Review of Vice’s eSports Documentary | eSports | Documentary


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Review of Vice's eSports Documentary | eSports | Documentary

Vice's new eSports documentary takes us through the glory and pressures of the world's most booming eSports culture: South Korea's. The documentary acts like a dummies' guide to eSports. It does a good job of showing an outsider's quick peek into many aspects of the eSports world, including tournaments, teams, cosplay, shoutcasting, Internet addiction, Seoul's PC bangs (which are like gaming-only Internet café's), as well as interviews with key people from each scene.

By the end of the movie, someone who knew nothing about eSports beforehand would be able to appreciate the boom eSports is undergoing, especially in South Korea. Anyone who didn't know anything about League of Legends, cosplay, Internet addiction, the significance of South Korea on the eSports map, and just how many people and how much money are involved would leave the documentary with a lot of tidbits of information to tell their friends about over their next coffee or beer. Things like "Did you know that the computer game League of Legends has more players than the whole population of France!?" and "Did you know that there are these grown adults who spend hours and hours making costumes of computer game characters and then wear them? They're called 'cosplay teams' and they are like the cheerleaders of eSports. (And no, they're not nerds.)"

The eSports documentary follows Vice's Matt Shea through Seoul, London and Cologne to:

  • the dressing room of the Spiral Cats, to see how they get dressed into their cosplay outfits;
  • the 40,000 seat filled League of Legends 2014 World Championships to watch the team Samsung White win;
  • Korean eSports channel NiceGameTV to see Korean shoutcasters doing their thing;
  • Gangnam Eulji Hospital Internet rehab center to go through the stages of Internet addiction treatment with neuropsychiatrist Dr. Lee Jae Won;
  • YouTube star KSI's penthouse and orange lamborghini to talk about how rich and famous KSI is from gaming and vlogging;
  • the party life of Fnatic founder Sam Mathews;
  • the world's highest attended gaming event, Gamescom in Cologne, Germany;
  • Seoul's thriving PC bang scene;
  • the pro gaming house of eSports team Incredible Miracle, where coach Kang Dong-Hoon describes the hardships of running a pro eSports team;
  • a park bench with Korean pro gamer Promise who attempted suicide after being forced by his team manager to lose games in a string of match fixing scandals.

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Neuropsychiatrist Dr. Lee Jae Won on the Difference between Pro Gaming and Internet Addiction

Here are a couple of quotes from the film that particularly grabbed my attention. One was in relation to Internet addiction and pro gaming, where Matt asked neuropsychiatrist Dr. Lee Jae Won whether he would consider pro gamers as being at risk of addiction or already addicted, to which Dr. Lee Jae Won responded:

An interesting study was carried out using brain scans. The results were that a pro gamer's brain and a gaming addict's brain are different. It depends on how they perceive it. If one were to think of a future goal and use it for training purposes, it wouldn't bother any normal brain activity. Yet, if one were to use it only to gain some satisfaction and release tension, it would cause damage within the brain system.

Interesting study indeed. It suggests how a purpose-driven mindset characteristic of pro gamers vs. a drifting type of "gain some satisfaction and release tension" mindset characteristic of a diagnosed Internet addict could make the difference between a healthy brain and a damaged brain. Also, what's interesting about it is that looking at the two people from the side might look exactly the same—two people spending 12 hours a day sitting at their computer clacking away—but just the mental approach to the same physical activity could make the difference between health and sickness.

"eSports Is the Newest Part of Mainstream Culture"

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One other quote that grabbed me was the documentary's concluding quote. Don't read on if you don't want the ending ruined! Just kidding, nothing new here... I'm just a sucker for all these "eSports Is Epic" style quotes, so here it goes:

In the 6 years since it was created, League of Legends was able to fill a stadium with 40,000 people, but there were 27 million more tuning in live from home. That's more than the audience of that same year's NBA Finals.

Before it took over the world's stadiums, eSports was already connecting 100s of millions of people across the globe. And with the Internet's colossal reach, it's now growing at a rate that televised sports may never catch up to.

There have always been people who chose to escape the monotony of the real world by immersing themselves in fantasy. The difference is that those people used to be called "nerds," but now they're called "stars."

Hearing the cheers of 40,000 people echo throughout a World Cup stadium made it clear that gaming was finally getting its Woodstock moment. Rather than a marginalized subculture that parents refuse to understand, eSports is the newest part of mainstream culture, and before long, anyone trying to ignore its global significance will be lying in its wake, wondering how computer games took over the world.

I especially liked the "eSports is the newest part of mainstream culture" part. It earned the subtitle here. Well done Matt and Vice on this one.

Watch Vice's eSports Documentary Here

Kudos to YouTube user SKT who owns the first YouTube Playlist result to actually have all 5 videos of this hour-long eSports documentary in its playlist. Here it is in its entirety...

Exclusive Blog Post Bonus: Click here to get access to a free report on how to launch your pro eSports gaming career »

 
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