History of video games/Esports

First game tournament
The first video game tournament occurred at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California on October 19th, 1972 with the Spacewar! as the game being played.

Other early events
A world championship was held in 1981.

Nintendo World Championship
The 1990 Nintendo World Championships was a major event.

Age of Fighting Games
A number of StreetFighter II versions were made. Over the course of development, ideas from fan modifications were integrated with the official product to create a superior experience.

Rise of competitive FPS
Many notable events like Quakecon first saw a start during the 1990's.

Dennis Fong, known as the ace Quake and Doom player Thresh, helps popularize the control scheme WASD.

StarCraft
StarCraft becomes a hit in South Korea as an esport, with it's popularity lasting over a decade. In 2000 World Cyber Games (WCG) is established. StarCraft also gains popularity in China, especially in internet cafes. Following Chinese players winning several gold medals at WGC Seoul 2003, the Ministry of Sports of the Chinese government recognizes esports as an official sport in November 2003, becoming one of the first major governments to do so.

Important Developments
In 2001 Russia becomes the first nation to recognize Esports as a sport, though the government later retracts this recognition in 2006.

In 2000 the first complete version of Counter Strike is released after Valve cooperation hires modders Jess Cliffe and Minh Le to turn their betas into a full experience.

In 2003 the first version of Defense of the Ancients is released as a Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne mod.

Major Competitions
The first DOTA 2 international was held in 2011. Also in 2011 the first League of Legends championship hosted a $100,000 prize and attracted 1.69 million viewers.

American Esports
In 2013 the United States government recognizes Esports as a sport. This allowed foreign players to obtain professional P-1 visas visit the United States of America to attend competitions. In 2019 Pennsylvania lawmakers declare February to be Esports month, The "PA Cup" statewide eSports tournament is announced shortly afterwards. In November 2018 the US Army Esports team is created.

Collegiate Esports
On June 10th, 2020 the Mid-American Conference for Collegiate Athletics creates the independent Esports Collegiate Conference.

Esports during COVID-19
The initial closure of in person sporting events drew many people to esports during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, the cancelation of in person events affected many esports organizations, which then accepted out PPP relief loans.

On November 19th, 2020 The Big House 10 Super Smash Brothers tournament was canceled after Nintendo sent the tournament organizers a cease and disist notice for using netcode needed to make the tournament an online, socially distanced experience. An official Splatoon 2 tournament was canceled following many gamers using tags which supported the Smash Bros community, with an unofficial event The Squid House taking it's place.

2020 Olympics
Beginning on May 13th, 2021 the International Olympic Committee hosted their first esports event, the Olympic Virtual Series, focusing on games based on real life sports.

The first virtual motorsport event was won by Valerio Gallo who represented Italy, with Mikail Hizal of German taking second, and Baptiste Beauvois of France taking third.