We all come from gaming industry and the first thing we were looking for as children was the fun we could extract from the games we were about to play. Now with esports comes a new phenomenon, I think Fun, meaning the pleasure you have while playing, almost disappeared, at least in the old sense meaning in WC3 and CS.
Let me explain my thoughts, there are many signs showing every regular player takes no pleasure in launching a ladder. Typical examples are bad manner issues, which come from two categories I think, the medium level one, and the high level one. I belong to the medium one (at least I think so :p)and I must say I'm sometimes really bad manner, especially in ladder, against guys I don't even know. Why? Because I put so much time in WC3 and i'm standing at the same level, so I'm pissed off when I lose. And I can say I really have no fun in playing. I go for some ladders, get a win, so I'm happy but fearing a loss in the next ladder, and if I lose, I'll get angry, and play more and more ladders until I finally win. Result of this to me : most probably a special feeling, mixing anger and disappointment, and no fun at all.
Maybe it's even more the case for very high level players, but this anger isn't reflected in ladder games (or rarely with few examples), but in tournaments. They all have this tension which forces them to play perfectly and this can be compared to a technic, a job someone does day after day, not thinking to what he does. It's now a real competition with winners and losers.
I don't blame the games, it's not the fact they're boring, imbalanced or whatever, it looks like in esports competition kills fun. This can be discussed of course but if you take other examples like in football, I doubt any football player will say "I'm bored of playing" because they do like their game, they have some real fun. Look at ronaldinho, he's so skilled and he's smiling all the time.
This shows maybe a point we underestimated, the physical activity allows you to lay oneself out (No, I didn't know that word until I looked for the translation of a French word in the dictionnary :p). I mean in sports, there's a beginning and an end, the end is noticed when you're so tired you cannot play more. In esports there is no end, so there's no sensation of accomplishment, or not fully satisifed accomplishment.
What keeps high skilled players playing can be sum up in 2 things to me:
First thing is the amount of cash you can make nowadays thanks to competitions. CPL, ESWC, WCG, WEG and some more tournaments can now provide a decent progamer life for more than one player. And it's not even the value of those earnings which matters, it's more the credibility you have regarding outside esports people. You can be proud of the rewarded activity you're involved in.
Second thing, prolly the most important one is the community. Many examples show how important it is to meet your teammates in LANs/tournaments. It's there players have their best memories. I know everyone's having real fun at ESWC/WCG/WEG/WC3L finals. Best example for that is ToD saying how much he liked to be in Singapore and taking some vacation in Korea with his friends there. And this is also where I set the difference between W3 and CS, between solo gaming and teamplay gaming. By the way, it's the social side which is more emphasized in team playing. You can't make a tournament alone. In WC3, you get to know people and have fun with them in offline competitions. Same for other games, this is where I see what I call fun now.