Washington (AFP)

In a windowless room in central Washington, players practice minutely to score their three points, but without baskets or balls. And dreaming of one day finding an audience.

In contract with the NBA they compete by interposed consoles: esport, which the traditional sports championships use in order to rejuvenate their audiences.

Video games now represent the largest entertainment market in the world, driven by innovations such as live streaming. The biggest competitions, games with fantastic universes or millions of dollars in shooting, attract millions of curious people.

The American sports championships want a piece of the cake, but their audience is shy at the moment.

"I wake up in the morning and my biggest concern is to play video games. I don't think my life is too hard, if you ask me," humorously points out Ryan Conger, known as Dayfri in his group of six players, among the 23 teams competing this year.

To play with the Washington Wizards team, Mr. Conger receives $ 37,500, and the house.

As in the traditional championship, the NBA 2K now has its regular season, its play-offs and even its Draft.

The basketball (NBA), ice hockey (NHL), American football (NFL) championships organize electronic tournaments with varying degrees of professionalism and even encourage teams to sign contracts with esports players, as they would for any other athlete.

All his life, John Casagranda, who lives in Alaska, wanted to be an ice hockey champion. It is far from the ice rink that he got there.

"To be able to do it in a video game, it seems unreal," he says.

Under the pseudonym JohnWaynee, he now represents the Washington Capitals team and plays independently in online NHL tournaments.

- Capture young people -

The NHL hosts its world championship (GWC) every year, while the NFL now has a series of competitions for players on the Madden game.

The goal for these teams is not only to win competitions, but to attract audiences to player training and to appear at events broadcast on live platforms, such as Twitch.

"Twitch monetizes mainstream audiences in a very different way," said Zach Leonsis, vice president of Monumental Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Wizards and Washington Capitals.

In 2019, the final of the NHL online championship attracted 632,907 spectators, an increase of 190% compared to the previous year, but to put it in perspective: at their peak, the League of Legends Worlds thrilled 44 million spectators .

Will these match simulations one day go beyond the simple marketing demonstration for these titans of American sports life? Hard to say.

"I don't think people are that interested at the moment," said Will Hershey, CEO of Roundhill Investments, a company specializing in the discipline.

"I see esports as a way to reach a new audience that we would never have reached with our traditional teams," says Leonsis.

And the major championships have not said their last word. The free version of NBA 2K has nearly 44 million users in China, explains its boss Brendan Donohue. The League plans to launch tournaments in Asia and Europe in the coming years.

"In terms of speed, growth in terms of number of teams, it is a very successful subsidiary", according to him. "My son became a fan of Stephen Curry and LeBron James while playing 2K," he said, quoting two basketball legends.

© 2020 AFP