The esports phenomenon is growing dramatically everywhere, so it is not unusual to see people from outside this world approaching it fearfully. On the other hand, it is obvious that there are difficulties at first, but these should not discourage us from enjoying the most exciting encounters.

How To Start Following Esports? A Step By Step Guide To Discovering A New Passion

In Italy, in particular, for some time now they have been trying to scratch the armor of aspiring fans, also because, unlike "canonical" sports, it is not so easy to disentangle the various events, tournaments, and so on, and how if that wasn't enough, there isn't even the same media coverage. Cheering on a football match? Of course. Cheering for a League match? Things? How, where, and when?

Let's see these aspects one after the other so that you too can start following your favorite esport website or channel and perhaps discover a new passion.

What To Watch?

The first step is the one that seems simpler but is also the most important. Unlike a football match, esports are profoundly different from each other, which is why we might like one and not another.

One of the most common mistakes that are made when choosing which game to follow as a spectator is to rely solely on your tastes as a player.

An Example: Do I Love Playing Overwatch?

Then I'll follow the League matches.

If in principle this is true, because following this type of competition also allows you to improve your performance in the game itself (there is a lot to learn from pro players), it does not necessarily work that way for everyone.

Indeed: many players, after several hours spent inside a title, the last thing they want is to see it as a spectator. For this reason, feel free to experiment and try to watch esports that don't particularly appeal to you as a player - you may find that they are ideal to enjoy outside of the action.

Very often the opposite also happens: a game, in the role of spectator, drives us crazy but once touched by hand it proves to be a disappointment. For this reason, it is good to space and remembers that player and spectator are two extremely different types of use.

Having made this important premise, it's time to choose the export to follow. Typically we find titles divided into four genres:

• MOBAs (LoL, Dota 2) and strategic ones (such as Starcraft and some mobile titles) are, in fact, more strategic and situational.
• The FPS (Battlefield, COD, CS: GO, Overwatch, Rainbow Six: Siege, and part of the Battle Royale ) instead reward the action.
• Simulation games (such as football games such as FIFA and PES).
• The fighting games (Tekken, Street Fighter, SkullGirl) are for fans of the genre and for those who prefer quick encounters.

While most of the top titles fall into these categories, remember that the world of esports is vast and varied, and you may discover past titles that you thought were extinct but continue to live on in this universe.

Don't Expect Too Much Of Yourself

This advice is especially aimed at those who are approaching this world for the first time. Those who have no experience in video games (or only in certain titles), may find themselves confused in discovering new ways or a new dictionary to learn.

Esports are, in fact, digital sports and like their physical counterpart they each have a universe to understand, made up of dedicated game techniques, strategies and words.

Just as it is difficult to understand a baseball game without knowing what a diamond is, the same happens to a video game without knowing its vocabulary.

That said, don't expect to know everything right away: esports, in all their dimensions, are ideal for practicing a game and getting to know it. Each game will provide you with something to learn, you just have to start studying.

• Where To Watch Esports?

Once you have chosen which export to follow, all that remains is to understand where to watch it and which competitions to follow.  The dedicated scenario in Italy is constantly growing and one of the most interesting aspects of this passion is to share it with thousands of other fans, thus entering the community.

For this reason, you need to know the tools of the trade.  The first is Twitch, YouTube's competitor aimed primarily at real-time streaming content.  Beyond what many people believe, Twitch is free and works the same way as YouTube: you download the app on your mobile (or go to the site on your computer) and follow your favorite channels.

At this point, all that remains is to discover these channels.

Numerous realities deal with commenting on the various competitions in real-time, offering entertainment and technical evaluation of the match. One of these is certainly the PG_Esports Twitch channel, which specializes in streaming League of Legends with a lot of technical commentary in Italian, offering long insights into the games of the champions.  Ideal for those who want to discover every facet of this title.

For other Battle Royale titles, we find the Twitch channel of ESL_It, which uses a more classic approach with a chronicle extremely similar to that of traditional sports such as football.  This, coupled with very advanced tools that allow you to follow 100 players playing simultaneously, makes the entertainment of this type truly high quality.

In addition, each champion has a Twitch channel, where it will be possible to follow his training even without a technical comment. There is a world to discover, the important thing is to give yourself time to savor it without being overwhelmed by its dimensions.

Use Of Local Servers At Events

Knowing how local servers work can also help you discover your favorite esport website. Bykov said that there are completely different situations in work. Once, before a Dota tournament, servers in the Netherlands caught fire. Blizzard brings large servers to the site where the tournament is held and launches the game locally so that everything will continue if the Internet shuts down.

According to Dashtoyan, tournaments are still held offline, because playing on a local server is much more comfortable. A team from the USA will not be able to play normally with a team from the CIS, so all online leagues are distributed by region. CIS plus Europe, USA separately, Asia separately. And the best teams can only converge where there is a local server.