how E-sports dumbasses think

the problem with eSports is that it is too reliant on single games to keep the industry going, instead of an actual sport that people can experience in multiple ways.

Let's look at ice hockey. While you do have a pro league, the NHL, ice hockey can exist without the NHL. Hockey is a game where two teams compete to try and hit a puck into a goal more times than the other, there are X amount of players on the ice at once, etc. It can be played as a pickup game, it can be played in a high school or college league, etc.

Say there is an NHL lockout like there was in 2012 and the season is cancelled. Does hockey cease to exist? Nope. Sure, the pro league is gone but the game itself is obviously still playable and able to be enjoyed in many levels.

Now let's look at eSports. Look at a game like League of Legends. LoL can ONLY be played through the product released by Riot games. Let's say that Riot suddenly goes out of business tomorrow, or they introduce a massive update that alienates the whole playerbase, or whatever. When LoL is gone, so is the whole system introduced by the game. There's not going to be pickup LoL games in the park, amateur leagues, adult leagues, etc. It exists only in the product.

So this is where I think the eSports bubble is going to pop. Games like DOTA2 or LoL are getting huge and since they are these self-contained games and not just a set of rules on how to play games, once they're gone they're gone. Obviously DOTA2 and LoL cannot be at this level of popularity forever. That's just how video games work.

So if LoL does something that kills its popularity, that entire system is completely gone. If the NBA had to close tomorrow, someone can form another basketball league, but nobody can make another LoL. Sure, a company can make another MOBA and hope it captures the LoL audience/reaches that level of popularity, but they'll never make another LoL.