I’ve been waiting for this essay by UltraDavid ever since he started mentioning it on stream.

To be totally honest; I know almost nothing about esports. I only play fighting games, and have little to no interest in other competitive games.

In short, I am ignorant.

So I find the whole esports discussion to be a bit mystifying but so, so interesting at the same time.

I watched Wednesday Nights Fights this week and saw AJ sit up there with Kelly. They were having a discussion about esports, and AJ was having the typical “the word esports is wack” discussion. She obviously was coming from some sort of role in esports, and I found it very interesting that she simply couldn’t understand why AJ would hate the word esports so much.

I was having this conversation with Spoony and Igor.

It’s like how the majority of my friends come up to me and say; “Why don’t you like… Iphones!”

It is a deep mystery to them that I do not feel the soul-consuming urge to purchase this phone. It’s an Iphone!

It’s esports!

Just because something is overwhelmingly popular doesn’t mean it’s the right fit for the individual. Or in this case, the community.

I find it interesting that people can’t wrap their heads around that fact. I guess they’re so used to it being the establishment or the norm that it seems ridiculous to them that people would choose otherwise.

So I found Kelly’s reaction to be quite fascinating. Because it’s the reaction from the other side that I seldom see- the reaction from the esports side, being the dumb, ignorant fighting game centric player that I am.

So while I’m too ignorant to be able to pick a side yet or have an useful opinion, when I find clear headed discussion about this issue, I read it immediately because I simply want to find out more.

And you probably can’t get a better primer about the whole situation than UltraDavid’s article:

Momentum Matters: A Historical Perspective on the FGC and Esports Communities

Read it, now.

P.S. I had a slow weekend, but I did enjoy a particular scoreline on the weekend that proved my rampant pessimism over the last two weeks to be completely unwarranted.

Hee.