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MAY | TRENDING A brief history of e-sports events connections in mind. I don’t think Stadia will have a detrimental effect in that regard.” In theory, the Stadia technology allows event organisers to break down the barriers between attending an event virtually, and attending an event in person. Viewers could be watching a live stream of a huge e-sports tournament in the NEC, and then jump straight into a recreation of the same event on their own device. The technology could have an impact on the music sector, too, offering greater interactivity with cameras, drones and live streams at music festivals. And the sheer ubiquity of Google means the technology can be put into the hands 1980 – The Space Invaders Championship draws 10,000 participants and widespread media attention of the masses, with the necessary investment to back it up. Livestream Nation Nobody would suggest that a live stream could replace the experience of going to a festival, or attending any live event. And, as Crawford points out, there are still technical limitations which need to be worked through. But it remains an exciting proposition, and one that becomes closer to a reality as major players like Google step into the streaming ring. You can view the Google Stadia announcement trailer at: http://bit. ly/2KzLn74 1982 – Twin Galaxies founded in USA, an organisation which collects high scores for arcade games such as Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, creating a national leaderboard 1990 – The first Nintendo World Championships takes place in venues across the USA, ending with a final at Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles Below: The Google Stadia launch 1997 – The Asian financial crisis leads to the mass construction of broadband networks in South Korea, which paves the way for competitive gaming to become as popular as mainstream sports 2000s – World Cyber Games, Intel Extreme Masters and Major League Gaming all establish major e-sports event franchises across the globe 2011 – Online streaming platform Twitch launches, broadcasting e-sports events live to huge audiences 2018 – Dota 2 tournament The International 2018 delivers a total prize pool of $25m, filling the Rogers Arena in Vancouver 21