missharveyStephanie Harvey (aka “missharvey”) is a professional eSports gamer playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with the Counter Logic Gaming Red team. I had a chance to catch up with her at PAX West to talk about the future of eSports in VR, the ecosystem of announcers and observers that makes games more entertaining for spectators, her training schedule, core competencies for maintaining a competitive edge, and all of the various ingredients that have to emerge in order to have a viable VR eSports ecosystem.

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Kent Bye
  • YzaiCreate

    Pretty cool interview, though i will say that Dota isn’t so incredibly hard to follow when you have great commentators. I got into dota by watching the first international and watching a bunch of games after that over a period of months, way before ever picking it up. I didn’t really know what was going on, but i had some idea, mostly because of the commentators. i didn’t even know the basic rules at the beginning, so I don’t entirely agree with the idea that watching dota is something only dota players do.

    Other than that, pretty decent interview, though i agree with miss harvey, that VR is way away from having any real esports games. first we have to figure out how to make games for it.

    • Jed

      VR – no real esports games. I agree!
      — After waiting over 25 years for VR to finally hit the market, I bought an oculus. I wear it approximately half an hour at a time, no more. It’s heavy, uncomfortable and sweaty. if there was any true VR games (not experiences, real games), I would most likely endure the discomfort for longer. But as of now the developers of VR games are still admittedly in the dark as to how to create a user friendly m, functional, and “driven” experience in VR. Dark halls almost had it. (I think) When I’m using the stupid controller to move forward in dark halls, and I turn my head – I do turn slightly in the direction my head is facing but not completely, I have to use the remote to turn fully in the direction I want to go thus ending any kind of immersive feeling . So, as much as I hate to say it, any of you “on the fencers” should hold off on buying any expensive equipment until they iron out a few of the wrinkles , as well as 4K screens with broader panoramic viewing. imo

      • YzaiCreate

        Thats… Not exactly what I meant. I have a vive and there are plenty of games that are absolutely great, but they’re still obviously experimental, and having any sort of multiplayer balance and skill based system is very much beyond what is currently out.

        most good multiplayer vr stuff is just emulating real world sports, which kinda defeats any reason to watch the vr version.

        That said though, Onward looks pretty promising.

        • steviecomment

          Onward on the vive is the best game i’ve played. I played for 4 hours last night, and only stopped because of battery life.