No longer a game This weekend's esports expo showcases fast-growing sport that has its sights set on becoming an Olympic event By: Martin Cash Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Thursday, May. 23, 2019

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This article was published 22/05/2019 (1947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The esports phenomenon is having its public coming out party in Winnipeg this weekend with a cash prize tournament and small industry trade show at the University of Manitoba.

While there likely won’t be any millionaire gamers competing — for the uninitiated there are a growing number of superstar gamers with sizable tournament winnings and others with millions of followers of their live-streaming play — the event will feature at least four teams who are among the best players of a couple of games — League of Legends and Overwatch. As well, attendees will have the chance to participate in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Super Smash Bros Ultimate tournaments.

Taking place at the Multipurpose Rooms in University Centre, Friday and Saturday, it is being organized by the University of Manitoba Esports Club and sponsored by Canadian Sport Centre Manitoba (CSCM).

The top two teams in League of Legends and Overwatch who have been determined after winning a series of games before this weekend will play in front of an audience on state-of-the-art equipment from Winnipeg’s PVP Cyberlounge. The matches will include live announcers and commentators — another feature of esports that mirror mainstream professional sports.

For those who are not aware of the massive global popularity of gaming and the growing professionalization of esports, the involvement of CSCM, a national organization that supports aspiring Olympic and para-Olympic athletes training in Manitoba, is an indication of the surging mainstream acceptance of the activity as a sport.

‘We want to make it like a professional event… on a stage, hoisting a trophy, players playing and audience cheering them on’ 
– Melanie Penner, president of the U of M’s Esports Club

In fact, the CSCM is involved specifically because the International Olympic Committee is seriously considering including esports as a competitive event for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles which happens to be the hub for all things esports in North America.

Melanie Penner, the president of the U of M’s Esports Club, said nothing like this has ever taken place here. She believes it may very well be the first event of its kind in Canada.

Although there are professional teams in Toronto — the Toronto Esports plays the Overwatch game — and a proposal for the first purpose-built gaming stadium is on the books and ready for construction in Richmond, B.C., a community-led live game tournament featuring all local players is something new.

“There is not much going in Canada yet,” Penner said. “There are so many different cities with nothing going on. We might be able to bring people in from Saskatchewan and Alberta to come to our event and continue growing it and maybe it can became Canadian-wide thing.”

As a gamer who has experienced the excitement of playing on a stage in front of a live audience, Penner knows how exciting such an event can be.

“We want to make it like a professional event… on a stage, hoisting a trophy, players playing and audience cheering them on,” she said. “We want to give the players here a professional esports experience.”

As an organization that traditionally deals with sports medicine and other sports science applications like sport psychology, nutrition, and strength and conditioning the CSCM is in the midst of steep learning curve of its own when it comes to the training regimen of esports players.

There is an undeniable mass appeal for esports, especially among the younger demographic coveted by the International Olympic Committee — the 2018 World Championship Finals for League of Legends had a reported 99.6 million unique viewers online compared with the 98.2 million who watched the 2019 Super Bowl on T.V. — but the traditional sports world is conflicted about lumping esports in with the likes of track and field or cycling.

Jeff Powell, the general manager of the CSCM, said, “I don’t want to speak for the entire sporting world… but I know that right from the IOC on down to the local level we are trying to figure out how it fits in.”

He said the CSCM’s involvement and its $5,000 cash outlay to underwrite the modest event was directly related to the IOC’s stated interest in considering esports for full-medal Olympic competition.

“And this is not a sub-committee of a sub-committee looking at it,” Powell said. “It is being discussed at a high level.”

But meanwhile Powell and colleagues are very much at the early stages of understanding how to interact with esports participants if it eventually comes to that.

“We are definitely not at the point where we can show up at the door and say, ‘Hey, you need to do this’,” Powell said. “It is a population and community where we need to make ourselves available and learn first and offer suggestions second.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

Martin Cash
Reporter

Martin Cash has been writing a column and business news at the Free Press since 1989. Over those years he’s written through a number of business cycles and the rise and fall (and rise) in fortunes of many local businesses.

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