This week hasn't been the best week for esports with the tragic shooting that took place in Jacksonville, Fla. It's time, once again, to look at player and audience safety at all esports events, whilst also considering the needs of fans to remain close to their favorite pro players.
Safely enjoying your favorite esports
LAN events are open by tradition. You show up with your console or PC and enjoy your favorite games with friends and strangers. Esports tournaments started out in the same manner just a few years ago. Take a look at the early League of Legends and CS:GO tournaments, and you'll see how amateur and community-driven they were.
Now things have progressed vastly. We've got increased production budgets, more staff involved behind the scenes to transform what was a few guys with headsets on running the show into a full broadcast with staging and everything. It's a whole different ballgame than what it used to be.
This week saw two competitor gamers killed at a gaming bar in Jacksonville, Florida. They were shot during a Madden NFL 19 qualifying tournament. The issue we have with less popular venues for these kinds of sports events is the lack of security when compared to studios and big arenas.
It's a delicate balancing act to make fans feel as though they have access to their favorite players, while also making sure professionals and the audience are safe.
Can't play games? How about an esports career?
We've covered esports careers in the past here on Windows Central, and a piece published on Venture Beat went into detail about how the majority of careers in esports don't actually involve playing a video game.
Hitmakerjobs is a website dedicated to pairing up esports job openings with the right applicant, and the platform had just shy of 2,500 submitted in the first half of 2018 alone.
Upcoming live events
League of Legends Championship - September 07 (EU), September 08 (EU and U.S.), September 09 (US), watch on Twitch.
