ESPN2 Broadcast Heroes of the Storm Tourney Last Night

As an eSports fan, I couldnt leave this alone.

Last night, April 26th, ESPN 2 aired something special: not the usual baseball/football/lacrosse/whatever it is you kids today play with your pucks and your hoops, noit was two plus hours of college students battling it out in Blizzards upcoming Heroes of the Storm for a tournament called Heroes of the Dorm, where the winners will be treated to fame, glory, and free college tuition for the rest of their student lives.

It was professionally broadcast with eSports commentators Artosis and Day9 in front of a live audience as part of an agreement between ESPN and Blizzard, and it was pretty fantastic. Of course, this isnt the first time ESPN broadcast an eSport: that privilege belongs to DOTA 2, where the International was shown on live TV as well as on streams), but it doesnt make it any less exciting for fans like myself. And irritating for sports fans, who took to Twitter to comment, usually harshly, on seeing video games on ESPN 2.

Still, Im a bit surprised, all things considered. I would argue that eSports are as valuable as normal sports (in that theyre both fun but ultimately meaningless displays of skill and finesse from people with more talent than us common folks) but Im mostly surprised it showed up on ESPN at all; considering the boss of the channel has publicly stated he doesnt see eSports as a sport and was vehemently uninterested in servicing that particular demographic.

I doubt this will be a reoccurring thing, at least, not for a while. eSports is still very much on the fringe of the gaming world here on the west, even as Video Games become more and more mainstream (if it can really be argued theyre not anymore) so watching people play games for money (or their future education, which is kind of screwed up if you think about it) might be a ways off from being normal, at least, for two hours, it was normal enough last night.