Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau appeared on Fox Business on Friday, August 16 to discuss the Fortnite Champion series, noting its importance and the growth of esports.
With competitive gaming growing at an ever-increasing rate and slowly creeping its way into mainstream society, Fox Business invited Slasher on to provide some insight as to why people should care about this event.
The Fortnite Champion series starts September 20 with the Grand Final taking place on September 22 with $10 million up for grabs.
After reminding the hosts about 16-year-old Kyle ‘Bugha’ Giersdorf’s $3 million payday for winning the Fortnite World Cup, the group started digging into the economics of esports going forward.
“I know a few banks that have actually hired a department, so more than just one or two researcher people to begin to follow this as an economic sector,” Dagen McDowell chimed in.
I went on Fox Business TV to talk about esports reaching the mainstream across multiple games and genres, why it is absurd to compare video games like Fortnite to opioids, and how esports, gaming can be a truly positive, uplifting social experience for people @dagenmcdowell pic.twitter.com/tOfYuGlp0d
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) August 16, 2019
“Because video games in general are growing so much and Fortnite as a great example of competitive video gaming, that’s growing the overall esports pie… the biggest games in the world right now are the competitive games everyone is playing and at the core of that is esports on the more professional level.”
McDowell went on to ask Slasher about the skills needed to play esports at such a high level and how they can be beneficial for teenagers and not addictive like drugs. “There’s a lot that goes into gaming and there’s a lot of good that comes out of it.”
“The criticism in the way is really absurd,” Slasher said. “To compare video games to an addictive drug… is pathetic and that should never be happening and it shows a lack of understanding of what’s going on and at the same time, video games and especially esports, really are a social activity more so than really most activities now… people think it’s anti-social, but it’s actually one of the most social things that you can do online.”
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“It’s more social than taking selfies and editing them so you don’t look like yourself,” McDowell added.
Former NFL player Jack Brewer then confessed he doesn’t let his 7-year-old playing video games and is anti video game, but Rod was making him question his views.
“How much time does it take to get really good at these games?” Brewer asked. “Do I allow my seven-year-old, who is a phenomenal athlete at his age… do I allow him to spend five hours in front of a TV playing video games versus being out training with me?”
“Honestly, for competitive games, and the games that are in esports, it really does take as much time to practice and to scrim and to play and to really grind your way at the game as it does a professional sport,” Breslau answered. “You need to play 6-8 hours a day at the professional level, practice with your team, practice against the best players in the world to really do so.”
“But, to your point though,” the New York-based journalist went on, “really parents should be more involved in what their kids are doing. Video games are bigger than ever before. Everyone who has kids has a kid playing games. If you’re more active in what they’re doing, they’ll respond better…”
The Fox Host went on to link Nascar drivers to video games because they learn to drive via gaming.
“If your kid can run fast, jump high and has good prospects to get scholarships, do you let him play games instead? I don’t know if I could,” Brewer stated.
“Some of those kids love playing games as much as they love playing traditional sports,” Rod replied. “Sometimes they excel even more at the games. There are pro athletes that play games just as much and sometimes that path is the one they truly love to do.”
