With the continued rise in the popularity of esports, it comes as no surprise that TV shows offer episodes tackling that particular subject matter. The latest is The Simpsons, which featured esports in last night's episode.
The episode is titled "E My Sports," a play on Bart Simpson's iconic "Eat My Shorts" line. In the episode, Bart becomes addicted to an online game named "Conflict of Enemies," a parody of MOBA games lake League of Legends and Dota 2, and turns out that he excels at playing the game. Homer initially tries to stop Bart, but becomes his coach. This is the 17th episode of the show's 30th season, or episode 656 overall. The show guest starts Natasha Lyonne of Orange is the New Black fame, and comedian Ken Jeong.
Various reports revealed that to ensure the episode makes the MOBA experience as real as possible, Simpsons producers consulted with different officials at Riot Games, the developer of League of Legends. These include LCS commentator David "Phreak" Turley and Riot Games esports co-heads Jarred Kennedy and Whalen Rozelle. According to Riot, the developer assisted in the making of the episode in order to guarantee that the experience shown is truly authentic, especially to those in the MOBA gaming community.
The Simpsons joins with Riot Games to turn Bart into an esports star https://t.co/Zam570hKsw pic.twitter.com/sz6cFcS4T1
— PC Gamer (@pcgamer) March 15, 2019
Interest in esports has been increasing globally, with multiple competitions offering prize pools of at least $1 million. Valve's The International for Dota 2 offers prize pools as high as $25 million. Various groups have already started pushing for esports to become medal events during the Olympics.
During the 2018 Asian Games, esports were featured, though not as a medal event. There are rumors that the 2022 Asian Game may include esports as a medal event, with that year's games being held in China and e-commerce giant Alibaba showing strong support for esports.
However, should esports be included in the Olympics, it will be limited to non-violent games. The International Olympic Committee places large value on the tournament being geared toward promoting peace. Shooting games like CS:GO, and possibly even MOBA games, may not be included in the lineup. However this is still a long way to go and gamers will just have to wait and see what happens then.
