In the 1980s, placing your initials at the top of the Pacman or Tetris, Arcanoid or Donkey Kong charts could turn into a source of pride to your friends.
A very fragile status symbol ready to fall under the blows of the new number 1 on duty.
The challenges in front of the cabinets attracted the kids of the neighborhood, tightrope walkers with joysticks and buttons ready to climb the summit to the sound of "insert coins".
To explain what is now called the "esports phenomenon" one cannot but go back forty years, when those who are today entrepreneurs, promoters, professionals and entertainers of the competitive videogame scene were children, or adolescents, with passion for Pong or Street Fighters.
Times have changed, cabinets - today highly sought-after furnishing or design objects - have ended up in the attic, replaced first by computers and then by consoles, Playstation and Xbox on all.
The passion, however, has always remained the same, handed down from generation to generation.
To "place your initials at the top of the table" it will no longer be enough to have the best of the unbeatable friend of the bench but to prevail over a group of players from all over the world.
For the so-called "pro-players", all very young, the video game is no longer a simple pastime, but a job, a remunerative activity, complete with training, organization, study and discipline.
There are tournaments, leagues, clubs, teams and teams for almost every game and almost every discipline, from sports simulators to strategy, from shooters to fighting games.
A global phenomenon which, however, in Italy - according to what experts report - is at least 10 years late compared to well-established realities such as the United States or Germany, to stay in Europe.
But something seems to be changing ...
