Esports has a global audience of about 500 million people. Because of that, many Universities in the world are creating their own esports teams. In general, gaming requires some equipment and a reliable connection, and it allows for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The nature of esports has allowed it to adjust to an online-only setting with LAN tournaments delayed, rescheduled, or even ultimately canceled.
Travis Yang has been an esports athlete from 2000 to 2008 when esports was in its infancy. Today he is a Head Esports Coach at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. He knows from experience that the Coronavirus isn’t stopping esports athletes.
eSports Thriving in Quarantine
He said that was the beauty of esports, that it’s all online. If you are an esports athlete or a gamer in general, this current situation doesn’t faze you at all. You’re used to playing from home, in an online environment and competing in these tournaments.
Same thing can be said about other Esports related fields. Almost all esports titles are available on https://gg.bet/en/betting. It’s one of the most established esports betting websites that offer bets on games like Counter-Strike, Dota 2, Starcraft 2, Overwatch, League of Legends, Call of Duty, Football Esports and Basketball Esports.
Texas Gaming Empire, an Esports tournament and gaming coordination service, was created four years ago by Chris Saenz. Additionally, he was the manager of the San Antonio PLAYlive Nation location for the past two years. Chris Saenz said that it doesn’t matter that the venue is closed for gamers. They can all play from home, but it’s good that people were socializing at his place and not just being disconnected from others.
Although it’s a gaming place, people were gaining social skills.
Keeping Active in Gaming
The remote playing has provided an outlet while traditional sports are put on hold. Victor Villarreal, Corpus Christi FC goalkeeper, said he played up to 40 FIFA matches per week.
He is a soccer player, and FIFA keeps him busy and entertained. Victor added that you have to be smart, think where to pass the ball or what your opponent will do next. FIFA is a fantastic hobby for him to have.
We’ve seen people crush the records of concurrent players at a time for many different games, including Counter-Strike, Dota 2, and many others. It’s because people are staying home, and gaming is the best and most entertaining thing to do.
Some developers have even said in advance that their servers aren’t going to handle all the new players playing at once. They apologized for that upfront.
Steam is the most popular gaming platform in the world, and it has hit 20 million concurrent players at the same time. Their game Counter-Strike Global Offensive broke the record that Dota 2 held for years. They peaked at an incredible 1.3 million concurrent players by themselves. It’s worth noting that Counter-Strike is the third game that has broken the 1 million players mark, following the footsteps of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Dota 2.
