In a fast-paced multiplayer online battle arena game like 'League of Legends' - the other major title on the professional gaming circuit - the player only controls a single hero, who runs around the map casting spells and killing bad guys.īut in the real-time strategy game 'StarCraft II,' a player must control hundreds of units: building defenses and gathering resources to produce soldiers, then mustering troops for battle, attacking and defending across multiple fronts. And while APMs might be measured for curiosity's sake in other games, they're more important in 'StarCraft II' than any other e-sport simply because the game itself is so complicated. Matt Weber, director of operations for the online e-sports community Team Liquid, told NBC News that he thinks about it like a baseball player's pitching speed - for pro gamers, there are certainly factors other than sheer velocity, but it's an important first standard to determine who can make it to the top in the first place. All you could see of the player during the actual games were their two hands - one on the mouse and the other on the left side of the keyboard, both moving at a blinding speed. Each player was housed in a tiny windowed booth where they sat, their faces blocked from the audience by large computer monitors. At a recent tournament in New York, early attendees looked on with outright confusion as two players squared off against one another from opposite ends of the stage. For the uninitiated, watching a professional league video game tournament can be a dizzying affair.

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