What a difference a day makes. When the week started, most U.S.-based sports were trying to soldier on in the face of the coronavirus. Now, they’re all closing down. The NBA, NHL, MLB, and MLS have now suspended their seasons indefinitely. The NCAA tournament will be played behind closed doors, and a number of conferences have cancelled their end-of-season tournaments. UEFA, the governing body of European soccer, has called a meeting for March 17th to discuss the status of all on-going competitions, and there are rumors that they will suspended the Champions League and Europa League at that time.

Largely avoiding the widespread cancellations, however, are esports. The pertinent difference between video games and athletics during a pandemic: you don’t need all the participants physically present in the same place to play them. A number of large esports events and tournaments that would have brought people together have been changed to an online-only format. Others, most notably, the upcoming DOTA 2 major in Los Angeles, have been postponed entirely.

Three major esports properties took the online-only route.

1. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive — a first-person, realistic shooter
2. Overwatch League — a first person, futuristic shooter
3. League of Legends — a MOBA and the most popular esport in the world

The order that I’ve put them above mirrors how easy it would be for a newcomer to understand what is going on, with Counter-Strike being the simplest. In CS, your team either kills all the enemy players or achieves an objective (planting bombs at particular sites). Overwatch is more complicated. There are a number of different map types, three different hero types, and 31 playable heroes each with their own abilities. League of Legends is definitely the most complex and will take the longest to understand the nuances. But at the end of the day, it’s a simple core concept — battle the other team and try to take over their base.

All three games are enjoyable to watch and, like sports, can be very exciting. The broadcast production is high quality: the announcers are experienced in their craft, there are creative features between matches, replays, player interviews, and the like — pretty much all the things you see in a sports broadcast.

So if you’re looking for things to watch while sports are on hiatus, check out esports. Who knows, you might enjoy it!