Skip to main content

Dota 2 is on the front page of today's New York Times

Dota 2 is on the front page of today's New York Times

/

The Gray Lady is taking e-sports seriously

Share this story

If anyone is still questioning the legitimacy of e-sports, today should be a bit of a wake-up call. The lead photo on the front page of today's New York Times is of this July's $10 million Dota 2 tournament, The International. That's right: The Gray Lady has taken note, running a story on the rise of e-sports on the front page of its Sunday edition. The accompanying article is the first in a series exploring how competitive video gaming has developed into a spectator sport. The Times certainly isn't the first big media company to pay attention to e-sports: ESPN broadcast a preview of The International on one of its cable channels, and, of course, Amazon just purchased Twitch for $970 million. Even with all of this attention, however, there's still plenty of room to debate whether e-sports are a true sport.