Esports and media coverage
the esports world has been looking for signs that competitive video games are breaking through to the mainstream and getting their due consideration as a legitimate part of the sports world. One such highly visible sign came last month, when ESPN The Magazine announced Tyler "Ninja" Blevins would be the first esports athlete featured on its cover, as part of a special "Gaming Issue" of the magazine. That highly visible moment didn't come out of nowhere, though. As an organization, ESPN has been covering esports seriously for years now. The "worldwide leader in sports" gave esports its own dedicated section (or vertical) on the ESPN website back in early 2016. That's the first time a "new" sport had been added to that high-level lineup since the launch of a poker vertical in the early 2000s (a pro wrestling vertical followed later in 2016). For ESPN Senior Esports Editor Ryan Garfat, the moment he got hooked on the scene came at the 2014 ...