Jack Moore, Author at Kotaku

Despite Its Best Efforts, NBA 2K League Can’t Beat The Real Thing

The NBA is doing its best to put the “sports” into esports. For the past two months, the NBA has run the first video game league sponsored by a major sport, NBA 2K League, featuring 17 teams connected to franchises within the association. But sports simulation games, despite seeming like an obvious choice to go…

By Jack Moore Published July 18, 2018

Esports

To Eliminate Match-Fixing In Esports, Pay The Players More

Spend an afternoon at a Top 8 Finals of any fighting game tournament, and you will find there is a robust side-betting culture in esports. Pseudo-gambling activities like “skin wagers” in Counter-Strike have been a part of esports culture from the beginning, and fringe sites like XLBet have included StarCraft games next to MLB games.…

Jack Moore & Trevor Strunk Published June 29, 2018

Esports

Why Was The Pac-12 Esports League Killed Before It Started?

Tune in every weeknight to the University of Utah Esports Twitch stream and you can catch players from universities across the Pacific-12 conference competing in League of Legends, Hearthstone and Rocket League. It is the first league of its kind, an organization bringing together schools from a major conference for esports competitions. The Pacific Alliance…

By Jack Moore Published March 23, 2018

Esports

How Far Can Rick Fox And The Yankees Take Esports?

Turn your TV dial to the Yankees’ YES network next Wednesday, and instead of finding a documentary about Mickey Mantle or a replay of the 1998 World Series, you might end up watching a match of H1Z1 or League of Legends. It’s not just an offseason thing, either—the New York Yankees, baseball’s most storied franchise,…

By Jack Moore Published February 9, 2018

Esports

The Pac-12 Doesn’t Consider College Esports Sports For Now, Thank God

A.J. Dimick sees big things in the future for collegiate esports. “I think college esports has a limitless ceiling, I really do,” Dimick told me over the phone earlier this year. To that end, Dimick, esports director at the University of Utah’s Entertainment Arts and Engineering department, has facilitated the creation of the first varsity…

By Jack Moore Published July 14, 2017

Esports

If They Don’t Want To Get Screwed, Esports Players Should Study MLB History

As more and more money has flooded into the esports industry, player rights have been a hot topic across multiple games. Careers in esports can be extremely short, making it all the more important to ensure that players receive their fair share of the profits their work generates. With that in mind, Riot Games, producer…

By Jack Moore Published June 22, 2017