Published on January 24th, 2017 | by Guest

Opinion: is VR the Final Stage of eSports Evolution?

It’s been exactly a year since I first tried a VR headset in a local shopping mall.

I’ll never forget it:

There was this really cute girl holding VR goggles, standing in front of something that appeared to be a chair of some sorts.

She must have noticed my geek level from far away and, as I got closer, she politely asked me try out this piece of tech that was trending at the time.

I muttered “yeah, sure” and proceeded to put on the goggles and sit in the chair. I will later realize that the chair was there to prevent people tripping out from VR and running into other customers at the mall like headless nerdy chickens.

The moment she turned on the 3D movie inside it, I was mesmerized. Don’t get me wrong, it was a simple, 2 minute, roller coaster ride but, nevertheless, it felt sort of real. At least to a guy who casually gamed away the majority of his life.

We wrapped up the testing (no motion sickness, thankfully) and I went home in love. And it wasn’t the girl.

However, there was one thing that became a frequent point of my thoughts:

I want to play CS:GO in VR.

And not like, with keyboard and mouse. But with a virtual gun as well.

Since me and a couple of friends started Gamopo, I have been thinking of ways to contribute to making this happen. I soon realized that it’s already happening.

First things first, eSports sector currently has a predicted annual growth rate of almost 7%, which is huge. With that, a lot of new players are constantly entering the market.

Besides skin betting and gambling platforms, there is a special group of people who decided to help push the VR further into the mix. The biggest of them is Sliver.tv, who just recently got a deal with ESL, IEM and Dreamhack.

The deal involves Sliver streaming eSports tournaments in full VR and, what’s even better is that they have integrated statistical information into the main HUD. So it’s not just watching the game — it’s watching the game on steroids.

This is a giant step for eSports in general. The level of player-fan interaction is already crazy and with the added diversifications to how eSports content is consumed, I am really positive about what future holds in store.

That being said, I think using VR to watch tournaments and matches is not its ultimate role in eSports. On the contrary, I think it’s just the start.

Humans have never been more inventive, even though we are riddled with stupid reality shows and other brainwashing content. My opinion is that the gaming market is ten times more receptive to new stuff and changes than any other market on the planet. It’s all about the mass impulse.

With us gamers being so open to the world, one cannot possibly conclude that watching the matches with VR is all there will be to it.

In the future, we will also evolve into playing games with VR as well. And just imagine how much our parents are going to nag then.

About the author:

Luka P is the co-founder of Gamopo, an all-in-one portal for eSports gambling. He has been an active gamer since the age of 12, when he first got introduced to Counter Strike. From there, he moved on to playing Dota 2, casual games and exploring the latest trends in technology.

Tags: eSports, evolution, opinion, virtual reality, vr