COVID-19 may have stopped sports, but the esports landscape is still in play. Traditional sport's virtual counterpart hasn’t been hit nearly as hard. Now is the perfect time to jump into the professional side of video games as most competitive titles have decided to continue their seasons after a brief hiatus.
Here is a list of esports titles competing exclusively online during this time of sports starvation.
League of Legends
The biggest esports title in the world is still chugging along smoothly in its eleventh year with four of its major leagues still competing for domestic titles. League of Legends is a five-on-five multiplayer online battle arena, or MOBA, game that may be hard to understand at first.
The game's objective is to destroy the enemy’s base and has no time limit. Each player commands a different character with different abilities.
The game centers around knowledge and communication as opposed to reaction times and actions per minute. The game can be slow at first as both teams gain more levels and purchase more items to increase their strength. The action ramps up as teams group together and fight over monsters that grant huge in-game rewards.
The games developer, Riot Games, has canceled its international event this summer but decided to continue with its regional playoffs. These playoffs start April 3, so pick one of the six teams fighting for a domestic title in the double elimination bracket and strap in.
The leagues are broadcast over Twitch.tv and YouTube, with play by play and color announcers along with a group of analysts that preview and break down every game. The game is complex for first-time viewers, but when both teams decide it is time to fight, even novices can point out a sick play.
Overwatch
A newer edition to the esports landscape, Overwatch is coming back strong after canceling its much-hyped homesteads and transitioning completely online. The game is a team-based hero shooter that established its competitive league in 2016. It has traditional first-person shooter bones with a multiplayer online battle arena twist.
The goal of every game is to win three of the five matches on different competitive maps. Winning a match may involve taking or defending an area. Other modes involve escorting or stopping a payload.
This esport may be more accessible for traditional sports fans because of its regional franchises and team names. The league has 20 teams split into two divisions, Atlantic and Pacfic. Nine of those teams are based outside of the U.S. Teams also have more traditional names, such as Philadelphia Fusion and the London Spitfire.
So if you are a Boston sports fan you can start following the Boston Uprising without missing a beat. If your city doesn’t have an Overwatch team, then you can always go international and become a Paris Eternal or Chengdu Hunters fan.
The game’s international league, the Overwatch League, has been broadcasted on YouTube since opening a multi-million dollar broadcasting contract with the website.
Counter Strike: Global Offensive
One of the original esports to ride the wave of the internet is this team first-person shooter. The goal of CS:GO is to plant a bomb, as the terrorist, or protect the bomb site, as the counter-terrorist. Teams can also just kill the entire enemy team and win as well. The game centers around team play and communication along with fast reaction times to quickly headshot the enemy as they peek around corners.
CS:GO has two major leagues operating: the Electronic Sports League Pro League Season 11 and Flashpoint 1. There are also regional tournaments that run parallel with these leagues and feature teams fighting in a double-elimination bracket for a first-place finish.
The ESL pro league has four divisions with six teams in each. They play best-of-three matches in a round-robin format. The top three teams in each group make it to the playoffs with the top team earning a bye in the first round.
Flashpoint 1 is a little different.The league has two phases with its 12 teams divided into three double-elimination brackets for each phase. Each teams' placement in their respective bracket nets them points towards playoffs, with the eight teams with the most points qualifying.
The major leagues broadcast on Twitch.tv and YouTube throughout the week.
Rainbow Six Siege
Another young first-person shooter game is Rainbow Six Siege, which started its esports journey in 2016. The goals of the game are the same as CS:GO, protect or blow up the bomb site without being wiped out by the enemy team.
This game's twist on the genre is its dynamic character system and maps. Every character brings its own surveillance or map-altering ability that teams have to use in tandem to win each round. The walls and doors of the game can either be destroyed or reinforced, which adds a level of complexity and excitement to every match.
ESL runs seven leagues across the world and was prepared to switch to online only play because it already operated almost completely online. Each league has eight teams and play a best-of-one double round-robin format. The leagues also run off on a point system similar to soccer: A win is three points, a draw is one point and a loss is no points.
The North American and European leagues broadcast Mondays and Wednesdays on Twitch.tv and YouTube.
