At a media conference last September, ESPN president John Skipper declared that eSports, despite their booming popularity, are not “real sports.”
Seven months later, the finals of Heroes of the Dorm, a collegiate tournament final of the computer game Heroes of the Storm was televised on ESPN 2. eSports have been exploding in popularity over the last few years, and some major tournaments draw more viewers than the World Series and NBA Finals. ESPN has previously dabbled in streaming Dota 2’s The International on ESPN 3, but giving eSports hours of actual air time on an ESPN channel is unprecedented.
On Sunday, a team of students from Arizona State played UC-Berkeley at a packed L.A. Shrine Auditorium, and people on Twitter were stunned.
