Overview
Twenty million people watched the 2023 League of Legends World Championship final live — more than tuned in for that year’s NBA Finals. Competitive gaming has grown from a handful of arcade high scores into a global industry with professional athletes, million-dollar prize pools, and college scholarships. This badge is about more than knowing which button combo wins a match. It asks you to think critically about the games you play: their history, the technology behind them, the effect they have on your body and mind, and the character you bring to the screen.
Then and Now
Origins
In 1958, physicist William Higinbotham built Tennis for Two on an oscilloscope at Brookhaven National Laboratory — mostly to give visitors something fun to do at an open house. Nobody involved thought they were founding an industry. Fifteen years later, Pong showed up in bars and arcades, and players lined up with quarters to compete for the highest score chalked on a piece of paper taped to the cabinet. Those handwritten high-score lists were, in a real sense, the first esports leaderboards.
Through the 1980s and 1990s, competition moved from arcades into living rooms and, eventually, onto the early internet. Games like Street Fighter II turned arcades into tournament venues, while Quake and StarCraft built some of the first genuine esports scenes — complete with sponsors, spectators, and prize money — years before “esports” was a word anyone used.
Where We Are Today
Competitive gaming today fills stadiums. Professional teams have coaches, analysts, sports psychologists, and training facilities that look a lot like those of traditional sports franchises. Universities offer varsity esports programs and scholarships. Broadcasters cover tournaments with the same production values as a televised football game — replay cameras, commentary teams, and all. At the same time, the industry has had to grapple with new problems traditional sports never faced: online harassment, screen-time health effects, and the challenge of building a fair, safe environment for people who may never meet face to face.
Get Ready!
This badge asks you to be a player, a historian, a researcher, and a bit of a scientist about your own habits. You’ll build a timeline, track your own sleep and activity, watch a live competition, and think hard about what makes an online community worth being part of. Come with a favorite game in mind — you’ll use it more than once.
Kinds of Competitive Gaming
Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas (MOBAs)
In games like League of Legends and Dota 2, two teams of players each control a single powerful character and work together to destroy the opposing team’s base. MOBAs reward teamwork and strategy over raw reflexes, and they anchor some of the largest esports tournaments in the world.
First-Person and Tactical Shooters
Games like Valorant, Counter-Strike, and Call of Duty put players in a first-person view where aim, positioning, and communication decide the round. Tactical shooters in particular reward careful planning almost as much as quick reactions.
Battle Royale
Fortnite and Apex Legends drop dozens or even a hundred players into a shrinking map, where only one player or team survives. Battle royale games mix scavenging, strategy, and combat, and they’ve become some of the most-watched titles in competitive streaming.
Fighting Games
One-on-one fighting games like Street Fighter and Super Smash Bros. are built entirely around head-to-head competition. They have some of the oldest continuous competitive scenes in gaming, going back to arcade tournaments in the early 1990s.
Sports and Racing Simulations
Games like EA Sports FC and iRacing recreate real-world sports and motorsports with enough accuracy that many professional athletes and racing teams use them for actual training. These titles blur the line between gaming and the sports they simulate.
Real-Time Strategy
Games like StarCraft II ask players to manage an economy, build an army, and outmaneuver an opponent in real time. RTS games demand fast decision-making under pressure and were among the first genres to develop a true global esports following, especially in South Korea.
Next Steps
Every one of these genres has a history worth knowing — and Requirement 1 asks you to trace it.