A brand new job listing cropped up just recently over at ESPN. The advertisement calls out for a General Editor who will need to be someone very knowledgeable with at least one eSports game. The job has several other requirements such as 5+ years working in the media environment and some leadership roles, flexibility to work during the night, weekend and holiday shifts and a bachelor degree in communication arts or journalism.
In recent times, ESPN has definitely started to put out competitive gaming content. This came in the form of broadcasted matches from Dota 2’s The International 5 and Heroes of the Dorm as well as sending reporters to cover the North American Finals for League of Legends.
That said, ESPN is still holding off on calling eSports sports. According to the ESPN president John Skipper, the company would still have a main focus on ‘traditional sports’ and believes that competitive gaming is “not a sport — it’s a competition… Mostly, I’m interested in doing real sports”.
So while ESPN is embracing eSports and competitive gaming, it’s still evident that the culture within the company may not exactly fully embrace it as seriously as ‘traditional sports’. That doesn’t discredit them from making a positive move to promote and encourage the competitive gaming scene.