If you've been missing the thrill of watching your favorite hockey, baseball, or basketball team a few times a week, the Electronic Sports League (ESL) is an alternative that might scratch that competitive itch.
The ESL Pro League currently has a tournament being played in a game called Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Like most sports, it has aspects and rules you will understand almost immediately but there are also many nuanced strategies you will come to know as you watch more. Here is a (very) basic crash course:
A team of counter-terrorist must stop the opposing team from planting and detonating an explosive in one of two bombsites. If the bomb goes off, the terrorists win that round and if it doesn't, the counter-terrorists win that round. Either side can also win the round by eliminating all five enemy players. Each round is one minute and fifty-five seconds long, best of 30 rounds.
Once you start watching and getting down the basics it can be a very exciting sport to watch and since our chances of seeing any major sports for a while are slim, why not give it a try? The current tournament is on its group stages with games being played every day until April 13th. You can check it out on Twitch.
Featured image courtesy of Soumil Kumar via Pexels.com
