Tyler Blevins, known by his fans as Ninja, is arguably the most popular gamer in the world right now. His world record Fortnite stream with Drake and Travis Scott was broken last weekend by a live Fortnite event in Las Vegas that he put on himself. This event was not only an important moment for Ninja's career, but marks a turning point for eSports as a whole.
Tyler started as a halo gamer back in 2009. He played for several notable pro teams during this time. When the battle royale craze hit the industry last year Ninja was at the forefront (no pun intended). He made the transition to Fortnite and his viewer base started to skyrocket. Nowadays Ninja is one of the most skilled Fortnite players put there.
The Fortnite event last weekend in Las Vegas was the first time an eSports event was ever held on the Vegas Strip, orchestrated by a 25 year old who dyes his hair blue to achieve the power of super saiyan god. Channeling his inner Conor Mcgregor, Ninja showed up to the event in a dapper suit looking very formal and presentable; something few come to expect from the closet of a pro gamer.
The "tournament" itself wasn't a typical professional bracket fans of the eSports scene are familiar with. It consisted of 3 heats of 3 games. The winner of each game got $2500, plus if you managed to kill Ninja you also received $2500, and if Ninja wasn't killed his bounty was doubled, so there was a lot of money at stake. Ultimately the event was one of good spirits and camaraderie rather than heated competition. Any winnings Ninja got himself went straight to charity. There was even a Make-A-Wish foundation child there who's dream was to meet Ninja. The whole thing was very heartwarming.
The following week Ninja appeared on Ethan and Hila Klein's H3H3 podcast to, among other things, discuss the event. Ethan is a big gamer himself, so Ninja didn't have to put training wheels on for the interview. They talked about Ninja's infamous stream with Drake and Ninja told Ethan that Drake was a fan of Ninja for a while now, even before Fortnite. The fact that anyone, let alone Drake, is watching this kid play video games baffles many. They just don't get it. And those same people will watch a basketball game and think nothing of it.
The turn that Ninja represents for gaming culture has helped take eSorts into the mainstream. The 2020 Olympic Games are even considering including eSports in some capacity. The technology of live streaming is finally competent enough to handle the bandwidth that comes with a large audience, something Twitch has now accumulated. With Youtube starting to loose traction as a platform, expect Twitch and other live streaming services to rise in popularity.
When discussing the future of eSports, Ninja and Ethan brought up some very interesting points. They discussed how the Vegas Fortnite event wasn't a typical eSports setup, mostly because it was more of a publicity stunt than anything else, but also because the typical bracket is tough to apply to a battle royale game. In a 1 vs 100 game, the winner is not necessarily the best player, so one game is not a good measure of skill. What is needed is a season of games. Player's stats would be tracked over a 12 week period lets say, and the best at the end face off. In this way eSports would mimic real sporting events far more than they do now. These days eSports events feel more akin to boxing matches rather than baseball games. Furthermore, team management and drafting prospects would get some much much needed support, fleshing out current pro teams into true sports franchises.
Viewership for traditional sporting events, like the super bowl for example, has been trending down for a few years now, while eSports continues to grow. The youthful audiences of the internet are more than willing to accept a video game as a spectator sport, and the face of competitive sports in a decades time will looks a lot more digital than it does today.
Ninja himself is at the forefront of this movement. While he's certainly not without his flaws (if I hear one more goddamn Twitch prime plug I'm going to gold SCAR myself in the face), but Ninja is actually a great role model for his young audience. Like Ethan, Ninja's wife is huge part of his professional life.
Jessica Goch is Ninja's manager as well as his one-and-only. She is a streamer herself, and helped host the Last Vegas Fortnite Event. They function as a great example for relationships in this modern world where making a real connection gets harder and harder. What's ironic is how a man who's life is so deeply steeped in the virtual world has a stronger marraige than most people out there in the meatspace.