Poll: Do you play the games that you watch in E-Sports?

[clippen05]

This year I've taken to watching E-sports, mainly Starcraft II and League of Legends. I've always loved the idea of E-sports but never got into it until recently. Both games I've mentioned are games that I have never played, yet I still find so interesting, seeing the skill and usually great commentary.(Despite not knowing some terms and strategies sometimes) I've been a little interested in League of Legends after watching matches, but I know that I will never play Starcraft. (I'm not really into the the game, I prefer RTS's like COH or RTT like World in Conflict, games not having an emphasis on APM to be competitive) I just wonder if I'm not the only one.

 

[Don Savik]

Starcraft I think is a great game with friends even if you're not that great at it. If you do large 4v4s casually or custom games or fighting bots its still a ton of fun. Same thing with any RTS really, Age of Empires, C&C, Age of Mythology, DoW are all great multiplayer games. Trust me, its never worth disregarding a game because you can't play as well as MLG teams. Yea, I suck at 1v1s, but 1v1s I've never found to be THAT much fun in RTS games to be honest.

As for League I would find a champion you like the look of and watch a video on their skills before you buy them. They have free champions that rotate every once and a while, if you don't want to spend cash. Then look on Mobafire (google it) for a good build before you learn to play them correctly. Its a good site for builds if you don't know what you're doing. Always start practicing with bots. PvP matches are not good for learning the basics.

 

[krazykidd]

Well i have recently gotten into fighting games . And i started watching tournaments and shit . This year i watched evo2012 , and watched KoF13 and SSF4:AE . Two games i do not play ( i play UMVC3 and i'm trying ro learn blazblue ). I know nothinf about those two games but the tournament wa highly entertaining , especially the KOF one . A complete no name took that tournament , he was really good too . Almost made me want to pick it up .

Capcha: bruce lee . Funny , since i was talking about fighting games .

 

[teqrevisited]

I do sometimes watch Starcraft 2 tournaments, but I've never played it myself. It seems like one of those games that would be far too stressful to enjoy playing multiplayer. Also even after 2 years it's still full price, though I'd expect nothing less from Activision-Blizzard.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

I don't even know what the hell E-Sports is, so I suppose the answer is no by default.

 

[skywolfblue]

I play SC2's multiplayer pretty sparingly (like only 1 game in the past 4 seasons). But I do enjoy watching the pro games just to watch all the crazy stuff they do from time to time.

 

[Shinsei-J]

I only watch league now and then, when something big is on but I mostly just play.
Never really watched SC2 but it's a fun game with friends.

 

[Hubbl3]

I typically play all games I'm interested in watching. Exception is DotA 2, because I don't have a invite to the beta.

 

[General Twinkletoes]

Uh...
Well I got starcraft 2 to understand how it's played more so I can have more fun watching.
Does that count as me playing it? I really don't play it that often, I got it to watch it better. I still do play it, but it's like a side thing that I barely do.

I don't see how you can enjoy watching LoL without playing it though. There's so many different skills, champions, terms and hidden stats that it seems if you don't play, you aren't going to have a single idea what's going on. In starcraft it's fairly clear. Marines shoot bullets, zealots have arm blades that hit things, zerglings eat things. In LoL, you see a guy randomly throw out an ability, and you might have no idea what it does or why he did it.

I honestly don't think LoL is a good esport :/
A good esport needs to be easily watchable, and easy for spectators to think they can mimic the players they're watching. In a game like LoL, you'll see someone do something awesome, and think "Yeah, I wanna do that " but chances are you don't have a team of 4 other guys that will want to hop on right then, and the que isn't an ideal situation for that.

And then there's the fact that there is often 3-4 different places to be watching at once. In starcraft, there's the main army and maybe a few drops into the base. 1-2 things at most. Not easy for the casters or spectators to know what's going on.
That's not saying anything about how the actual game is played. It's probably just as competitive as starcraft, but I don't see it ever being as big as SC2. It's just to hard to spectate/cast.

I don't even know what the hell E-Sports is, so I suppose the answer is no by default.

It's fairly self explanatory.

 

[dimensional]

I like watching fighting game tourneys EVO being one of the biggest and I do play a lot of them as well just very badly I just dont have much time to devote to them to get better very quickly which is frustrating as hell.

It does keep bringing me back though seeing high level play in things such as SF4AE and KoF XIII in particular. Once you try and do what they do and realise how tricky it is you start to have a lot more respect for these players.

Slightly off topic but watching Haitani play Makoto are some of my favourite matches to watch and got me to seriously try her out, im still rubbish with her as she just feels weird to me but ill keep trying.

 

[Skin]

In a game like LoL, you'll see someone do something awesome, and think "Yeah, I wanna do that " but chances are you don't have a team of 4 other guys that will want to hop on right then, and the que isn't an ideal situation for that.

MOBA games are meant to be played with 5 players who are a team. The difference is absolutely immense compared to public games.

Unfortunately, this is also the reason I gave up on HoN and Dota, because playing pubs is just not fun, not interesting, and your skill level remains stagnant for the most part.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

It's fairly self explanatory.

It is for people who already know what it is, yeah; "E" tends to stand for "electronics", and it might surprise you to know that video games are one of the millions of things that are powered by electricity.

I was kind of pulling for sports involving robots, though, so imagine my disappointment when the word "Starcraft" appeared. Ignorance was bliss in this case.

 

[Razentsu]

I prefer the term competitive gaming. Because that's exactly what it is. E-Sports always sounded silly. There's no need to try to borrow legitimacy from the word 'sports.' What we have is amazing. XD

But whatever. E-Sports, I love it.

I watch pretty much any fighting game streamed, though I don't play most of them. Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition is the only popular fighter I play actively. I'd love to play and learn a lot of other fighting games like The King of Fighters XIII, SoulCalibur 5, Tekken 6, and the like, but I have my hands full with a bunch of games already. However, I have reservations for Persona 4 Arena. I really hope it garners a large playerbase.

I enjoy watching StarCraft II more than I do playing. I play once in a while with friends, but other than that, I don't play often. Despite that, I watch plenty of StarCraft II. Also Day[9] is a wonderful man.

I don't play or watch MOBA games, but I'm curious about the genre.

 

[GoaThief]

I prefer the term competitive gaming. Because that's exactly what it is. E-Sports always sounded silly. There's no need to try to borrow legitimacy from the word 'sports.' What we have is amazing. XD

Very much agree, although I don't watch much of it and neither did I in the past despite some of the coverage featuring my dear self playing in tournaments and cups. I do miss competing but the money is too irregular coupled with many hours of daily training, it doesn't suit a family life at all. Saying that, if a fresh competitive game came along I might have a go - ie; the postponed Machinima Nexuiz tournament is tempting.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

Well, I was playing Heroes of Newerth before I started watching Honcast. Still watch it constantly, it's a good way of keeping up with the ever-changing metagame and coming up with new strategies to teach my team.

Also, when funny moments like this happens mid-cast:


or this:

 

[Weslebear]

I definitely play the games that I watch, I feel you can only appreciate the skill, tactics and dedication for high level play if you yourself have a grounding in the games mechanics.

In fact I actually partake in my favourite eSport, being TF2. Makes it all the more glorious, especially when you start making connections and actually getting to know the pros that you love to watch.

 

[General Twinkletoes]

In a game like LoL, you'll see someone do something awesome, and think "Yeah, I wanna do that " but chances are you don't have a team of 4 other guys that will want to hop on right then, and the que isn't an ideal situation for that.

MOBA games are meant to be played with 5 players who are a team. The difference is absolutely immense compared to public games.

Unfortunately, this is also the reason I gave up on HoN and Dota, because playing pubs is just not fun, not interesting, and your skill level remains stagnant for the most part.

That's my point. It doesn't have the thing starcraft does where you can go and mimic the pro's easily. You'd have to get 4 other guys who all want to cooperate with what you're doing, and it's quite a bit harder.

 

[Bestival]

I don't watch any sports of any kind, putting an E in there changes nothing!
I've seen the occasional fan vid of a game or two, and that's generally games that I play myself, but that's cause and effect. I play this game, therefore I will understand and perhaps appreciate this video.