Last year, HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" ran a piece on competitive MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) games like "League of Legends" and "DOTA 2," debating whether or not these "eSports" should be considered "real" sports. (The entirety of that piece is here for those that are interested.)
The show and Gumbel's co-host Soledad O'Brien will re-examine this subject in its next episode, with a segment on Robert Morris University in Chicago, where eSports has become the school's latest and greatest varsity sport, featuring the very first scholarship eSports team in the United States.
The episode will air on October 21 at 10 PM ET/PT on HBO, according to All Digital News. There's a short clip from the episode here:
It is interesting to note that "Real Sports" is revisiting this subject just as the Samsung White team won a million dollar championship prize at the League of Legends 2014 World Championship. The event was held in the World Cup Stadium in Seoul, South Korea. All 40,000 seats were filled for this event, and it was also screened simultaneously in select theaters around North America.
CEO and Co-Founder of League of Legends developer Riot Games Brandon Beck said in a press conference at the event: "I believe in my lifetime eSports will be part of the Olympic Games." Beck was quick to clarify that this is just his projection, not an overall goal for himself or Riot Games.
Just in September, ESPN's president John Skipper was quoted as saying that games like "League of Legends" and "DOTA 2" shouldn't be considered sports. Nonetheless, that hasn't stopped ESPN 3, the cable television network's online branch, from broadcasting eSports events, including the latest League of Legends World Championship.
Like it or not, eSports are here to stay. Whether they will ever attract the wild throngs here in the U.S. as they do in Asian countries still remains to be seen. Although people gathering around the ol' TV box for "Monday Night League of Legends" does seem a bit far-fetched at this stage of the game...
