The billion-dollar industry of esports is rising at a rapid rate today. Esports is just like traditional sports. Players at the top level dedicate their lives to a game of their liking or mastery. They train day in day out to master every aspect of the game, and eventually compete with other great esports teams for the grandest prizes.

The CIS region seems to be dominating the topmost level of esports for quite a few games in recent times. In Dota 2, Team Spirit is the best team in the world right now. They won the coveted TI 2021. In CS:GO, the year 2021 was literally completely dominated by CIS.

NaVi won all LANs they played on (4/4). They won the Intel Grand Slam, too. They won the Major without dropping a single map, something that had never been done before in CS:GO history. Gambit Esports is the second CS:GO powerhouse. They gave NaVi a real run for their money in the first half of the year. They slowed down on LANs, but became strong again late in the year. Fittingly, NaVi and Gambit were the Grand Finalists of the last S-Tier CS:GO tournament of 2021.

Falling in love with a game and then making an esports career out of it is great. But what if you want to create a whole new game, a whole new “sport.” Not as a coder, but as a dreamer. 

Here are some of the most basic qualities a genuine esport contender has.

The Format 

First, one has to decide how the game will be played. Will it be a single player game, or a team-based multiplayer? 

Today, the most popular esports are team-based. This is because that’s  when we see complex strategies and mind-blowing cohesion come into the picture. A single player game cannot be played competitively. PUBG is not a counter-example, as it has a strong team-based gameplay too.

A 1v1 cannot go too far either, as it will come down to skill at all points. A team game is the real deal. We’ve seen CS:GO pro teams evolving strategically from year to year. Astralis 2018 is the peak example of a united esports team. They played some mind-bending CS, with never-seen-before strategies. 

A team-based game is the stepping stone of a great esport game. 

The Objective

There has to be a clear cut objective. In Dota 2, it’s cutting through the opposite team’s towers and defense, to destroy their Ancient. Dota is literally “Defense of the Ancient.” There is one single huge 45-60 minute round, which ends when an Ancient is broken.

In CS:GO, it’s planting and exploding a bomb for the Terrorists side, and preventing and defusing the bomb for the Counter-Terrorrists side. Eliminating all players on the opposite team is an instant win, too. There are 25-30 short, fast rounds in a typical CS:GO game. 

Despite the huge difference in playstyles of CS:GO and Dota, both remain the topmost games in esports rankings right now. The thing that matters is that the objective is fair for both, simple and straightforward. 

Ideally, the more complex the objective, the lower will the quality of strategies be. Low quality strategy instantly makes a game a failure. To create a true esport discipline, you must have a basic objective, with balanced playstyles for both competing teams.

The Play Area

With two teams of a few players decided, where exactly will they play? In Dota 2, it’s the same map, a huge one. In PUBG, there are a few different maps. In CS:GO though, there are a lot of maps, 7 being played in official tournaments.

For Dota 2 or LoL, a team has to master and create tactics for the same one map. Hence, the game becomes more team vs team dependent than map dependent. CS:GO on the other hand is extremely map dependent. Even the greatest CS:GO teams in history can suffer from a humiliating loss if certain maps are played. 

NaVi on Vertigo, for example, can easily be defeated by most S-Tier teams in the world right now, simply because NaVi doesn’t play Vertigo. Compare that to Nuke, and you’ll see that it’s a miracle if NaVi even comes close to losing that map.

To create a game that reaches the highest level of serious competition, you need to define a clear cut play area. Do you want multiple small, action-packed maps, or a single huge explorable map? It’s on you to decide.

Map Balance 

The map where the game will be played must be balanced. It means that either it must be completely symmetrical for both teams, like in Dota 2, or finely tuned for both sides like in CS:GO.

It’s highly frowned upon if one team has a higher chance of winning the round even before the round begins. For CS:GO, this means that reaching key places like the bombsites or important areas of the map, should be fair for both sides. 

One team shouldn’t reach a key map area earlier than the other team. The timings should be finely tuned. Rotation times from one map area to the other should be taken care of too. A bombsite is the most important area of a map. Entries to a bombsite should be fair. If all entry points are highly exposed, the bombsite is bad. There shouldn’t be too many angles to take care of. Strategies will develop only when bombsites promise that they are doable. 

In short, you cannot make a great game without heavily-tested map balance.. 

Attractiveness

It’s not all about the gameplay. Beauty does matter. You cannot make a visually repulsive game and expect people to play it because it has good gameplay. 

When we talk about a beautiful map, things quickly get out of control. The visuals need to be kept in check. Simpler things like props interfering with gameplay is frowned upon, too. The map textures should not camouflage an enemy in any way. Aesthetics should be pursued, but keeping in mind that gameplay is what really matters.

VALORANT rising faster than CS:GO is down to its beautiful aesthetics. Both the games are almost identical in their roots, but the visuals of VALORANT are a class above CS:GO, and that is something that cannot be ignored. 

(ESL | Adela Sznajder)

These are five of the most important points one needs to keep in mind.  A fine-tuned balance between every aspect on and off this list is how one can create a truly iconic esports discipline.