They are arguably the same thing, just different name. Think FF7 Thunder 3 and Thundaga.

Would it be incorrect of me to guess that "four men enter, no one leaves" refers to Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome? My father used to watch these films all the time, on VHS and when it was on TV, and that one's my favorite of the trilogy.

No. Espers are beasts of pure Magical Energy granted to the by the Warring Triad. Once their life ends, they turn into magicite and can bestow power to those who posess it.

Aeons on the other hand are nothing more then dead peoples spirits transformed into powerful beasts.

Love the comic Brian. I had to chuckle with the names.

Too...much...references...

.....my brain hurts....

I love that fighters mind works. Technically it would be very easy to drown in a giant sealed dome filled with water which would technically make winning 50 games of drownball easy. That is it would if you could forgive the fact that its very difficult to "win" in drownball more than once...

The entire concept of the sport blows my mind. The veterans of the sports are the ones that lose often and remember to get the hell out of the water. GAH.

Budether - King of Beers, I may be a little old fashion but I prefer my King Steve Adams ;)

And also, I wonder what those two leagues could be planning... without the presence of the Guardian Forces no less!

I think I figured out how you can win drownball more then once.
This is an rpg, remember? And what can you do in rpgs if someone dies?
Here is my speculation about what happens:
Fighter meats up with the others just as they are doing something important(TM) and interrupts them by explaining how he won the drownball championship.(Preventing them from getting powerful more then 15mins)
And how he got the overpowered weapon(TM) with some help from a character that has not showed herself lately.
Brian, feel free to steel my idea, it is a hounour to have you steal it.

In FFXII, Espers can also be the Scions of Darkness created by the Occurians who were lead by Ultima (except for Zodiark, who was just so incredibly powerful that the gods fear it) in an uprising. They rebelled in a war against their creators, but despite their immense power were stricken down in defeat and banished to Ivalice, where they were eternally bound. To further their suffering, they were condemned to be tied with the Glyph of the Beast, forcing them to obey the orders of whoever posesses it.