Regional and local esports tournaments offer a chance for talented gamers to meet other players of their ilk so that they can compete and develop better strategies and reflexes to prepare for bigger stages. (Photo courtesy of Markym Fox )

East Haven’s Shawn Pellegrino is making a name for himself as a professional gamer in the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U community, while using a lesser-known character, Shulk. Esports are growing exponentially worldwide, and they’re also gaining plenty of steam in Connecticut. (Photo courtesy of Shawn Pellegrino )

The sporting landscape can seem static with the likes of baseball, football, and basketball dominating the average sports fan’s attention. However, new sports can crop up and fizzle out just as quickly. Currently growing in the public consciousness are esports, which are also known as professional gaming. Investment in esports has steadily increased, as has the popularity they are enjoying with new leagues constantly forming.

On the other hand, esports aren’t without controversy, and one of the biggest controversies is whether or not they are even sports in the first place. I decided to explore the local esports scene to see how the concept is going over among people on the shoreline.

Humble Beginnings

Before arcades or home video-game consoles were commercially popular, the first video-game competition took place at Stanford University in the early 1970s in the form of a rudimentary space combat game by the name of Spacewar! While video games have been around since the 1950s, most people consider the coin-operated arcade games of the ‘70s as their true birth. At arcades, games like Space Invaders and Donkey Kong promoted competition for those dedicated enough to earn the top score. Gamers who snagged a high mark would immortalize their initials on a high-score list.

In 1980, Atari hosted a Space Invaders tournament, where the person who finished with the highest score was declared the winner. The top-score repository known as Twin Galaxies soon followed. Then, a television program named Starcade started airing on the Turner Broadcasting Network (TBS), offering a player-versus-player format in which each competitor sought the high score in order to win.

These early formats didn’t really resemble what we currently recognize as professional gaming, although their spectacle provided a viable formula of how to attract viewers.

Spectator Sport

Today, esports are a multi-million dollar endeavor, because advertisers are taking notice of the attention they garner. The advent of Internet streaming services such as Twitch and YouTube has provided plenty of options for watching professional gaming. Pro gaming still hasn’t made its jump into the mainstream, but that may soon be on the horizon.

Aaron Rathbun, the founder and head tournament organizer of Elm City Esports, coordinates local events that feature games like Super Smash Bros., Rainbow Six Siege, Overwatch, League of Legends, Fortnite, Call of Duty, Halo, and Hearthstone. In recent years, Rathbun has seen a big change in the way that esports are regarded.

“A lot of the conversations about esports two or three years ago centered around whether or not they were sports, and now, the conversation has shifted gears, saying they are their own distinct kind of sport. The head of ESPN famously balked at the notion of esports being a thing five years ago. Then 24 months later, ESPN.com had a section dedicated to them,” Rathbun said. “Rick Fox owns a team. Shaquille O’Neal is part owner of team. Alex Rodriguez is part owner of a team. A lot of these guys who are sports veterans recognize what they see. Amazon bought the No. 1 video game streaming site Twitch for $980 million. It’s unfathomable numbers.”

A mainstream push for esports seems imminent, if only to recoup the tremendous investment in them. The question isn’t whether or not esports will receive exposure, but rather, can they amass their own mainstream audience? According to Rathbun, every effort is being put into making competitions seem familiar to the everyday sports fan.

“Sports are recreational activities that are for entertainment. They are competitive, and there are people sitting in a seat watching other people compete,” Rathbun said. “The esports ecosystem mimics that almost exactly. At these events, there are people sitting, watching people compete. They’re eating, and there are commentators describing the action and everything.”

Thumbing Their Way

Regular gamers won’t be television stars any time soon. Professional gamers start out as amateur gamers, just like anyone else who plays any other sport. All around the world, gaming events bring competitors together in order to facilitate higher level competition and help gamers get their chops.

Rathbun is one of the organizers who’s trying to develop a competitive gaming scene on the local level. He said the purpose goes beyond just helping players get to the big stage.

“We run local area network events for [personal computers]. We get local players together who enjoy the same thing,” said Rathbun. “Part of Elm City Esports was creating a good space for people to come together. I’m a gamer myself and, with this, I get to combine the two things that I enjoy.”

Rathbun is an organizer without a specific venue, although he secures local churches and halls for gamers to compete. Other tourney organizers like Tyler Carballo build a following at a set location. Carballo coordinates weekly Super Smash Bros. for Wii U tournaments at the Hall of Gaming in Wallingford. Tournament organizers have a ton of responsibilities to manage, but Carballo believes that it’s all worth it when he sees everyone having fun, while they battle it out on the screen for anyone in the world to see via live streaming video of the event on the Internet.

“I organize the tournament, handle the money to create the prize pot, bracket out the games, and seed people fairly. I also make sure the stream is working,” Carballo said. “Places without streaming don’t make it. A publicly ranked player isn’t going to come out unless there is a stream. If you want people to show up, you have to have a stream.”

To become a publicly ranked player, a competitor has to win his or her matches against other ranked players. Building up a résumé by defeating ranked opponents helps gamers get exposure, and that exposure can lead to more opportunities for those who want to pursue professional gaming.

A Smashing Scene

One scene that has a steady following in Connecticut is the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (a.k.a. Smash 4) competitive community. One of the reasons why this game is so popular is because it features an expansive roster of 58 characters, including some of the most popular icons in video-game history, such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Sonic, and, of course, Mario and Luigi. One of the game’s predecessors, Super Smash Bros. Melee, set the standard for the franchise as a competitive game and has persisted for more than 15 years, including a dedicated following in Connecticut.

Shawn Pellegrino of East Haven is showing some serious skills in Smash 4 and has turned some heads in the state by employing a lesser-used character, Shulk, as his go-to fighter. Pellegrino realized that he was a formidable opponent in Smash 4 after defeating many of his friends with relative ease. He then progressed to tournament play.

“I watched a lot of tournaments, and I always beat my friends pretty badly. Then when Smash 4 came out, I thought I would give a tournament a try. So I started going to Hall of Gaming in Wallingford. I was getting second in tournaments, so I thought, ‘Oh, there’s something definitely here,’” Pellegrino said. “I play Shulk. He’s kind of an obscure character, and he’s very technical. They coined the term that I’m the best Shulk in Connecticut. I made a name for myself with that character. It may not be the best strategy, but people don’t have a lot of experience against him. People get caught off-guard.”

Pellegrino’s performances at tournaments have earned him some recognition. He knows that he can build on that momentum by live streaming the efforts of he and his colleagues.

“We are uploading videos to our channel on YouTube. It’s called the Gamer’s Grimoire, and we made a Twitch account to do more live streaming later on,” said Pellegrino. “There are six of us right now, and we amassed that crew through Hall of Gaming. We’re uploading videos of us playing games that were important to us as gamers. We’ve never done this kind of thing before. Our plan is to build ourselves up by uploading videos and then, the more confident that we get, we will start streaming more.”

Aside from the additional exposure, the videos on the channel can help support Pellegrino and his friends though monetization with YouTube’s advertisers. Taking part in multiple tournaments, even on just a regional level, can take a financial toll on gamers. Sometimes, costs can be recouped through winning, but that isn’t always the case.

“As far as competitions with fighting games, you have [the Evolution Championship Series] in Las Vegas, and going to that stuff gets pricey,” Pellegrino said. “I want to travel, but it’s a grind. You can get sponsored, and they’ll pay for your travels, but not everyone gets that. You have to believe in yourself, grind it out, and make a name for yourself.”

The Big Question

One of the questions that tends to come up regarding professional gaming is whether or not it is actually a sport. Cassidy Jones of Guilford believes that there just isn’t enough physical activity involved in esports to truly consider them sports.

“I know they’re competing, but they aren’t doing much physically hard work,” Jones said. “It’s still a good way to make money, but I think it has to require more physical activity to be a sport.”

The classification of esports depends on how expansive of a definition one is willing to ascribe to the word “sport.” Perhaps the answer likes somewhere in the physiological response of the competitors? Rathbun offered a comparison between competitive gamers and NASCAR drivers.

“There’s a university in Amsterdam that did a study on esports competitors. They likened their bio-metrics during a competition to that of a NASCAR driver,” said Rathbun. “It’s demanding on their attention, and they have to do a lot with their hands.”

Madison resident Jess Sady weighed both sides of the argument, while contemplating the notion of professional gaming as a sport.

“I’m not a big video-game person, so I first thought, ‘Well, is it a sport?’ But when you think about things like darts, it’s sort of the same thing,” Sady said. “You need good hand-eye coordination, and what makes that different than playing video games with different maps, buttons, and timing? Or like in a fighting game, you have to know to go for a kick, and you have to know when to block. So now, I’m thinking that it might be a sport.”

Will Ian, a student at Guilford High School, was steadfast in his conclusion that esports are in fact sports. Regardless of the official definition, Ian’s interest in watching competitions for entertainment shows why so many people who have the means are investing in the medium.

“Esports are a sport, absolutely. It’s competitive, and it requires skill,” said Ian. “It would be pretty cool to see a Fortnite tournament on like ESPN. That would be pretty great.”