empowered these types of digital networkers.

Esports as a concept actually hearkens back to the 1980s, when arcades would hold competitions and organizations like Twin Galaxies would hold events challenging the best Donkey Kong or Galaga players in the world to compete against each other. TV game shows even popped, pitting children against each other in a variety of popular games.

As the World Wide Web became popularized in the mid-1990s, so too did gaming move online. Ranging from competitive shooters to online role-playing games, gamers could now play and communicate with competitors from around the world. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a variety of leagues also emerged with real-life events featuring networked competitive gaming, although none became wildly successful at the time.

Over the last twenty years, improvedMINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – Minnesota’s state government began a broad shut down on Friday going into the July 4 holiday after Democratic Governor Mark Dayton and Republican legislative leaders failed to reach a budget deal.

Parts of the government had already begun to shut down on Thursday ahead of the midnight budget deadline, including some websites and dozens of highway rest stops on one of the biggest travel days of the year.

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The budget impasse means that some 23,000 of the roughly 36,000 Minnesota state employees will be furloughed and state parks and campgrounds closed ahead of what is usually their busiest stretch of the year for the July 4 holiday.

Dayton and Democratic legislative leaders Senator Tom Bakk and Representative Paul Thissen met for more than a week with Republican leaders