The 1975 sci-fi film Rollerball, directed and produced by the well known Canadian director Norman Jewison, projected what the sporting world was going to be in this century.
The film takes place in 2018, at a time when corporations have replaced countries, and an ultra-violent sport, Rollerball, the recreational past time, is used to control the populace by demonstrating the futility of the individual. It is a vicious game and players are often killed during games. The brutal film revolves around Jonathan E, (played by James Caan), the best player in the world, who battles forced retirement by the corporation.
Almost fifty years later, Rollerball remains a myth, while the new reality, if one may use that term, is the world of esports. Last weekend, the Arthur Ashe Tennis Center in New York, was the venue for the first Fortnite “World Cup”, a three day spectacle for the modern day sportsman, the video gamer.
Fortnite, for the uninitiated, is an online strategy survival video game in which 100 players are dropped on to an island where they have to find weapons, build bases and try to eliminate the competition until one player or one team is left standing. The Battle Royale version of the game, the most popular, was released in September 2017 and is available for free digital download. The game which can be played either on Xbox, PlayStation or a Smartphone – a computer is not a necessity – has taken the world by storm with over 200 million players and has turned its developer, Epic Games, into a billion dollar company.
Qualifiers for the four events had to endure ten grueling weeks of qualifying whilst competing against forty millions entrants. The finalists, who were drawn from 30 countries, ranged in age from 24 to 13, (average age 16) and notably, were all male. Epic went to great lengths to create a spectacular event including the construction of a two-story octagonal stage in the centre of the stadium, which held more 100 screens displaying the action for the hundreds of attendees. Millions of fans around the globe followed the World Cup on YouTube.
A glimpse at the numbers from the Fortnite World Cup reveals the extent of the ever expanding dimensions of the professional video gaming arena. The prize pool of US$30 million matched that of the recently held FIFA Women’s World Cup, the largest event in women’s soccer, but trails the US$40 million offered by the upcoming esport tournament, the Dota 2 International.
The winner of the individual event was a 16 year old kid from Pennsylvannia who took home a cheque for US$3 million. Not too shabby one might think, considering that Tiger Woods received US$2.07 million for his Masters victory and the men’s and women’s champions at next month’s US Open, at the same venue, will earn US$3.85 million. Four of the individual winners received cheques with seven figures while the 100 finalists were all guaranteed at least US$50,000.
The world of Fortnite; Battle Royale is not entirely glamorous. The game, like a lot of video games, has an addictive effect on young children who have great difficulty removing themselves from the game once they start playing. Coupled with the addictive effect is the depression which follows when the child is knocked out of the game; each player only enjoys one life per game. Parents who often have their own battle royal trying to monitor and limit their kids’ time with the game can only hope the obsession with the game is short term. In Guyana, a Fortnite adherent is the prime suspect in the bizarre shooting in January this year of Dr Brian O’Toole. The shooter performed the signature victory dance after firing bullets. Video gaming and the obsession with it clearly poses problems.
And those kids who become really good at these video games? Those who spend hours and hours perfecting their skill sets on the various games? Who could ever have thought that kids could earn a living as professional video gamers and become celebrities with thousands of followers on social media? Welcome to the modern world of esport and the video gamer.
