e-sports

I spent the day watching the MLG Starcraft 2 championship. This is by far the most entertaining sport I have watched. I bet it would be fun to watch even for people who have never heard of Starcraft. It is definitely attracting a growing audience in the US and should start showing up on TV networks soon. I started cheering for the South Korean player Leenock while he was in the losers bracket, several rounds before the finals. I was thrilled when he continued winning round after round, making his way out of the losers bracket to eventually win the competition and a $50,000 prize. Incredibly he is only 16 years old! Before this contest almost nobody had heard of Leenock, so it was exciting to watch him defeat world-famous sc2 players one after another.

Leenock's rise to fame reminds me of another young e-sport competitor: tourist. tourist is only 17 years old but has proven himself to be one of the world's best competitive programmers. I find it shocking that tourist/Leenock can become the best at their respective fields at such a young age. It shows how genetics and innate intelligence/talent plays a crucial role in these sports, since their age obviously limits the number of years they have spent practising. I think since competitive programming is a pretty good measurement of human intelligence, tourist may also be one of the smartest people in the world. It will be interesting to keep track of what he eventually accomplishes in his career.