{"id":71139,"date":"2018-06-10T19:26:03","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T00:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=71139"},"modified":"2018-06-10T19:26:03","modified_gmt":"2018-06-11T00:26:03","slug":"esports-a-new-era-of-professional-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/esports-a-new-era-of-professional-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Esports: A new era of professional sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Jourdan Kerl<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Medill Newsmakers<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Esports: A new era of professional sports\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/274262446?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">Professional video gaming, formally known as esports, is transforming ordinary people who play games into professional paid athletes through leagues like the NBA 2K League and Madden Championship Series. In this edition of Medill Newsmakers, we take an in-depth look at one of the fastest growing sports that is sweeping across the world.<\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">Photo at top: Fans at COMBO BREAKER 2018 in Illinois observe Tekken 7 main stage competition. (Jourdan Kerl\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jourdan Kerl Medill Newsmakers Professional video gaming, formally known as esports, is transforming ordinary people who play games into professional paid athletes through leagues like the NBA 2K League and Madden Championship Series. In this edition of Medill Newsmakers, we take an in-depth look at one of the fastest growing sports that is sweeping [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":442,"featured_media":71144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,497,31,4227],"tags":[1284],"class_list":["post-71139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-interest","category-medill-newsmakers","category-sports","category-spring-2018","tag-esports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Esports: A new era of professional sports - 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\/esports-a-new-era-of-professional-sports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Esports: A new era of professional sports - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Jourdan Kerl Medill Newsmakers Professional video gaming, formally known as esports, is transforming ordinary people who play games into professional paid athletes through leagues like the NBA 2K League and Madden Championship Series. In this edition of Medill Newsmakers, we take an in-depth look at one of the fastest growing sports that is sweeping [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/esports-a-new-era-of-professional-sports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-11T00:26:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/06\/feature-image-copy.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"616\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jourdankerl2018\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"jourdankerl2018\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/esports-a-new-era-of-professional-sports\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/esports-a-new-era-of-professional-sports\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"jourdankerl2018\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e39f640b49fc13b67b98c0175e1280bf\"},\"headline\":\"Esports: A new era of professional sports\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-11T00:26:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/esports-a-new-era-of-professional-sports\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":85,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/esports-a-new-era-of-professional-sports\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2018\\\/06\\\/feature-image-copy.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"eSports\"],\"articleSection\":[\"General Interest\",\"Medill Newsmakers\",\"Sports\",\"Spring 2018\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/esports-a-new-era-of-professional-sports\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\\\/chicago\\\/esports-a-new-era-of-professional-sports\\\/\",\"name\":\"Esports: A new era of professional sports - 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