Everything eSports Trivia Quiz

Answer: StarCraft

Although the rest of the world took more notice at the end of the decade, South Korea created a template on which eSports could operate with its widespread adoption of "StarCraft", the futuristic Blizzard real-time strategy game in which players could operate as one of three factions, mine resources, build units, and go to war. "Brood War", the game's first expansion, enhanced the gaming experience, but the whole venture wasn't without its problems, notably internal match fixing. That said, the community continued well into the 2010s (especially with the introduction of "StarCraft II") to form healthy communities of loyal fans and players around the world. "StarCraft" continued to find modest audiences well beyond the general lifespan of an online game and, interestingly, continued coverage.

Answer: The International

Established in 2011, The International has undergone a lot of changes over the years but it all boils down to a major competition-- bracketed-- featuring the best teams of this complicated strategy game (known as a MOBA, a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena). Over time the qualifying teams earn points to be seeded into the final event, which takes place over several weeks of group stages and on-stage best-of-five matches.

The prize pool has been funded, for the most part, by players of the game from around the world, and by the end of its first decade, annual prize pools started topping out over $30,000,000 USD.

Answer: The Summoner's Cup

The "League of Legends" World Championship technically started in the same year as The International, but it wasn't formally established as a major eSports event (at least officially) until 2015. The major difference between this event and TI, besides the game of course, is that Riot Games, the developers, have taken on the burden of prizing, so it's their funding that led to some of the largest internally-funded prizes in eSports history. Due to the game's general popularity and lower difficulty curve, it's also been a consistent frontrunner in terms of viewership.

Answer: Super Smash Bros. Melee

By the time "Melee" reached its second decade, competitions still organized events around it specifically. Players have long-recognized the game's balance as being superior to its sequels, especially "Brawl", whose shelf-life as a competitive title waned quickly. Due to significant grassroots ventures, especially in North America, "Melee" is a staple game at major events (even those with a LAN focus), often requiring CRT (tube TV!) screens to be played properly.

Interestingly, all of this was done without too much oversight from Nintendo, who avoided competitive scenes for years and years as the community built up despite it.

Answer: Fighting

EVO, or the Evolution Championship Series, first formed in 1996 under the name 'Battle by the Bay' in a Sunnyvale, California arcade and it has since grown to become a premier North American tournament known for its prioritization of fighting game communities (FGC), beginning its series with "Street Fighter" titles. Over time, and after a name change, the event's flagship tournament was moved to venues in Las Vegas and has hosted satellite competitions in Japan.

Besides "Street Fighter", it also hosts the games du jour depending on the year (notably "Tekken", "Mortal Kombat", "BlazBlue"/"GranBlue", "Soul Calibur", etc.) and has one of the largest attendance counts for "Super Smash Bros." anywhere in the world.

Answer: Twitch

Twitch, originally launching as Justin.tv, grew in popularity quickly as it filled the growing niche that was game streaming, both in professional and amateur senses. Within four years it became the fourth-largest streaming site on the internet and became the focus of a billion dollar acquisition by Amazon.

The site has since grown exponentially as a leading content hub for gaming and more-- in addition to eSports, casual gaming streams, and charity events, users also use the service for music and general interest content, often creating their own massive subscriber bases.

Answer: Goldeneye 007

"Goldeneye 007" may be great for a Nintendo 64 LAN party, but it doesn't really have the infrastructure to make it a great eSport, unfortunately. The other titles, however, are known the world over for their leagues-- and let me tell you: First-Person Shooter fans love their leagues.
"Counter-Strike" (or "CS:GO") is an easy sell. Made by Valve, the game has been popular online for years and is known for players with severely high reflex times and accuracy.
"Call of Duty", created by Activision, has long held the title as one of the most popular franchises in gaming. Almost annually, a new game is introduced into the mix to shake up the league.
"Fortnite", while aimed at a younger audience, became a massively-popular shooter in the late 2019s for its distinct 100-person battle royales ("PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds", or "PUBG", would do similarly). In its first year, the Fortnite World Cup had a year-long prize pool of $30,000,000 USD.

Answer: ESPN

In an effort to bring video gaming and eSports to the mainstream, EA Sports (known for its series of sports simulation games) teamed up with the U.S. sports channel ESPN to develop a program that blended both sports and gaming. What resulted was "Madden Nation", a show which had gamers go head-to-head in the "Madden NFL" iteration for its respective years; the show aired between 2005 and 2008.

It was a bold choice if not an early one. It would take another several years before ESPN legitimately started airing The International on ESPN3 and in 2018, Disney signed off on the deal to use ABC and ESPN to host the Overwatch World Cup.

Answer: Arlington, Texas

While many major venues around the North America (and the world) have been used for huge eSports events, conferences, and LAN events, dedicated structures outfitted specifically for the purpose started popping up late in the 2010s due to a need for better infrastructure (think about internet concerns, for instance, or broadcast setups).

The eSports Stadium in Arlington, Texas retrofitted an existing stadium specifically for this purpose. It would become the home stadium of the Dallas Fuel professional "Overwatch" team.

Answer: Colleges

The idea of collegiate eSports began in the late 2000s as college-aged players started forming groups and spreading around campuses. As social media tightened its grip on internet-era players, it became easier to organized leagues for certain communities.

After ten years, hundreds of schools around the world would offer courses and teams dedicated directly to eSports both as an extracurricular option and as a theory class, potentially even with a scholarship. Tespa, which started in Texas, was eventually brought under the Blizzard umbrella; NACE (National Association of Collegiate Esports) is a non-profit force in the eSports sphere; CSL (or Collegiate StarLeague) is likely the most well-known, taking in tens of thousands of college-age members.