"Those little lightning bugs are kind of cute...oh, gross!" - Your mom

It's true. Your mom doesn't know which faction is "imba" this month in StarCraft 2, she can't tell you what a "jungler" does in a MOBA, and she probably thinks a "Zerg rush" is some kind of energy drink. Your mom probably doesn't know that e-sports exist, and on the off chance that she does, she certainly doesn't understand why you're so fascinated by watching little troops and critters run around a map and kill one another.

Even so, e-sports (competitive multiplayer games played before spectators for prestige and prizes) are on the rise, and major game companies are spearheading efforts to put video-game play before an audience. Last year, Valve hosted The International, a Dota 2 tournament with a $1,000,000 purse for the first place team, before the company had even released its game to the public (to be precise, it still hasn't). Blizzard Entertainment, publisher of World of Warcraft and StarCraft 2, expects to host the finest talent playing their games at the Battle.net World Championship in lieu of running their popular Blizzcon convention this year.

Still, for all the effort put into popularizing eSports, your mom (and the public at large) couldn't care less about the goings-on in competitive gaming. These people may not follow baseball or football either, but it's likely that they at least appreciate the excitement of friends and family who do. If we want the battles of our best and brightest to achieve more mainstream appeal, we have some major hurdles to overcome.

E-sports communities are opt-in communities

Pop quiz: Why does your mom root for the home team?

Don't over-think it because she doesn't over-think it either. She does it for one simple reason: because they're the home team. See, your mom, being a wholly natural creature that doesn't break the laws of physics, exists in only one place at a time. She, like most humans, probably thinks of the place where she spends most of her time existing as her hometown. When the home team goes to the big game and brings back a shiny new trophy, they're bring it home to that place -- her place.

On the other hand, if your mom wants to root for a team in a game like StarCraft 2 or Dota 2, she'll have some homework to do if she wants to make a meaningful decision. She won't have the comfort of built-in hometown heroes to fall back on because unlike members of a traditional sports team that congregate in one place, members of e-sports teams are scattered all over creation. When a team of digital generals takes home a giant novelty check, it isn't also her hometown's giant novelty check, and that makes it a lot harder for her to get invested in the outcome of the battle.

Unfortunately, considering the location-divorced nature of online gaming, I can't think of a meaningful way to squeeze e-sports teams into a construct that distributes them geographically. If you want mom to make an informed decision regarding which team to support, you could always breakdown the nuances of each pro's playstyle for her, but even the most dedicated parent risks having his or her eyes glaze over when faced with that. You might be better off letting her choose her favorite fighters based on a factor that already makes sense to her.