If you yourself want to check out these games click these links so you can can check past games on Youtube, or continue following on Twitch, but remember, you should finish all your work first, and do this in your spare time. You do not want to get caught up in these games and risk falling behind.

In conclusion, I think that esports are gaining popularity at a quick rate in North America and around the world. With this growing popularity, more people will be spending time watching games, and less time doing actual work. 

Another thing I think I should mention is that there are LCK (League Champions Korea) going on at the same time, and this screenshot of the schedule from lolesports.com shows in Eastern Standard Time when games are played. As you can see, these games are streamed very early in the morning, and during the week, and I know that some people (including me) wake up early in the morning to watch these games. Again this proves that esports can have an impact on the amount of work that gets done because if people in NA wake up that early to watch games, then we will probably be tired during the day, and will be less efficient.

(screenshot again taken from Twitch.tv)

Today, on March 7, 2015 I have looked at the NA LCS, and I have another screenshot of the amount of viewers at this time. Just like February 15^th these two teams are not of the more popular teams, but there is again over 200 thousand viewers. I cannot comment on the amount of students watching it at school, but I can say that I have unconsciously lost track of time, and I have spent most of my day watching NA LCS. 

On February 22, 2015 I have noticed a huge jump in the amount of viewers at one point compared to the week before. (screenshot taken from twitch.tv)

 The teams playing in this screenshot were Team Liquid (TL) and Team Solo Mid (TSM). TSM is one of the more popular teams in North America, so I would expect this game to have more viewers, and I was right. The number of viewers jumped up to 400 thousand. And once again, the next day in school I again noticed students watching the rebroadcast. This surprised me the most because this was during mid-term exam week. Students prioritised watching the League of Legends championship series instead of preparing for exams they might have had that day.

            This confirmed to me that there was a trend in the how esports effects work being done.

This is screenshot of the Na LCS schedule directly from the NA lolesports website (http://na.lolesports.com/) showing which teams are playing, and the times that they are playing.

As you can see, the matches are spread throughout the whole day, so it is easy to see how someone can lose track of time spend the whole day watching the game. I have been watching these games myself to see it effects work, and I must say, even I got caught up in watching. On February 15, 2015, I have a screen shot from http://www.twitch.tv  of amount of viewers at one point watching the championship series. (Number of current viewers is the red symbol on the bottom right) 

There are over 200 thousand people watching this game, and the screenshot was not of a game which included and of the more popular teams.

This is ok to because it is a weekend and most people have the day off to do whatever they want, but during the week, Na LCS is rebroadcasted for people who missed the games. I came into school February 16, 2015 and noticed that there were a bunch of students watching the rebroadcast. This was surprising to me because this was the week before exams and instead of studying, students were watching the game. This just shows how esports can be a distraction, and can cause people to be do less work.

The 2014 Worlds series has already passed, and according to the Riot games website: (http://www.riotgames.com/articles/20141201/1628/worlds-2014-numbers), the highest number of viewers watching the 2014 worlds championships at one time was 11.2 million viewers. They go on to show how numbers have increased since past years.

            To me, this shows that e-sports has grown in popularity over the years. More people are interested, and more time is spent watching these championship series. A quote from the same website says that “During the Finals, fans tuned in for an average online viewtime of 67 minutes, which beat 2013’s average of 42 minutes.” This could mean that people are becoming less efficient in their work because they are spending more watching these games. The League of Legends World Championship Series has become so popular that Imagine Dragons has sang a song called Warriors (link to YouTube), for the theme of the 2014 series.

Starting out there are many things to know about League of Legends. League of Legends are in their 5^th season right now meaning the game has been out for about 5 years. The beta came out in 2009 which I took part in, but at the time, I did not like it and I quit playing. League of Legends has 11 servers. There are also different championship series for different servers. For example, here in North America, we have the NA LCS which is North American League Championship Series. There is the EU LCS for Europe, and LCK for Korea. There are many other championship series but these are the main ones going on now. Near the end of a season, there is a Worlds championship series where top teams from all over the world come together and compete to see who the best team in the world is.

Good afternoon readers, my name is Michael Harry. I am a second year student at Sheridan College in the accounting program.

I created this blog to see how e-sports, could effecting the amount of work done at school. Unfortunately, my original plan to post once a day during my break did not go as planned because I went on vacation over the week, but whenever I had a little bit of free time, I checked on the current competition taking place. I have taken some screen shots and I will present all that I have collected over the past week.

E-sports stands for electronic sports. Basically, it is a competition for playing video games. Luckily for me, there is the LCS currently going on. The stands for League Championship Series. This is a competition for teams of 5 to compete with each other and win a pool of money.

Since I have been away, I am now going to break down the information that I have recorded, and make comments on how I believe this is effecting the amount of work being done.