What explosion of fighting games? Fighting games have always been on the underdog side of eSports, but that's because fighting games have always been homegrown. If you're referring to viewership numbers, that is because more people are playing because they are now more accessible, they didn't blow up because they are 'sportier'. eSports has a place, but eSports is only truly relevant to the relative size to the actual player base. The chances of a huge monolithic eSports title that everyone watches is slim, because everyone has their own tastes, and not everyone likes to play competitively. The population is split between many different types of games, where as in basketball most people are simply just watching the NBA. Also, the artificial ballooning in eSports has started to show, as a lot of the gaming teams have been paper tigers leading to their dissolution and liquidation. Part of the reason why MOBAS blew up is because of the accessibility as well, as RTS games require a lot of focus, creativity and even mechanical skill leading them to be more mentally demanding than other types of games. The reason MOBAS bece more popular than RTS is that there is a sense of progression and you can also play with with a team of friends in a competitive setting. I respect the effort you put into this, and this is a conversation that's important for the future of gaming but I can't say I agree with most of the claims you made especially regarding 'whys' of how things happened in the space or what people are interested in.