Esports? or sport
Competitive gaming or eSports without a doubt is emerging into the professional sports outlet. So much that it can easily compete with other big brand sports like Baseball and Football. Esports has been on the rise in North America for the past two years, with constant growing viewership counts and even now an entrance into some cable television networks, networks like ESPN and TBS. An on looker from the outside of this very large community may think this is a brand new trend. But when compared to the rest of the world such as Europe and Asia we see that this trend or as some may say, new found “sport”, has been around since the early 2000’s. Countries like South Korea have an outstanding communal following to the sport. They’ve had several broadcast stations dedicated to gaming tournaments and events.
At the same time the public population within these countries respect the image of the players behind the sport of competitive gaming. These foreign populations have such a different perspective on the matter. They respect these players and competitions to the same level of professional chess players.
You then turn your sights over to the Americas and there’s this sudden drop of respect. How is it that after almost 16 years of success in Europe and Asia competitive Gaming is finally scratching the surface of mainstream media in the states. Even with its growing popularity in NA it still seems difficult for the population to garner any respect for the game.
An example viewpoint of one demographic learning about eSports for the first time. This evidence comes from the HBO documentary show, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. On this episode they reported on the growing spectacle of eSports and how “gamers” are becoming millionaires off of playing video games and there is this new breed of cyber athlete. At the end of every episode they hold a short round table discussing the topics presented during the show. The reporter who lead the piece was at this round table as well as her other colleagues debating the fact of whether or not competitive gaming could be considered a sport or not. The lead reporter supported competitive gaming and truly believed it could be a sport, but then her colleague rebuttal-ed with a statement that shocked me, she went on to say “My issue with this is, its still not a sport its a game it just cant be a sport they are playing video games”.
This statement through me off a bit, what exactly are basketball players or baseball players playing? Is she saying that all sports are not games and are only recognized as sports? Is running around a court passing a ball to teammates not a game? The ignorance is very prominent within some older generations which can be understandable, since this is a very . As this round-table conversation progressed a question was then asked “Do you have the statistics of how many of the eSport spectators have attended Star Trek conventions?” in response one replied “I’m sure there is a fair amount of overlap”. Its the misinterpretation and prejudgments that competitive gaming receives from the public that enrages this community and hinders its growth. The more validation the fans of eSports receive the more this new found sport will grow viewership wise and fan wise.
This then brings me to the point of, what makes sports so valuable in the first place? What effects do sports have on our society? Well one can say that sports are here for exercise and to keep children healthy. But what really makes it valuable is its social aspect. Sporting events bring thousands of people of all cultures together all at once. There are stadiums that can hold thousands of people, and are dedicated to sporting events in major cities.When there is an important match with great teams these stadiums sell out. Of course this isn’t breaking news, this has been going on for hundreds of years.
Thousands of families all around the world dedicate the time to sit down with their family and friends at home to watch a major sporting event on T.V. People around the world buy merchandise to represent their home teams or favorite teams and players. Schools around the world have their own sports programs so that students can figure out their potential in the world of professional sports. Sports creates communities. Communities of people that are passionate and engaged, communities that will do anything to support their brand of choice.
Some questions may be popping up as to how is eSports accessible to the public since it is gaining so much popularity? Well as presented earlier eSports has been just recently scratching the surface of live television and are being presented on channels like TBS and ESPN. What really kindled the fire to the growth of competitive gaming is live streaming. Broadcasting matches on websites like the ever popular Twitch.tv. Twitch allows anybody from anywhere to broadcast a game of their choosing to anybody around the world.
After some time those leagues that were discussed earlier, ESL and LCS caught on to the huge trend that was Twitch. So what better idea than to create official channels for their league and broadcast these professional matches to the ever expanding gaming community. Well it worked now some of the biggest eSport tournaments are broadcast-ed on Twitch. With some of these matches breaking 1 million concurrent viewers.
With this point made we can now see how important it may be to accept the sport of competitive gaming. Because behind eSports is a community, a community that is passionate but feels rejected by normal society. This community has grown exponentially and these people have found a place where they feel a sense of inclusion. What good comes from rejecting an up and coming sport that has millions of followers all around the world?
The awareness of the public is whats holding back this sport and going into the future I see nothing but growth and its eventual transition into a professional sport that can consistently gather more viewership than Basketball, Football or Baseball.
Works Cited
HBOsports. “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel: ESports Discussion (HBO Sports).” YouTube. YouTube, 13 Dec. 2013. Web. 12 Nov. 2016.
“Turner and WME | IMG Announce SNICKERS® as ELEAGUE Official Marketing Partner.” Turner. N.p., 25 Oct. 2016. Web. 12 Nov. 2016.
“Why ESPN Is So Serious About Covering Esports.” Time. Time, 1 Mar. 2016. Web. 12 Nov. 2016.
Rowan Counterintuitive 