e-sports. A way out for the ordinary.

I think everyone is aware of the changes we are going through. Its safe to say that humanity is transitioning into a digitally constructed society. The traditional games that we’ve played as kids are being swept under the bed to make room for the new games introduced.
E-sports has been on the rise recently and questions to the future of gaming are looming?

The aspect of e-sports that I particularly appreciate and is overlooked most of the time is how it bends the rules. Sport used to be for the physically advantaged. Throwing, kicking , running , punching. e-sports is the revenge of nerds and it gives these once upon a time rejects and geeks the chance to make some significant cash.
I spoke about the traditional aspects of e-sports in Turkey and how it is becoming more and more accepted everyday with huge football clubs investing in e-sports.

One turkish player made $32,000 off e-sports by participating in 19 tournaments. That figure equals 95,000 Turkish liras, which is about 10-12 years pay for the average Turk.
I think that this is one of the main reasons that have pushed players from Turkey into the e-sports arena.

Onur ‘Lethillion’ Aksu during an e-sports festival remarked on Al Jazeera “The only reason that e-sports has grown so popular over the years can be credited to the strong supporters of the industry. You guys that love games as much as we do. E-sports in Turkey has hit the professional level and we can see massive amounts of funding in our industry in Turkey as well as overseas. These financial incentives will no doubt expand e-sports in Turkey as well as bring in new players from more regional areas. Its gotten to the point where players are transferring between teams and I think for the Turkish people this will add a whole new level of excitement. Turkish people will always support any turkish team when they are competing overseas weather its football or computer games”

I can see what he means. I wasn’t a big follower of e-sports before, but I found out that Turkey had some teams and the industry was growing which immediately grabbed my attention. I am now constantly searching up scores and results from e-sports in Turkey.
This doesn’t mean that I favour e-sports in Turkey over Australia . But comparing Turkey to Australia is two different things. One is an open minded country, the other isn’t as much. It would’ve been harder to introduce e-sports to Turkey and the fact that is has grown so rapidly deserves an applause.

E-sports has infiltrated Turkish culture to the point where it is now influencing business models. ‘BAZE e-sports cafe & bar’ is Turkeys first bar dedicated to e-sports. This has paved way to the introduction of Turkey’s first dedicated e-sports channel called BAZE.TV.
BAZE upload videos to youtube as well as livestream e-sports events. This is only a growing trend in Turkey and considering how rapidly it has expanded Turkey can only expect bigger and better things in the field of e-sports.

note: The first video has english Subtitles and is exactly like State of Play . Parents, friends and family. A glimpse of what Turkish people think of e-sports.

The second video is in Turkish but its got some shots of how the e-sports bar and cafe looks.

It also turns out there are more e-sports enthusiasts in Turkey than Korea.