The NFL Virtual Draft Paves Way For Esports Drafts
Last night, the NFL Virtual Draft happened with less of the glamor and the pizzazz. But, it was a spectacle. Families were cheering next to their son being chosen to play in the NFL as if it were being chosen as the next tribute in The Hunger Games. It was more intimate getting to see the coaches and general managers with their family members. It was more humane showing the side of football that left us with a smile on our face throughout the start of the draft.
It made me wonder what if esports had this side of intimacy shown when you’re Player #1.
While we have the NBA 2K League Draft for NBA 2K players, there has yet to showcase the background stories of those behind the computer skills. We have players from around the world who reach the top of the leaderboard to end up being the blue-chip esports athletes of the NBA 2K esports league. Similarly, League of Legends held the Honda Scouting Grounds for the best of North American talent to represent the esports organizations in a tournament and claim the opportunity to play professionally for the team. There are esports leagues who give a chance to shine a light on these players, but we don’t know enough about who the players are. How did they get to the point of being the skilled player they are today? How are they viewed by their friends, both in their neighborhood and online? What are their hobbies?
Drafts share a moment of glory as well as a stepping stone into a new chapter, a new opportunity. These players worked their way to get to a place where people recognize them and the choosers want to show the chosen that they belong. And, there’s an audience to see these players on the big stage. It’s paving the way to reach the status of a legend.
Take this momentous feel to esports. The opportunity of having an esports draft is this place of liminality, which means the player is entering the middle of a rite of passage in transition from a previous feel of an amateur to a future position as a professional. In anthropological terms, this is the time where a person is “betwixt and between” a transformation. A real-life example of being betwixt and between include that “open” summer after high school and before college. In terms of Pokemon, the transformations of Charmander to Charmeleon and then to Charizard characterize liminality in an evolutionary sense. Parallel to the gaming world, we are seeing the transformation of our gaming consoles into becoming next-gen.
By hearing the player’s name be called on the draft, sharing our appreciation for gaming accessibility, and furthering what makes our gaming and esports community special, this stage of liminality is an exciting way to approach how we should view the steps we left behind and the steps yet to climb. The draft is a call of calls, a summon of summons. Everyone has their own story of not only getting to the top of the leaderboard but also how they got to playing their game and how they claimed their first victory. Leaving that mark in a video game is a momentous step toward feeling as if drafted to have been the chosen one to defeat the final boss and save the princess. How great would it feel when your name is added to the credits of a video game after finishing the game? You are drafted as a legend. That accomplishing feeling supersedes everything, and you’re then hugged by your family and friends because they recognize your accomplishments.
The draft should be incorporated into esports, especially in entering professional leagues, because we experience this anytime we play, seamlessly when we create an avatar into a game. It’s time to tell us how you, the gamer and the esports athlete, got to this point and are on the way to being the winner of winners, the #1 of Player #1s. That is what the NFL Virtual Draft has shown to make every chosen player a #1 of Player #1s.
Achievement unlocked.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
