The E*Gaming movement is fascinating to me - I started 'late', in 1999, playing Doom, then Quake, and beyond.
In 2001, I was online with other players from around the world - my age group, BTW - it became the 'poker game' of the late 20th century. I dedicated many hours and became good enough to be highly ranked in my 'clan' (Quake PowerWeapons mode). But back then, EGaming as a sport was a pipedream.
Who would watch others play 'video games'? Although our server would only allow 25 players on at a time, a good number of 'Spectators' could join just to watch. And they did.
It was weird, knowing somebody was watching your screen/view as you played - like having a group on your shoulders as you shot your way through the digital landscape(Meta b4 Meta).
In the 2010's I started to play DoD just for fun - it was more difficult and takes a long time to get better.
But then I quit. I slipped back into a WW2 FPS, Day of Defeat after a ten-year hiatus - the same people are playing.