The men and women who spoke at the Forum - higher-ups from companies like ESL, Intel, Team Liquid, and the other victors of the scramble for cyberspace -now command vast empires arcing across virtual and physical lands, and their intended message could hardly be clearer: esports has arrived.Īs the day wore on and attention spans waned, an analyst from the market intelligence firm Newzoo presented the company’s annual report (available, here, for $7,500), which takes on the unenviable task of estimating the gross value of a messy industry. Wealth has transfigured those roughneck guides into viceroys, now dressed in the same clothes as the investors whose attention they now command. Esports isn’t nearly as lawless as it used to be, but it is a whole lot richer.

In 2018, as esports consolidates around a dwindling number of companies, colonialism might be the more apt analogy. Until recently, esports executives liked to describe the industry as the “wild wild west,” a metaphor meant as a compliment, a warning, and an offer: if you want to invest here, hire a guide.

Timed to coincide with Intel Extreme Masters Katowice, one of the largest gaming tournaments of the year, the Forum was a celebration of all that esports have achieved over the last eight years. Earlier this spring, a significant chunk of the whos-who of professional gaming gathered in Katowice, Poland for the first annual Global Esports Forum.

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