In the lead up to this year's tournament, Valve has taken a number of steps likely to help move gaming from a hobby enjoyed at home to the major leagues. The first major step was the restructuring of Compendium sales, with dollars spent by fans driving this year's prize pool to over 10 million dollars.

Yesterday's announcement that The International, Valve's Dota 2 Championships, will be carried on the ESPN3 with a preview show on ESPN2 could be the first step in getting professional gaming consistent coverage in the one form of media that really matters: Broadcast and Cable TV. Despite all the advances in technology and broader media options available today, TV remains the medium with the largest reach and the greatest revenue driver for sports as an entertainment business, and the greatest means to propel Dota forward.

Reaching a Much Larger Audience

The ESPN3 deal is big news since it is an opportunity to demonstrate to TV executives the value of eSports (professional gaming) - as entertainment.At its core, the business of eSports is no different than those sports played with a ball - it's all about performance as entertainment.Fans of Dota and professional gaming are already passionate about their gaming, and broader TV coverage on a larger scale would help build additional interest in a way no other avenue could.The ESPN and ESPN2 cable channels alone reach nearly 100 million households in the United States. By making the game more accessible to viewers, TV coverage can help bring in millions of new fans. Look no further than poker and the boom it experienced when ESPN began coverage of the World Series of Poker in 2003. The broadcast of that year's WSOP Main Event and coverage of the World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel are often credited with the massive growth in online poker and tournament coverage on TV. Few could have predicted in advance how quickly poker would grow as a result of broadcast exposure.

*ESPN's average audience was over 22 hours of total programming representing significantly more hours and reach overall A second and perhaps more important effect of cable TV coverage is the impact it could have on the business of professional gaming. In the United States, TV advertising dollars are largely responsible for the economic ecosystem that sustains the four major sports. The NBA alone receives nearly $1 billion a year from TV channels to broadcast its games - money that flows directly to the teams and pays the multi-million dollar salaries players enjoy. Even a fraction of such dollars could infuse the professional gaming ecosystem with revenue it sorely needs. Reaching a wider audience would also encourage new companies to participate in the types of sponsorship that help support teams.

More Revenue = Greater Financial Stability For Players And Teams

Why should the average fan care about these economics? Each year, numerous teams fold, rosters are reshuffled, or players retire altogether. A large reason for this is the financial uncertainty of being a professional gamer.While it's not as widely accepted, competitive gamers require nearly as much time and dedication as athletes in other sports. Many players in this year's tournaments have postponed schooling or other facets of their lives to pursue this calling. Today, the bulk of a player's potential income is predominantly dictated by tournament prize pools. The top-heavy prize structures also mean that financial payouts are heavily skewed to winners with many teams often receiving nothing. Given the opportunity costs of being a professional gamer, many players will be forced to consider whether a career in gaming is fruitful. After all, a career is really only a career if it helps pay the bills. Including the qualifiers, 51 teams will have participated in this year's tournament. Of the 19 teams that played in Seattle,14 will see some form of prize money, and only the top 8 will receive any amount of real significance. While Dota 2 as a professional sport is still in its infancy, its long-term health requires stability and sustainability in the professional player base. A system where only a handful of teams enjoy financial stability undermines this health by discouraging existing players from continuing and new teams and players from joining. It also creates a terrible experience for fans, as they can be left wondering if their favorite players or teams will be around from year to year. Already there is speculation about which teams will be reshuffled and what players will retire completely. In this area the larger dollars from TV coverage could be a game-changer. Whether through TV contracts or sponsorships that target a wider audience, greater revenues could help sustain the "other" teams and players. This would encourage better participation in the competitive industry as players that find themselves outside the winners circle could still see it as a reasonable long-term career. Professional Tennis provides a great example of how such a system should work and why it is important. While major tennis tournaments are dominated by a select handful of players, all 128 players that participate receive compensation that makes a tennis career more than worthwhile. By simply being one of the 128 players that qualified for the 2013 US Open, a player received $32,000. By supporting the longer tail of players, up-and-coming players are encouraged to continue competing in the sport, allowing them to improve and hopefully later contend. This is all possible because of the money brought in by television coverage and sponsorships.

*Dota dollar figure is calculated as $21,700 (14th place finish) divided up amongst each of the 5 players. Tennis figure is estimate of annual earnings from the 92nd ranked player in the world based on research done by Forbes.

Pushing TV Networks to Broadcast eSports

Fans should see ESPN3's upcoming coverage of The International as an opportunity to demonstrate to TV companies the potential value of eSports as entertainment. When it comes to broadcast TV, companies are generally concerned with one thing and one thing only: ratings- the more eyeballs, the better. While gamers will prefer watching the games in the Dota 2 client or on Twitch.tv, by tuning into the ESPN3, fans can help signal to broadcast executives that gaming content is worth carrying, With enough of an audience this year, it could convince the companies to begin putting such competitions on their TV going forward, helping to usher in the next phase of professional gaming.Once poker became a Television hit, poker tournament coverage was everywhere and anywhere. All it needed was a chance. Any success would have implications far greater than just the game of Dota. While the fan bases are often at odds with one another, any success would also help media coverage for League of Legends and other games. It is in the interest of all gaming fans to build as much support for mainstream coverage and to encourage friends and family to take an interest in this weekend's events.