{"id":51585,"date":"2017-02-15T16:30:14","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T22:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=51585"},"modified":"2017-02-15T17:06:29","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T23:06:29","slug":"lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron or Kobe? \u2018Call of Duty\u2019 players asked to compare themselves to athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Yifan Wu<\/strong><\/p>\n

ATLANTA \u2013 Thousands of fans came to Georgia World Congress Center to watch about 140 teams compete at Call of Duty World League Atlanta\u00a0last weekend, with more than\u00a0150,000 watching on Major League Gaming\u2019s online stream at peak, according to Adam Apicella, executive vice president at MLG.<\/p>\n

The e-sports economy is projected to\u00a0grow to $696 million in 2017, according to Newzoo, an e-sports market analysis firm. Alongside the booming industry comes with the rising popularity of e-sports players.<\/p>\n

After the three-day competition, eUnited took home $80,000 in prize money, claiming high-profile victims such as FaZe Clan, Team EnVyUs and Optic Gaming.<\/p>\n

As they catch up to professional athletes in following and frequent flyer miles, we asked some of the top players which athletes mirror their play-style, personality or physical appearance. Here is what the players said.<\/p>\n

[vimeo 204236060 w=640 h=360]<\/p>\n

Which athletes do e-sports players compare themselves to?<\/a> from MSJ Reporter<\/a> on Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Spectators watch Pnda Gaming take on Optic Gaming on main stage at Call of Duty World League Atlanta Open. (Yifan Wu\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Yifan Wu ATLANTA \u2013 Thousands of fans came to Georgia World Congress Center to watch about 140 teams compete at Call of Duty World League Atlanta\u00a0last weekend, with more than\u00a0150,000 watching on Major League Gaming\u2019s online stream at peak, according to Adam Apicella, executive vice president at MLG. The e-sports economy is projected to\u00a0grow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":356,"featured_media":51591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,3516],"tags":[3575,3726,3728,1578,3729,3727],"class_list":["post-51585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-winter-2017","tag-e-sports","tag-kevin-love","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-lebron-james","tag-marshawn-lynch","tag-tim-duncan"],"yoast_head":"\nLeBron or Kobe? \u2018Call of Duty\u2019 players asked to compare themselves to athletes - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LeBron or Kobe? \u2018Call of Duty\u2019 players asked to compare themselves to athletes - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Yifan Wu ATLANTA \u2013 Thousands of fans came to Georgia World Congress Center to watch about 140 teams compete at Call of Duty World League Atlanta\u00a0last weekend, with more than\u00a0150,000 watching on Major League Gaming\u2019s online stream at peak, according to Adam Apicella, executive vice president at MLG. The e-sports economy is projected to\u00a0grow […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-15T22:30:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-02-15T23:06:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/mlg-crowd.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"825\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"yifanwu2017\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"yifanwu2017\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"yifanwu2017\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/51b58c67f510e499a04256c2d0f2ee1c\"},\"headline\":\"LeBron or Kobe? \u2018Call of Duty\u2019 players asked to compare themselves to athletes\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-15T22:30:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-02-15T23:06:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":190,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/s3.amazonaws.com\\\/medill.wordpress.offload\\\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/mlg-crowd.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"e-sports\",\"Kevin Love\",\"Kobe Bryant\",\"LeBron James\",\"Marshawn Lynch\",\"Tim Duncan\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\",\"Winter 2017\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\\\/\",\"name\":\"LeBron or Kobe? \u2018Call of Duty\u2019 players asked to compare themselves to athletes - Medill Reports Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/s3.amazonaws.com\\\/medill.wordpress.offload\\\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/mlg-crowd.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-15T22:30:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-02-15T23:06:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/51b58c67f510e499a04256c2d0f2ee1c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/s3.amazonaws.com\\\/medill.wordpress.offload\\\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/mlg-crowd.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/s3.amazonaws.com\\\/medill.wordpress.offload\\\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/mlg-crowd.jpg\",\"width\":1100,\"height\":825,\"caption\":\"Spectators watch Pnda Gaming take on Optic Gaming on main stage at Call of Duty World League Atlanta Open\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"LeBron or Kobe? \u2018Call of Duty\u2019 players asked to compare themselves to athletes\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/\",\"name\":\"Medill Reports Chicago\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/51b58c67f510e499a04256c2d0f2ee1c\",\"name\":\"yifanwu2017\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ba275050d79f9707ee3b3ef5c32dd7f26031500df1a41d77b62fbe626350466e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ba275050d79f9707ee3b3ef5c32dd7f26031500df1a41d77b62fbe626350466e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ba275050d79f9707ee3b3ef5c32dd7f26031500df1a41d77b62fbe626350466e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"yifanwu2017\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/author\\\/yifanwu2017\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"LeBron or Kobe? \u2018Call of Duty\u2019 players asked to compare themselves to athletes - Medill Reports Chicago","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"LeBron or Kobe? \u2018Call of Duty\u2019 players asked to compare themselves to athletes - Medill Reports Chicago","og_description":"By Yifan Wu ATLANTA \u2013 Thousands of fans came to Georgia World Congress Center to watch about 140 teams compete at Call of Duty World League Atlanta\u00a0last weekend, with more than\u00a0150,000 watching on Major League Gaming\u2019s online stream at peak, according to Adam Apicella, executive vice president at MLG. The e-sports economy is projected to\u00a0grow […]","og_url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\/","og_site_name":"Medill Reports Chicago","article_published_time":"2017-02-15T22:30:14+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-02-15T23:06:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1100,"height":825,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/mlg-crowd.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"yifanwu2017","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"yifanwu2017","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\/"},"author":{"name":"yifanwu2017","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/51b58c67f510e499a04256c2d0f2ee1c"},"headline":"LeBron or Kobe? \u2018Call of Duty\u2019 players asked to compare themselves to athletes","datePublished":"2017-02-15T22:30:14+00:00","dateModified":"2017-02-15T23:06:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\/"},"wordCount":190,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/mlg-crowd.jpg","keywords":["e-sports","Kevin Love","Kobe Bryant","LeBron James","Marshawn Lynch","Tim Duncan"],"articleSection":["Sports","Winter 2017"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\/","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\/","name":"LeBron or Kobe? \u2018Call of Duty\u2019 players asked to compare themselves to athletes - Medill Reports Chicago","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/mlg-crowd.jpg","datePublished":"2017-02-15T22:30:14+00:00","dateModified":"2017-02-15T23:06:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/51b58c67f510e499a04256c2d0f2ee1c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/mlg-crowd.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/mlg-crowd.jpg","width":1100,"height":825,"caption":"Spectators watch Pnda Gaming take on Optic Gaming on main stage at Call of Duty World League Atlanta Open"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/lebron-or-kobe-call-of-duty-players-asked-to-compare-themselves-to-athletes\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"LeBron or Kobe? \u2018Call of Duty\u2019 players asked to compare themselves to athletes"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website","url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/","name":"Medill Reports Chicago","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/51b58c67f510e499a04256c2d0f2ee1c","name":"yifanwu2017","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba275050d79f9707ee3b3ef5c32dd7f26031500df1a41d77b62fbe626350466e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba275050d79f9707ee3b3ef5c32dd7f26031500df1a41d77b62fbe626350466e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba275050d79f9707ee3b3ef5c32dd7f26031500df1a41d77b62fbe626350466e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"yifanwu2017"},"url":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/author\/yifanwu2017\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/356"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}