The Dota 2 esports tournament in Seattle, known as The International, demonstrates how video games have become hugely popular team sports — and today alpha geek Elon Musk took the occasion to tout a different kind of team effort. Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, is also a big supporter of OpenAI, a nonprofit research company aimed at boosting artificial intelligence architectures and applications that benefit humanity. Today, OpenAI showed off an AI bot that vanquished Danylo “Dendi” Ishutin, one of the world’s top Dota 2 players, in a one-vs.-one demonstration match. “OK, this guy is scary,” Ishutin said as he… Read More
Why do people spend their hard-earned cash and travel from all around the world to Seattle, just to watch other people play video games? It’s been a question on my mind ever since I first attended The International in 2015. The annual Dota 2 tournament hosted by Bellevue, Wash.-based gaming giant Valve draws in thousands from across the globe who pack KeyArena and cheer on their favorite professional gamers who are competing for a $23.9 million prize pool, the largest ever in esports history. I get why people pay big bucks to attend the Super Bowl or the World Cup. I… Read More
If you need another reminder of the massive growth of esports, head down to KeyArena in Seattle this week for The International. That’s where the most lucrative esports event of all time kicks off Monday, with the world’s top professional Dota 2 gamers duking it out in front of thousands of fans packed into a stadium more typically known for hosting traditional sporting events like basketball. But this is 2017, and professional video gaming has surged into relevance — both from a popularity and financial perspective. [Follow-up: Why people love esports: Scenes from Valve’s huge $24M Dota 2 tournament] The prize… Read More
The burgeoning eSports industry is spawning new startups like Matcherino that help support a growing ecosystem, and investors are taking notice. Seattle-based Matcherino raised another $1.5 million this week from previous backers Madrona Venture Group and Vulcan Capital, along with other angel investors. Bend, Ore.-based Seven Peaks Ventures also invested for the first time. Founded in 2015, Matcherino has developed a platform that lets eSports fans crowdfund competitions between top gamers, who can then get paid for their matches and interact with followers. Many eSports fans are willing to pay to see the best compete, much like people do with traditional… Read More
In a stadium built for a nearly 100-year-old sports league, Brandon Beck and Rick Fox talked about eSports and what the future of competition looks like as they kicked off the 2nd GeekWire Sports Tech Summit Thursday at CenturyLink Field in Seattle. Riot Games co-founder Beck helped launch “League of Legends” 11 years ago and has turned it into one of the most popular gaming franchises of all time. It now attracts more than 100 million gamers each month. Rick Fox, who won three NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers and is now becoming a figure in the growing eSports industry. Fox… Read More
