Ep 30: What's in an Esport? Do people really pay to watch people play video games? (Yes, and there is A LOT of money at stake!)

People watch sports all the time  — they watch on TV, they watch in person, they watch highlights on the internet.  People have watched spectator sports for entertainment for millennia.  Any time people compete at the highest levels, other people have wanted to watch.Video games, it turns out, are no different.  Esports are not the grand Pac-man tournaments you may have heard about in the 1980s; rather, esports are a multi-billion dollar industry with recruiting and gambling and training and high salaries and groupies and everything else that comes with people doing competitive things at the highest level.Zach and Rafe are joined this week by a Eli, a Big Brain Smart Head who knows all sorts of things about esports.  Join us for a enlightening and entertaining look at a world that some of  us had no idea even existed.*****As always, you can reach the Buf at [email protected]*****As you know, this is an independent podcast so your hosts also carry all the expenses of running this podcast.  As such, some of you have asked how you can help out.  Well, here's the answer: support us on Buy Me a Coffee:https://buymeacoffee.com/bufnagleOn this page, you can do a really nice thing like send us a couple dollars to help cover the cost of recording and hosting and microphones and research and all that.  Any little bit really helps!  Thank you in advance!!!