Gaming Tournaments

 

Vocabulary

cheer	heavily	Bundeliga
chant	chance	don’t care
elite	cool (2)	creature
hero	consider	spectator
sword	fan (2)	beforehand
group	arrange	stand for
piece	defense	match (3)
strict	exciting	opposing
aim	corner	structure
cabin	destroy	shield (2)
guard	dress up	bird’s eye view
board	complex	commentator
layer	describe	follow (2)
board	ancient	objective
sheer	control	go about
prize	prefer	accomplish
win	analyst	going on
silent

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Video

 
 
 
 

Transcript

This stadium in Frankfurt is normally home to Bundesliga matches. But this past weekend, there were cheers and chants of a different kind.

Twenty-thousand people came together to watch the world’s elite in gaming, and the biggest event for the sport in Europe.

Fan One: “I don’t really care who wins; this is just for fun. I just want to watch the guys up there. There’s a lot going on here.

This is better than football!

Who cares about the Euros? We can see Dota here, which is so cool.”

Dota is a fantasy game with half-human creatures and magic swords. For many fans, it’s the chance to dress up as their virtual heroes, which they arrange beforehand with other gamers.

Fan Two: “We met the other three guys online, through games and said we should go as a group of five. He’s the only hero that exists five times.”

Dota is one of the most popular online games in the world. It stands for “Defense of the Ancients”.

Ancients are heavily guarded structures at opposing corners of a map. The aim of each team, made up of five players sitting in strictly shielded cabins, is to destroy the opposing side’s Ancient.

There’s one problem for spectators: trying to get a bird’s-eye-view of the keyboard.

It’s not exactly exciting to watch . . . but commentators and game analysts, like Alan Bester, make the highly complex event easier to follow.

The American is actually an economics professor, and says there’s many layers to the game.

Alan Bester, E-Sport Analyst: “That’s like saying describe chess in two sentences. You can talk about how the pieces move, you can talk about your objective being to control the other side of the board, but how you accomplish that, and the sheer number of different ways to go about doing that are what make this truly interesting.”

But can this be considered a sport?

For gamers, there’s no question about it: twenty-three year old, Kuro Takhasomi — known as Kuroky — is the most successful German e-sport professional.

He’s won over €700,000 in prize money.

But he’s a silent hero — preferring instead to focus on his mouse and keyboard.

Questions

1. Gaming’s popularity rivals that of football. Many people are great fans of video games. True or false?

2. Is the Dota game about Special Forces and SEALs fighting?

3. All the attendees come in blue jeans, sneakers and T-shirts. Is this right or wrong?

4. Do the gamers play individually or as a team?

5. Alan Bester, the game analysts, has a background in computer science and technology. Is this correct or incorrect? What does he compare

6. Does Kuro Takhasomi think Dota is a sport? Is he rich, middle-class or poor?

 

A. Have you or your friends played Dota? Do you or your friends play computer video games?

B. Is computer gaming big business or big industry?

C. Do you know anyone who develops, sells or markets video games?

D. What will happen in the future?

E. Are there any negative aspects of computer games?