@daveed, I love that you asked this question before I had the chance to include in my bio that I have been part of some amateur e-sports!
Now I am in no way an expert when it comes to what is or makes something popular in high school and college, but I will reason with you for a bit.
I imagine that watchability, but also tradition are some of the driving factors when it comes to what is popular. So regarding watchability I see some problems that need to be solved for knowledge-sports to bloom. Me as a viewer, I need to in some way understand what is going on, what sets a good play or player apart from an average one. This understanding is hard to create and showcase in the same way as football, soccer or basketball as knowledge-sports inherently are harder to understand.
My first two ideas, possible part solutions to explore:
- Showcase competition in lower than the absolute top levels of performance so that the best practicioners can analyse and explain what is going on and why this is exciting to see. We already see examples of this within some e-sports and chess communities.
- Build the sport so that the viewer can access more information about the game state than the competitors and as such understand easier and faster what is going on.
Thank you for the question, I’d love to discuss this further!
/Erik