Are Esports related questions permitted?

Question

Esports are a culture that has grown up around gaming where gamers compete at various games in professional style events (often for money).

Some examples of these organizations:

• MLG
• CAL
• MSL

The list goes on.

Would questions related to these topics be appropriate for gaming.se?

Example questions might be:

• "What is MLG's policy on macro keyboards?"
• "What is a good way to become a professional Starcraft Player?"
• "What leagues exist for professional play in Heroes of Newerth?"
• "Where can someone find the latest OSL replays?"

As you can see, none of these questions are actually about video games, but they are tangentially related. I'm not advocating the inclusion of esports in gaming.se, but I can't see esports being large enough for its own se or fitting in with a sports.se. While the questions don't seem gaming to me, I can't think of a potential se that would be more appropriate.

Answer 1

I believe that Esports related questions could be done here. A lot of people that play online multiplayer (I know much specific to FPS) not only play only for fun, but usually play in a clan with the aim to challenge other clans and teams.

There are many possible gameplay questions that could be generated. This is an example:

• In a Team Fortress 2 6vs6 match which is considered the more efficient strategy to approach cp_badlands at round start?

These questions could be useful for all people trying to approach online leagues and I think they are interesting also for others.

Answer 2

If it's discussion, no, it shouldn't be allowed.

In reviewing this for a day, there's two kinds of questions that are "Esports related". They are either questions about league matters (how to register, what are the regulations), or questions about gaming matters (training and tactics, footage). I think the former is borderline (we shouldn't encourage the questions being asked), while the latter is very much permitted.

In pretty much any scenario involving a sanctioned league, there's going to be at least one official website which should contain all of the relevant information. Any information which they lack is best posed as a question to them - it should be the first place anyone goes to for that kind of info. People here, especially anyone who partakes in league play, can probably answer these kinds of questions when they come up, but we really should not be seeing that many questions about league matters. I'm not going to ask about the rules of the Obfuscated Code contest on Stack Overflow, for example. We shouldn't be a hub for the scheduling and regulation of leagues - leave that to the people who actually organize those things.

The latter category, obvious, should be on-topic - nearly any question about gameplay in league matches can be dissociated from the fact it occurs in a league. Questions about professional strategies can apply outside of the league, while footage of the events is no different than footage of any non-sanctioned gaming event. The fact there is a league behind it has no impact on the topicality of the material. These are still subject to being too open-ended.