Happy New Year everybody! As we all know, with a new year comes a lot of new things. New games to play on our new consoles, new content, new resolutions that we'll quickly give up on halfway through February. We'll even have a new site up here at Zero Tolerance. But all that comes second to my favorite part: new esports seasons.
That's right, 2014 is bringing us new seasons of StarCraft II WCS, League of Legends LCS (if you're into that kind of thing), a new Dota 2 "The International", and a new Evo 2k championship series. Whether you're into shooters, strategy, or fighting games, a new year resets the ladder and puts everyone back down at ground level to see who'll come out on top this year.
Watching esports has always been a bit of a hobby of mine, especially since I could never hope to compete with such skill in any of these games. Yes, long after I've hung up my arcade fightstick and abolished any dreams of ever reaching an APM over 40, I find myself entranced by the level of timing, memorization, strategy, and execution exhibited by top players from around the world.
If you've always been a gamer, but never really been into esports, now's a great time to jump in. Since most leagues have been reset for the new year, you'll get a chance to see everyone competing in qualifiers before you have to pick a favorite to go all in on. This article is intended as a beginner's guide to getting into and watching esports.
1. Find a Game That Interests You
This should be self-explanatory. If you're not interested in the game, why bother right? Everyone has their favorite kinds of games. Perhaps yours is something that you're really good at, or maybe it's something that you just find entertaining to watch. I'm personally shit at fighting games, but I make it a point to watch Street Fighter finals from every Evo 2k championship. There are professional league for just about every competitive game. Some big names are: StarCraft II, Dota 2, League of Legends, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Even if there isn't a professional league for a game, there's often a competitive following, and just about every tournament is covered on Twitch.tv these days. Just go find something you like and start surfing around Twitch.
2. Educate Yourself
Now this isn't an explicitly mandatory step. However, it will make the viewing experience much more enjoyable. Learning about the game you plan to watch, either via wiki pages, how-to VODs, or community forum pages will give you that much better an understanding of the skills required to play it. If you're exceptionally interested, you might even purchase or download a copy of your favorite esports title and gain some hands-on experience yourself. You'll gain an understanding of what strategies work well, what risks are being taken, and when a gamble pays off really well. Without this step, 6-pool rushes and random uppercut spam will only be funny, when they could be HILARIOUS.
3. Find a Player You Enjoy
Sports fans have their favorite players and their favorite teams, as do esports fans. Find someone who amuses you, or who you think has the sickest skills, the l33test strats or the best builds. Hell, find someone whose mannerisms or style impress you. An easy way to stay interested or involved is to latch on to a player, because then you'll be constantly looking for dates, times and places that they're playing. I wouldn't care as much about StarCraft II if I hadn't found Scarlett, a 20-year-old female Canadian zerg player that is trading blows with some of Korea's best. I had to know more, and since then I've been sure to watch every major tournament she's played in.
4. Get a Twitch.TV Account
Just about every major player has a Twitch.tv channel and even if they don't, almost every tournament gets livestreamed to Twitch. Twitch also has a chat function that allows you to interact with others who are interested in the same game/event. When you follow different channels on Twitch, you'll get an email alert every time they go live so you never have to miss a game. If you want to know who's playing, and when and where, having an account on Twitch is vital.
These are just a few basic steps to get you interested in the esports scene. From here on out, it's up to you to make the important choices and go support your favorite players. I still have yet to attend an event in person, but be certain that when I do, I'll be the guy on stream with the fucking gigantic "SCARLETT FIGHTING" banner.
-Nik "Latency" Trumble
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