Should Esports Be Considered A Sport?

In recent years, esports have grown exponentially, creating a market that generates millions in revenue as hundreds of thousands of teenagers log on to watch sporting events they can relate to.

The official definition of a sport is, “An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes another or others for entertainment.” Technically they are a sport. Esports (electronic sports) have teams or individuals from countries, states, counties or districts that come that compete in tournaments state, country or worldwide.

Last year the League of Legends finals alone brought 40,000 people to Seoul, South Korea.(xx Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Paragraph 5) This isn’t counting the thousands at home who watched using streaming services. The teams also attract sponsors. The company DXRacer USA gave Robert Morris University a free chair which normally costs 349 dollars. Finally, eSports are one of the fastest growing sports ever. The quote, “The eSports scholarship program has been featured by ESPN, NPR, HBO’s ``Real Sports`` and a variety of other newsgroups.”, shows this. (xx Pittsburg Post and Gazette Paragraph 3) The only other sports to get this much attention to get this level of attention at the college level are men's basketball and men's football. Video games are fast on the rise in the world as the world moves toward a more technology dependent society. Estimates put video game spectators at 19.4 million by 2020.

In the 2012 London Olympics, the President of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge decided motorsports were not to be included. A simple and innocent decision turned into an outrage amongst the automotive community. “What blasphemy to not include one of the most widespread and competitive sports in the world,” the people vociferated. Then the clash mushroomed, wildcats from twain of the colors. Squabbling over the aye and nay, whether auto racing truly is a sport. The arguments came fired out, “They sit the whole time!” “It’s not organized!” and “It is equipment based!” Not only are these counterarguments complete fallacy, but they also fabricate no intellectual exercise. Auto racing is in fact a sport that contains physical exertion, teamwork, and competitive spirit.

Financially, eSports brings in revenue like no other thanks to the loyal and strong fan base it has built over the years. This fan base will buy jerseys, tickets, items endorsed by the players, etc... Just like the sports on TV. The popular game League of Legends made its developer (Riot Games) $964 million between January 2014 and September 2014 according to an article from venturebeat.com. This amount

According to the Oxford Dictionaries, the word “sport” is defined as an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. Video games do contain skills/experience , competitions, and amusement but do not emphasize “physical exertion”. Most games such as the Call of Duty and Halo franchise require no physical

The main organization in charge of competitive gaming is known as MLG or Major League Gaming. MLG has sponsored all of the major console tournaments and some PC tournaments around the world, including million dollar prizes for first place. MLG now holds a millionaire dollar call of duty tournament every March which includes competitors from all over the world. Call of duty is not the most popular game watched on the circuit, however. League of Legends holds a yearly two million dollar tournament and it attracts sponsorships from all heavyweight brands, such as Coca-Cola and American Express. Last year more than thirty-two million people watched this event live (theguardian.com). Competitive gaming is now among the largest growing subcultures in all of America. The culture of gaming is all about meeting people who play the same games you do and experiencing a world together disassociated from the reality outside of playing video games. The values of competitive gaming are the same as any other sport in America. Sports are all about building virtues, such as perseverance, determination, empathy, and discipline. Teamwork is the most advantageous skill taught and used by adults. Without teamwork one cannot function at a job or work among others involved in a job. Without a job one cannot provide for their family or themselves.

“Should video games be considered a sport?” Well believe it or not, there’s are kids out there who actually claim it as one. And there is many reasons to why it should be called a sport. Video games is the only thing some kids are good at because not everyone is physically capable of playing sports such as basketball or football. So if they want to say it’s a sport, then why not? It consists of lot’s of competition at games, right equipment, and lots of hard work and dedication.

Today, even with the growth of technology, the idea of video games being a sport is very ridiculous sounding to the majority of people. If you really begin to compare your typical sports and video games you will begin to see the similarities. When asking if video games can be considered a sport we must first ask what we classify as a sport. A sport can be defined as: an activity that requires a certain skill set in which people compete.

Sports are a very big part of the culture in the United States. They are also a vital part of the society and the interaction of the people within the society in many other nations as well. Many activities or games are clearly recognized as a sport throughout the world. An example of this would be soccer which is world renown. However, there are other activities that do not fit so clearly into the description of a sport, like soccer does. Upon looking at a sport like soccer to define what a sport is, the defining aspects would be it is a game, with specific rules, it requires physical strength or athletic ability, it entails specific skills, it involves competition and it is entertaining. There are some activities that do not completely demonstrate all of the aspects often associated with a sport, one of these is NASCAR(National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing).. While there may be some controversy relating to whether or not this is truly a sport, I would propose that NASCAR is a sport because it is highly competitive, it involves very specific skills and it is extremely entertaining.

Football, basketball, volleyball, and many more… these are all known as common sports that people participate in. How many people were involved in sports during high school or even now in college? What is it that makes it a sport? Is it the time commitment? Well what about the competitiveness? We are all used to spending hours and hours on end practicing and preparing for something whether it be a game, a tournament, or a competition… We have all been there before. I started dancing fourteen years ago, when I was just three years old. Growing up, some of my friends always asked me why I wanted to be a part of something that was not even considered a sport, but to me it was and it was the best thing I could have ever been involved in. Anything that consists of countless hours of practicing and is competitive should be considered a sport. The opinions on this topic are endless, but I’m going to discuss three reasons why I believe dance should be considered a sport. Dancers practice just as much, if not more than other sports, they compete against other teams, and dancers act like a family to one another. Although dance is known as an art, nobody said it could not be both an art and a sport.

Allen Guttman's definition of a sport being “activity where rules are accepted just because they make possible such activity.” While he makes the distinction that a sport is a clearly physical contest, clarifying that while chess is a contest it isn't a sport because it lacks physicality. The most popular competitive games played by the E-sports community do have a physical aspect differentiating it from chess. Good hand-eye coordination, a good sense of timing, and endurance. A casual game of chess doesn't have a time limit to make the correct move while in first person shooters, MOBAs, and fighting games you have to quickly react to what the opposing team or player is doing. Not unlike a pitcher in baseball who has to throw the right pitch at the right time. If you aren't able to react quickly enough to an opposing player in a fighting game you quickly lose the match. Being able to endure long games without making mistakes in play is a necessary skill in a fighting game where exhaustion can quickly lead to misplays that can cost you the

I would always watch videos about competitions but I never had the chance to actually compete in a tournament. I convinced my father to take me and we went to the event. Here I met a plethora of people who share the same interests as me and I fell in love with the whole "e Sports" atmosphere. I wanted to come back and keep coming back and since then I have attended tournaments almost every Tuesday and Friday for the video game franchise "Super Smash Bros.". Every week we would talk about the game and compete in tournaments; the friendly atmosphere emitted from the everyone makes it easy to ask questions and learn more about the game. Throughout my entire life so far I've always found myself playing video games, and eventually I want to create a career within the realms of eSports. Whether it's to cope with my problems, escape reality, or just for simple entertainment, gaming has always been something I could turn to and dedicate time on no matter how I'm feeling. To most people dedicating time to video games may seem like a horrid idea, but for me there's no better use of my

Given these points, this all relates to video games being a sport. Professional gamers getting paid along with the amount of talent needed, both point to why video games should be considered a sport. While there are minimal

Would you believe that more than 35,000 people would gather together at a convention for video games? And would you believe that that 35,000 people is only a fraction of the approximate 1 million DAILY viewers that watch on this certain website? There are even people that travel from across the globe to visit this convention, called TwitchCon. This year was the 2nd annual TwitchCon, but it was even bigger and better than last year. It's very hard to explain the whole purpose and point of this convention to someone who has never heard of Twitch. And to people who are pretty foreign to Twitch, and you explain what it is to them, they usually find the concept of it pretty weird but bear with me. What Twitch itself is, is it's a streaming platform