) because it’s the one that’s most easily accessible – from a business perspective – to large audiences. MOBA’s like Dota and League really struggle in this sense, because of the sheer volume of knowledge that is required to appreciate even the most basic of elements of the game. The only helping hand they have is the birds-eye-view, and ridiculously high production value supported by some of the most talented casters/analysts/hosts in the industry.

Starcraft became a phenonemon for many reasons, but one was that it had the best of both worlds. The easy perspective, and the basic understanding that “Player X has a bigger blob of units on the minimap than Player Y so Player X will win”. Obviously this is just the most entry level understanding, but it’s still way easier to acess than any current MOBA.

Is it the sponsors and organisers who should drive the revolution by marketing and investing in games that appeal to wider audiences?
No, because for them the market is already there. The only reason there are massive names now entering the eSport’s space is because they see an industry that hasn’t fully developed and has a super hard to reach demographic of predominately 18-35 males willing to constantly consume content. The marketing budgets that are in eSport’s are fractions of fractions of fractions smaller than anything in the mainstream, and they can easily reach large numbers of people that are normally unreachable through traditional means. eSport’s in the end, doesn’t have to validate itself to the mainstream, looking at this scene from any angle with a rational head and yiy cab see it has already validated itself. The appeal to wider audiences will come from traditional outlets trying to come into eSport’s, not the other way around.


The media will just follow what peoples interests are (seriously, why else would the media invest time in the kardashians!!!), so they aren’t ever going to do much more that puff pieces until the market is there.
Totally agree. I think it will come to a point where over the next 10, 15, 20 years (long-term thinking here) as traditional outlets main audiences wilt away, they’ll be left with a generation of kids (myself included) that have grown up with eSport’s not necessarily being ‘the norm’ but also not necessarily being a crazy out there thing either. One day, the sheer volume of fans will make it untennable not to somehow integrate it into their coverage. I mean, look at the rise of MMA, nearly every big sports network brings up the results of a big UFC event because that’s what is cool and relatble to their audiences. I think the same will eventaully happen in eSports.

Why eSports actually matters

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Esports
 
2016
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