I don't know specifically why I am bored. Maybe it's because I can't get a decent internet connection? Maybe it's because one of the things I like about video games is their easy-going nature. You can play them when you want and stop when you want. With esports, it's like integrating the worst aspects of sports (for me anyway), with video games. It becomes like a military operation, where you have to practice at a set time and play your matches exactly when they are scheduled. Or maybe it's because I can't get online?

There could be other reasons. Quake 3 is 10 years old now. Quake 4 was decent, but everyone quit playing, forcing revertion to a 10 year-old game. In video games, things change quickly. It's always been that way. From 8-bit systems, to 16, to 32, to whatever the fuck we have today. Yet here we are, still playing a 10 year-old game.

Maybe it isn't the game, it's the gameplay. We have DM and CTF, still in their basic forms. There is no real evolution, no real change, only minor modifications. Changes are like rate of weapon fire and damage per-projectile. The changes are never anything to create a large adjustment. Merely minor tweaks, to further 'perfect' the 10 year-old game. DM and CTF are even older. DM goes back all the way to Wolfenstein 3D.

I suppose you could say DM has 'evolved' over the years. But real evolution sometimes makes major changes. The evolution we see in Quake is more like a lion sharpening its claws. We don't see turtles going from no-shell to shell. We don't see humans going from no-tools to tools. In the end, we're stuck with basically the same thing we had 15 years ago (with better graphics, which only superficial people really care about).

If I had to say why I am bored with esports, I would probably include all of these factors. There may be more. Maybe it's the coverage. There isn't exactly a good method of following leagues and ladders. The only decent coverage is arranged for lan tournaments. As we all know, lan organizations continue dying. Leagues and ladders can be exciting, why doesn't anyone cover them?

It could be more than a simple matter of no coverage. Maybe it's the way coverage is practiced. We have esreality to bring us occasional news, demos and possibly GTV IP's. It's kind of bureaucratic though. It could be a lot easier. If each league and ladder had a section to let you know exactly when the scheduled matches are (the one's with GTV), and you could simply click on the link when the match-time arrives (allowing the computer to do the rest for you), all you'd have to do is check the times and click the link. The way it is now, you have to search through a potentially convoluted arrangement of news posts and then you have to go through an arbitrary practice of copying the GTV link, opening Quake, and pasting it into the console. After you're in the game, you have to adjust all kinds of console settings to get a decent experience. And after all that hassle, you still have to open shoutcast in a separate program, and, attempt to sync the shoutcast with the game.

Needless to say, esports has a long way to go before it can claim true professionalism. In the mean-time, what are we left with (besides a lot of work)? Maybe boredom isn't the right word.