Lost Potential: Games That Deserved Their Esports Moment
In today’s thriving esports landscape, numerous titles have found success globally. From Counter-Strike and League of Legends dominating worldwide to regional favorites like Trackmania and Age of Empires carving out dedicated communities, many games have established themselves as competitive mainstays.
However, not every great game manages to secure a foothold in the competitive scene. Let’s explore some titles that either never reached their esports potential or saw their competitive scenes fade away despite passionate communities supporting them.
Team Fortress 2: The Pioneer That Never Launched
Team Fortress 2 remains popular on Steam and is widely recognized for its distinctive art style and infamous hat collection. However, its competitive scene has remained largely underground despite laying groundwork for future hero shooters like Overwatch and Marvel Rivals.
TF2’s competitive appeal lies in its accessibility-to-mastery ratio – simple to understand but incredibly deep in execution. The game found a sweet spot between straightforward mechanics and strategic depth that few titles manage to achieve.
Several factors contributed to TF2’s stunted esports growth. The community split between different competitive formats (6v6 and 9v9 Highlander), but Valve’s mishandled approach to official competitive support in 2016 dealt the decisive blow. After years of community-run events and growing optimism following meetings between developers and top players, Valve released an official Competitive Mode that failed to connect with existing competitive frameworks and even prevented many seasoned players from participating due to graphics requirements.
Today, TF2’s competitive scene survives as a labor of love, with modest prize pools and LAN events that function more as community gatherings than professional tournaments. Despite everything, dedicated players continue supporting what many consider the original and most refined hero shooter in gaming history.
Classic Call of Duty: World War II Origins
While the Call of Duty franchise continues as a major force in gaming and esports, the series has evolved dramatically from its early days. The original World War II setting that defined the first titles has given way to modern and futuristic settings.
Call of Duty 2 in particular holds a special place in competitive gaming history. It represented the first significant esports entry in the franchise and helped establish organizations that would become pillars of the competitive scene. Teams like Czech-based eSuba, H2k Gaming, Reason Gaming, and Team Dignitas all have connections to the early CoD competitive community.
The game nurtured future esports talents like Antonin “OZWALD” Grenier, who would later become a Call of Duty 4 legend. It featured larger Search and Destroy maps and viable single-shot rifles, creating a tactical experience distinct from today’s installments.
Activision’s shift away from historical settings makes business sense – contemporary settings appeal to younger demographics and provide developers with greater creative flexibility – but the original Call of Duty competitive experience represents a bygone era of esports that many veterans still reminisce about.
Need for Speed: The Racing Giant That Never Competed
Few gaming franchises can match Need for Speed’s cultural impact and longevity, making its absence from the competitive racing scene particularly surprising. While racing simulators like iRacing, Gran Turismo, Formula 1, Rennsport, and Forza Motorsport have established esports communities, NFS remained primarily a casual gaming experience.
The franchise’s arcade orientation likely hindered its competitive potential. Successful racing esports tend to prioritize realistic simulation, an area where NFS intentionally diverted in favor of accessible, entertaining gameplay. Games like Underground and Most Wanted delivered countless hours of enjoyment but lacked the simulation depth necessary for serious competition.
For many gamers who grew up in the 1990s and early 2000s, NFS represented their first competitive racing experience through split-screen gameplay and local competitions. The World Cyber Games briefly featured Need for Speed in its lineup during the early 2000s, representing one of the few instances where the franchise appeared in organized competition.
As racing simulators continue advancing in realism and competitive frameworks, the likelihood of NFS establishing itself as an esports title grows increasingly remote. Nevertheless, its contribution to gaming culture and racing genres ensures its legacy remains intact.
Quake: The Ultimate Test of Skill
For veterans who have followed esports for decades, Quake represents the pinnacle of skill-based competition. With a perfect balance between accessibility and depth, Quake offered a straightforward gameplay concept that required years of practice to master.
Quake distinguished itself as the ultimate 1v1 duel experience, removing team dynamics to focus entirely on individual skill. Players needed to develop exceptional aim, movement techniques, and map control to succeed – creating perhaps the most demanding competitive environment in esports history.
This punishing learning curve contributed to Quake’s decline as a mainstream esports title. New players gravitated toward team-based shooters where responsibility could be distributed among teammates rather than shouldered individually. As top talents like Tim “DaHanG” Fogarty and Alexei “cYpheR” Yanushevsky transitioned to other games, the competitive scene gradually lost momentum.
Modern esports titles offer more visually engaging experiences for viewers, with team dynamics and flashy abilities creating spectator-friendly moments. By comparison, Quake’s minimalist arenas and breakneck pace became less appealing to casual audiences.
Quake Champions briefly revitalized interest in duel-focused shooters, but the renaissance proved short-lived. The original competitive Quake experience – pure, unforgiving, and entirely skill-dependent – represents a chapter in esports history that remains unmatched in its competitive purity but has been overshadowed by more accessible alternatives.
