If you’re like me, you’re always excited to spectate and follow a new sport. And if you’re even more like me, you have or had some level of interest in spectating an esport, whether out of peer pressure, boredom, or genuine curiosity. A logical question for anyone looking to get involved with esports for the first time is “what should I watch first?” the answer to which is absolutely rooted in your own preferences for sports and games to spectate. The goal of this article is to provide a quick guide connecting traditional sports to analogous esports if you are looking for a place to jump in for the first time or expand your esports engagement.
To level set expectations, there are a lot of sports that have direct analogs within the world of esports where the video game is just the “real” sport itself like EA FC for soccer, NBA 2k for basketball, Madden for football, and many more. I have intentionally excluded these video games from the list below to open the door for more creative analogies to esports unique to the gaming industry (though if you are interested in the games above, you should definitely check them out). As a result, this list focuses on all the indirect factors that connect a traditional sport and an esport, including strategic and tactical elements, the pace of play, game duration, scoring methods, league style, number of players on the field, and more. For the sake of brevity I have tried to keep each justification short and grouped some sports together (e.g. fighting sports, racing sports) and tried to collect some of differences between individual sports in each of these classes for comparison to an esport.
Full disclaimer(!) that this exercise is more art than science so your own mileage may vary based on this guide. Hopefully the elements shared between the traditional sports and esports do conjure the same viewing enjoyment and excitement even if they aren’t exactly the same source. At the very least, if you find an esport you enjoy watching, then this article has been a success!
Soccer | Age of Empires II
Soccer (Football) and Age of Empires was the first pairing I thought of when creating this list. Both games are played continuously (except for halftime in soccer), and highly strategic with individual moments of extreme importance having an outsized effect on the game like a single great shot or save. As a medieval RTS (Real-time Strategy) game Age of Empires is as far from soccer visually as you can possibly be, but the game is all about figuring out which units and skills to deploy to where on the (battle)field, balancing attacking and defensive positions, and making extremely calculated incursions through enemy territory. Just think of it like soccer without the ball and a ton of other things.
Basketball | Overwatch (RIP)
To me, basketball is characterized by quick planning both on the fly and during breaks, a small set of players with unique roles and capabilities, and often dazzling individual feats. Despite being a shooter-based game, I think Overwatch satisfies these qualities extremely well. The game is incredibly fast-paced, characterized by unique individual team skill and live coordination, and delivers some heart-stopping action. Unfortunately, the Overwatch esports scene recently took a massive hit with Blizzard removing its proprietary support for the Overwatch League (OWL). However, if the esport resurges, this is a great option as an alternative to basketball
Hockey | League of Legends
It was difficult to detangle hockey and basketball from League of Legends and Overwatch respectively. Both traditional sports and esports are characterized by individual roles and abilities, a high pace of play and very fluid activity during play. I decided to pair League of Legends— the most popular MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) with Hockey for two reasons. First, the positions and lanes in hockey more align with the three-pronged lanes in League of Legends as opposed to basketball, and second, the first time you watch League of Legends or hockey I feel like it’s incredibly confusing. League of Legends has a super steep learning curve for understanding the game itself, but the esport is a blast to follow online and watch in person (I’ve been to a couple major tournaments that are absolutely worth attending if you get the chance).
Baseball | CS:GO (Counter-Strike Global Offensive)
Baseball was extremely difficult to pair with an esport, but the way I think the most transferrable characteristic between baseball to other sports is an emphasis on discrete, skill-based encounters (between the pitcher and batter for baseball and other sports like Cricket). This feature doesn’t exist in many video games, but I think CS:GO embodies this key element of the sport. CS:GO is a team-based shooter with short rounds often involving 1-1 encounters that are entirely skill-based and based on split-second reactions and decision making. Although the game is played symmetrically unlike baseball, if you’re looking for a high-skill-expression sport with some time to breathe and periodic moments of electricity, this would be it.
Football | Valorant
Football and Valorant are both characterized by players with unique roles executing semi-discrete tactics in very quick and active “plays.” Valorant is a shooter very similar to CS:GO, but characterized by some more unique abilities for each character, and is a newer more modern-adapted game than CS:GO (analogies to football and baseball abound). Although you won’t see dozens and dozens of likely superfluous people standing on the virtual sidelines of a Valorant match, the way that the matches are organized is very reminiscent of football (at least in the NFL).
Fighting Sports | Super Smash Bros.
I think this is the lowest-hanging fruit of this exercise since there are dozens of unique fighting games in the esports world. The reason I picked Super Smash Bros. (any of the varieties but a light emphasis on Melee) is due to the range of tactics and moves in the game. I tried to pick a 2-D fighting game that captures a wide variety of technical skills and abilities in order to justify grouping all fighting sports together.
Golf | Hearthstone
Golf is a slow sport. Although it is characterized by physical precision and less upon strategy or tactics like the card game Hearthstone, this emphasis on control and letting the activity take time with a few key moments of hype made this pairing seem to sing mostly in tune. Hearthstone is similar to Magic: The Gathering and other strategy-based card games. It’s great to have on in the background on a Sunday afternoon when you’re trying to take a nap and wake up to experience a few key moments just before sunset. Not as much Scottish association for Hearthstone though unfortunately.
Action Sports | Rocket League
I fought so hard against myself to not include Rocket League as my analog for soccer or another team sport involving a ball. Rocket League is effectively soccer but in cars, which only makes sense if you watch the game. Although there’s less of a team factor in action sports, I chose Rocket League as an analog due to the aerial creativity, the clear similarities in motor sports especially, and its reliance on competitors understanding and leveraging 3-D space in ways that most sports do not. Is it a tenuous analogy? Maybe! But Rocket League is super fun to play and watch regardless.
Racing Sports | Speed Running
There are dozens of popular racing video games, many of which are formal esports including Gran Turismo which recently broke through to mainstream in a movie adaptation. I chose the broad category of esport called speed running (which is definitely an esport) to represent racing sports because speed running is all about going as fast as you can. You leverage every asset at your disposal to complete a game or challenge within a game as fast as possible. Most of the time, this race is against just the clock, but at events like Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) you also see live races to complete games, and these competitions are electric. Speed running involves mental stamina and great precision. It’s a pure racing esport.
Tennis | Street Fighter 6
Tennis is tricky to pair to an esport, let alone a fighting game like Street Fighter. I chose Street Fighter because similar to singles tennis, it’s a pure 1-on-1 battle that combines skill, strategy, and stamina, which should maybe be the Three Great S’s of sports. Street Fighter has discrete rounds like tennis, the players are always engaged with one another both offensively and defensively, and in a lot of poetic ways, each character in Street Fighter is an extension of the athlete just like a tennis racket (maybe too much of a poetic stretch).
Please reach out to let me know if you agree or disagree with my analogies. Hopefully at the very least you’ve got some esports that intrigue you now even if the connection to your experience with a traditional sport is a bit skewed!
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