Counter Strike: Global Offensive
It’s tough to talk about spectator-friendly esports, or esports in general, and not mention Counter Strike: Global Offensive. The Counter Strike franchise has a lineage steeped in competitive gaming and over the last few years, Global Offensive’s popularity has exploded in a truly remarkable way. One of the biggest reasons for this is the fact that CS:GO stands tall as one of the easiest esports to really get into as a viewer. Not only are there tons of resources generated from the game’s massive fan base, such as Team Liquid’s Counter Strike wiki which details all the major teams and events, but there are also a multitude of leagues and tournaments run daily by large organizations such as ESL and Faceit which ensures there will always be a competitive game to watch. And when getting into a game, exposure is everything.
At any point in the day, you can head over to ESL’s Twitch channel and watch either live tournaments or reruns of past tournaments. CS:GO also boasts some of the most veteran analysts and commentators across most esports who explain happenings in each game as well as individual team plays clearly, making it very easy to follow the excitement. TBS has even picked up a CS:GO esports league, ELeague, to play each Friday on the TV channel. Having the clever insight to know that airing the esport on TV may bring in a new audience, the casters and analysts on the program go out of their way to explain even the most simplistic of competitive mechanics for the game, which makes it hands down one of the best places to start checking out CS:GO.
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is the game that brought digital collectible card game esports into the limelight. With its gigantic developer/publisher, Blizzard Entertainment, backing it, Hearthstone found its way onto the esports scene not long after release due to its immense popularity and simple, yet strategic, mechanics. Even today, Hearthstone remains to be one of the top five most viewed Twitch games daily and a game with, on average, some of the largest tournament prize pools ever seen. All of this makes Hearthstone incredibly easy to get into for a number of reasons.
As we’ve said, exposure is incredibly important for getting into esports. Also, the main factor in enjoying competitive Hearthstone is understanding what is going on in each match. There are so many cards and strategies that it’s easy to get lost between the various plays. However, the Hearthstone streaming community continues to be one of the most interactive communities on Twitch, allowing viewers to ask competitive players questions and sometimes even play against them. One of the most popular streamers/YouTubers for the game, Trump, even makes videos dedicated to teaching players basic and advanced Hearthstone strategy. Hearthstone is also free to download and play, which is hands down the best way to really get an understanding of how the game works.
When you feel like you have a handle on Hearthstone’s intricacies, finding competitive matches to watch is as easy as heading over to Blizzard’s official Hearthstone website and checking out the esports section. There you can find the dates and times of all minor and major tournaments as well as the tournaments rules. Each of these tournaments are live streamed on Twitch and put up on YouTube shortly after. Competitive matches tend to be easier to follow as well, because of the slow, strategic nature of the game. Due to this, casters are able to provide in-depth insight into each player’s choices as well as help predict what players are likely to do, which makes following the game much easier and even more enjoyable.
SMITE
MOBAs are, without a doubt, some of the most complicated games mechanically, especially from an esports perspective. This makes viewing them incredibly difficult and harder to get into due to the overwhelming amount of information to learn. However, SMITE defies a lot of this trend by simplifying its gameplay and creating something that translates to a wider audience. SMITE plays from a third-person perspective and when spectated, the camera view is much closer to the field than traditional MOBAs, allowing observers a clearer vision of the field and combat, which makes everything easier to follow. There’s even a documentary called Versus created by Vice, which covers the nuances of competitive SMITE and the professional players surrounding it, releasing later this month. Plus like Hearthstone, SMITE is available for free, so there isn’t a cost-related gate of entry to get in and start learning the game.
The esports base for SMITE is smaller compared to larger MOBAs like League of Legends or DOTA 2, however it does have a full pro league made up of weekly tournaments full of the best players. And a smaller community isn’t exactly a knock against it, as it’s more tightly knit and willing to help newcomers acclimate to the competitive environment. With resources like Smite Pros and the Smite eSportspedia, keeping up with competitive teams and matches couldn’t be simpler. SMITE is a fantastic game to start spectator MOBA esports with or even just esports in general. Tournament officials and commentators are excellent at mechanical explanations for events and the community tends to create a welcoming environment with its positive disposition, which can be very rare in esports communities these days.
Street Fighter V
Easily one of the premier competitive fighters out right now, Street Fighter V stands as a key pillar in the esports community. SFV broke records this year with its astounding 5065 entrants to the largest fighting game tournament globally, Evolution 2016. It has become so prominent that the grand finals for EVO 2016 were featured on ESPN2 and the streaming service WatchESPN. Regardless of its popularity, it can be difficult for someone who’s interested in the competitive scene to get into SFV due to a lack of presence on Twitch and sporadic tournaments, which is a problem for most competitive fighters. But even if they aren’t apparent, the resources are there and SFV can be one of the most hype-inducing esports to watch.
The age-old fighting game resource Shoryuken serves as a community hotspot for not only competitive SFV, but competitive fighters of all kinds. While their forums do require you to make a totally free account, it’s full of players who have been in the fighting game community for a very long time who are happy to help out anyone interested. The organization that provides the best resource for following SFV esports is actually the developer, Capcom. They created the Capcom Pro Tour, a series of international tournaments, as a means to not only reward competitive players that put in time to learn the game, but also for viewers wanting to keep up with the latest events. And not to worry, every major tournament is shown on Twitch, available to be watched live.
SFV is an action-packed game to watch and as such the commentators don’t have the time for in-depth explanations, however more often than not a player’s actions tend to speak for themselves. While there is terminology and advanced mechanics to learn, such as mix-ups and resets, the game is still fairly easy to understand and enjoy with basic level knowledge. Learning the strategies comes over time and the more you learn, the more impressive it all becomes. There are numerous SFV and general fighting game community groups on Facebook that are more than willing to teach, help, and discuss the game with anyone. Competitive SFV is very much about the community, and luckily, the game’s community is vast.
Overwatch
Overwatch is a relatively new game and an even newer esport, but already the community is putting together tournaments and leagues for the game. With intense 6v6 team play and high levels of strategy, Overwatch is definitely making a name for itself and is on the way to becoming one of the top games in the competitive atmosphere. With a large player base of over 15 million, Overwatch has an astounding amount of resources for players with the main website’s community page acting as one of the best for both game discussion and esports news. The Competitive Overwatch Reddit and ESL pages are both invaluable resources for keeping track of current leagues and upcoming tournaments as well. ELeague and Faceit also recently announced that they’d be holding weekly tournaments, viewable on Twitch, that would culminate in regional and grand finals airing on TBS.
The game itself can seem like a cyclone of chaos to watch, however after a few games you’ll be able to pick it up in no time. While it is fast-paced and in a first-person perspective limiting the observer’s vision of the entire map, the game has adopted a very specific set of spectator tools designed to help you follow the action and powerful analysts and commentators at the helm means you certainly won’t be missing the big important plays.
In many ways, the quick speed of gameplay and ridiculous feats professional players are able to accomplish actually add a specific type of flair to each match that not many esports are able to produce. Because competitive Overwatch is very new, it probably hasn’t seen the final form it’s likely to take. However, getting into the scene now is a fantastic way to prep for whatever is in store for the game’s undeniably bright esports future.
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