Paul Chaloner - This is esports (and How to Spell it) – LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK AWARD 2020: An Insiders Guide to the World of Pro Gaming

About the Authors

Paul Redeye Chaloner is one of the most prolific and recognisable broadcasters in all of competitive gaming, having hosted or commentated on esports tournaments for 83 different video games in 44 countries on six continents in a career spanning two decades. He has appeared on Sky, MSNBC and Eurosport and hosted The International, the biggest tournament in all of esports, four times. In 2016 ESPN called him the voice of esports. You cannot beat him at Unreal Tournament , probably.

Benjamin Sillis is a writer and historian who has covered technology and video games for over a decade. He lives with his family in London.

This book is dedicated to David, Anita, James, Ellie, Maggie and Steph.

Contents

This book would not have been possible without the fantastic insight and contributions of T.L. Taylor, Luke Cotton at Code Red Esports and Susie Kim. Im also indebted to Nick Walters at David Luxton Associates for driving this project from the very start, as well as Matthew Lowing, Holly Jarrald and the entire team at Bloomsbury Publishing. And a big thank you for the general support from David and Anita Chaloner, Ben Woodward, Barry Louzada, as well as Dan Scott and Richard Whittington for humouring me and my interest in video games since we were small children.

This book would not have been possible without the love and support of Steph Nelson, James and Rupert Sillis; the motivation of Adam Bunker; the sage advice of James Holland and Blake Harris; and the knowledge and patience of Pieter van Hulst, Jon Partridge, Mike Stubbs, Aron Garst and Ollie Ring.

To all of the interviewees, the gamers past and present who gave up their time, a huge thank you: Walter Day, Rebecca Heineman, Tim McVey, Ben Gold, Jeff Peters, Patrick Scott Patterson, Todd Holland, Jeff Hansen, Mike Wardwell, Johnathan Wendel, Marcus Graham, Frank Nuccio, Sander Kaasjager, Michal Blicharz, Matt Ringel, Ralf Reichert, Jason Lake, Jonas Vikan, Michael Burks, Marc Turner, Minh Le, David Johnston, Alex Valle, Ryan Hart, Chris Fabiszak, Luis Suarez, Joe Munday, James Goddard, Sean Plott, Victor Fontanez, Ilyes Satouri, Nicholas Taijeron, David Dannelly, Danil Ishutin, Erik Lonnquist, Michael ODell, Kyle Freedman, Alana Reid, Romain Bigeard, Roman Dvoryankin, Jake Umpleby, Zach Matula, Ryan Barnett, Erik Stromberg, Diane Tran, Benita Novshadian, Luis Tadeu, Morgan Romine, Eefje Depoortere, Jorien van der Heijden, Stephanie Harvey, Kelsy Medeiros, Ian Smith and Josh Nissan. Thank you. A shout out too to all of the fine folk at Esportsearnings.com, Liquipedia.net, Dotabuff.com, Datdota.com and HLTV.org for their dedication and utterly invaluable research.

Anyone whos ever employed me at an event (paid or not), or that Ive worked alongside: you are all heroes. Above all, a heartfelt thank you to all the players for their dedication and skill. And not just the professionals but the fans: without you, not only would this book never have been realised, but neither would I have been afforded the opportunities Ive been given over the last 20 years.

And finally to Ben Sillis, without whom I could not have even begun this project. His tireless hard work and immaculate attention to detail (not to mention many, many hours, days and months of patience) were a constant inspiration to me. It is not an exaggeration to say that the book would never have seen the light of day without Ben.

Platforms: The hardware games are played on

PC (Personal computers, played at a desk and controlled with a mouse and keyboard)

Consoles that plug into your TV (Nintendo, Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox, controlled with a controller or gamepad)

Handheld consoles (Nintendo)

Arcade (Arcade cabinets, played at arcades or tournaments using built-in joystick and buttons)

Mobile (Smartphones and tablets, controlled using a touchscreen)

Esports genres and games

MOBA (Multiplayer online battle arena)

One map, two teams of characters with bases to protect or destroy.

Dota 2 (Developer: Valve)

League of Legends (Developer: Riot Games)

Heroes of the Storm (Developer: Blizzard)

RTS (Real-time strategy)

Make armies, order units about from a Gods Eye view and crush your opponent.

StarCraft: Brood War (Developer: Blizzard)

StarCraft 2 (Developer: Blizzard)

Warcraft 3 (Developer: Blizzard)

FPS (First-person shooter)

A first-person perspective and a gun shoot to kill.

Call of Duty (Developer: Activision)

Counter-Strike (Developer: Valve)

Doom (Developer: id Software)

Fortnite (Developer: Epic Games)

PlayerUnknowns Battlegrounds (Developer: Bluehole)

Quake (Developer: id Software)

Overwatch (Developer: Blizzard)

Rainbow Six Siege (Developer: Ubisoft)

Unreal Tournament (Developer: Epic Games)

Fighting games

Punch, kick and combo your opponent until theyre knocked out.

Street Fighter (Developer: Capcom)

Super Smash Bros. (Developer: Nintendo)

Tekken (Developer: Bandai Namco)

Dead or Alive (Developer: Tecmo)

Marvel vs Capcom (Developer: Capcom)

Sports

Sports simulators.

FIFA (Football. Developer: EA)

Madden (American football. Developer: EA)

F1 series (Formula One. Developer: Codemasters)

Digital card games

Make your deck, unleash magical chaos turn by turn.

Hearthstone (Developer: Blizzard)

Clash Royale (Developer: Supercell)

Magic: The Gathering (Developer: Wizards of the Coast)

Auto battler games

Chess with 150 different pieces and more than two players.

Auto Chess (Developer: Drodo Studio)

Dota Underlords (Developer: Valve)

Teamfight Tactics (Developer: Riot Games)

Esports tournaments and events

BlizzCon (StarCraft 2, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone )

Call of Duty League ( Call of Duty )

DreamHack (Various)

ESL One ( Counter-Strike, Dota 2 )

Electronic Sports World Cup/ESWC ( ESWC ) (Various)

EVO (Various fighting games)

Intel Extreme Masters (Various)

The International/TI ( Dota 2 )

League of Legends World Championship ( League of Legends )

Overwatch League/OWL ( Overwatch )

QuakeCon ( Quake )

World Cyber Games (Various)

League and tournament organisers

Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL)

DreamHack

ESL

Major League Gaming (MLG)

World Series of Video Games (WSVG)

Major teams

100 Thieves

Alliance

Astralis

Cloud9

Complexity

Counter Logic Gaming

Dignitas

Evil Geniuses

FaZe Clan

Fnatic

G2 Esports

Immortals

Invictus Gaming

MAD Lions

mousesports

Natus Vincere (NaVi)

Ninjas In Pyjamas

OG

Origen

SK Gaming

SK Telecom T1

Team Envy

Team Liquid

Team Secret

Team SoloMid

Team Vitality

Virtus.pro

Terminology

gg (Good game; Typed in to the in-game chat box in some titles to concede defeat )

glhf (Good luck, have fun; Often said at the start of a game as a sign of sportsmanship)

Map (The virtual level, space or arena in which a game takes place)

Draft or Character Select (The point before a match where teams or players select an in-game character; making an effective draft is sometimes an important tactic or mind game)