It's super weird to try to pin the creation of esport on one community. Like what about Korea and how starcraft became a massive phenomen? The article appears to just ingore that.
someone at era asked that, they were told battle by the bay happened in 96, 2 years before starcraft
Meanwhile the article is titled "Black players pioneered what we now call esports. The industry hasn’t paid them back"
The funny thing is that the creation of the diverse US FGC is a great story by itself, but they had to go with the hyperbole
I don't get the sense of entitlement
"atari pioneered the home console, the industry hasn't paid them back"
"blockland pioneered the block-placing creative building format that minecraft later stole, the industry hasn't paid them back"
are the black players playing the games that paying audiences want to watch?
And by and large, the games that Black players continue to dominate don’t have nearly the same financial support as others. At the 2019 Capcom Cup, a championship for Street Fighter, two Black players—Derek “iDom” Ruffin and Victor “Punk” Woodley—squared off for a $250,000 payout. The International, the world-championship tournament for Dota 2, offered a $34 million prize pool at its 2019 event.
is this racism, like if suddenly dota 2 became dominated at the top by black players and street fighter became the domain of whiteys, we'd see the reward money flip flop?
