system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why are eSports so much more popular in South Korea than other places?

I've been watching a lot of Overwatch League and one pretty apparent thing is that a ton of players come from South Korea. I've heard the explanation to this is that eSports in general is extremely popular in South Korea. Is this true? If so, why aren't they more popular other places?
gpt
Rewind back to the mid-90's.  The country had decided to heavily prioritize its broadband infrastructure. (Google the Korean Information Initiative for more info) Between 1995 and 1998, the government heavily funded the laying of fiber-optic lines throughout the country, making for readily-available, cheap, and fast internet access.

Of course, you need a computer to use this infrastructure... and computers are expensive... So there was great demand for internet-cafes where you could access this high-speed resource without necessarily needing to pay high prices for your own computer.

In a heartbeat, internet-cafe culture was EVERYWHERE. Per-capita, the US doesn't hold a candle to South Korean connectivity. If you had a cafe near you, you could get online, and given that such a high proportion of the country lives in high-density urban areas, this basically permeated the entire country.

Note that at this time, in the US, you'd be lucky to even have a 56.6k dial-up modem, let alone broadband.

1998 rolls around, and Starcraft gets released. Korean school children eat it up. It becomes the most popular activity at internet cafes (which are ubiquitous). An entire generation grows up on Starcraft. And overnight, it becomes the national pastime.

Entire channels pop up to broadcast Starcraft. Sponsorships, teams etc. arise. Korea becomes the birthplace of eSports, and the rest is history.