---
title: "Goddamn, I Guess We Need to Get Into eSports Now"
description: "With large gatherings banned — and ill-advised anyway — eSports may be the best way to scratch your competitive itch for the time being."
date: "2020-03-27"
modified: "2020-03-27"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/how-get-into-esports-coronavirus-effect"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "coronavirus"
  - "esports"
  - "the digest"
  - "video games"
---

# Goddamn, I Guess We Need to Get Into eSports Now

![With large gatherings banned — and ill-advised anyway — eSports may be the best way to scratch your competitive itch for the time being.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/get-into-esports-now.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Philipp Keller/Pexels\</em\>*

## Online Matchmaking

Thanks to the global pandemic, sports leagues seem to be shut down across the board. Even gathering in a New York City park for some casual kickball [has been banned](<https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/new-york-city-to-close-streets-ban-contact-sports-in-parks-to-halt-coronavirus-governor/ar-BB11Hfr7>) — and would be [extremely dumb](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/coronavirus-guidelines-white-house>) even if it hadn't been. So, what's left?

Get hyped, folks: We're all [getting into eSports](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/online-streaming-chess-esport>) now. With gatherings banned, many major video game competitions are going online, [according to *The Verge*](<https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/27/21196237/esports-leagues-online-coronavirus-call-of-duty-overwatch-league-of-legends>). While there are still challenges inherent to bringing eSports totally online, the industry is far better positioned to do so than just about [any other sport](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/schools-varsity-video-game-teams>), so it may be the best way to scratch that competitive itch for the time being.

## Welcome!

For the uninitiated: competitive video gaming has been a major spectacle among fans for years. It's no Super Bowl, but some games and championships can fill stadiums. There are huge pots of prize money for professional teams, [the celebrities](<https://futurism.com/google-deepmind-ai-beat-starcraft-ii-players>) of the eSports ecosystem. Commentators keep the crowd riled while tightly-controlled tournaments happen on-stage.

So while moving video game tournaments online sounds trivial at first, it actually requires a massive logistical restructuring, *The Verge* reports.

## No Peeking

Remember playing Halo with your siblings? How they'd peek at your corner of the split-screen display and know exactly where to go to kill you? Well, that's actually a problem for competitive gamers too — unscrupulous players could tune in to livestreams and get an advantage.

That's why there are still challenges to sort out, *The* Verge reports, like broadcasting tournaments at a delay to make sure players can't watch. But compared to organizing a physical sport, eSports still has an advantage for continuing in quarantine.

**READ MORE:** [How the biggest gaming leagues are adapting to an online-only world](<https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/27/21196237/esports-leagues-online-coronavirus-call-of-duty-overwatch-league-of-legends>) \[*The Verge*\]

**More on vidya games:** *[Fortnite Didn’t Do Anything New. That’s Why It Will Shape The Future Of Gaming.](<https://futurism.com/fortnite-future-gaming>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)