The Growth of E-Sports
The competitive gaming scene today is filled with almost as much passion and rivalry as the professional sports world. Many people see it as having the same legitimacy as any other sport, but others question what makes a sport and have stated that E-Sports do not fit into this criteria. The controversy arrives when people attempt to define what sports are to begin with.
By definition, an E-Sport is a multiplayer videogame that is played competitively for spectators, typically by professional gamers. Often the games played involve a team of players fighting against another team in a virtual world where the players have weapons By this definition it could qualify as a sport, as there is a competition, an audience, and it is done professionally. This would be the same definition of any other professional sport, save for the multiplayer videogames. This is the defining factor for most. People see a sport as something that is active, and usually outdoors. In an E-Sport competition, the most activity done by a player is the movement of the mouse, or punching a few keys in quick succession.
When envisioning sports, we often think of strong, fast, and athletic individuals who we can look up to, and who we can look up to. Rarely do we think of someone sitting in front of a computer, playing online with a team of friends all in the same virtual world, as a role model. For this reason people would argue that E-Sports are not legitimate sports, and should not be recognized as such. There is not any amount of physical activity, so the activities that gamers participate in are not inherently sporty according to some.
However, there are many “sports” that would fit what some people consider to not be a sport at all. Pool, for instance, is not what people generally think of when sports are mentioned. Nonetheless, there are both national and international pool tournaments and championships attended by thousands. There is no real strenuous activity that goes into it, only a bit of dexterity. This is no different than the dexterity required to properly maneuver a mouse in an E-Sports Tournament.
While the E-Sports world does have a large fan base, and adequate funding to be a major industry, it does struggle with a lack of publicity and advertising due to small amount of recognition it receives. Those who are invested in it have actively searched it out, as it is rarely in mainstream news. Due to this lack of advertising, the industry is not growing at the rate that it could with the same marketing efforts that larger sports industries receive. However, even though this difficulty, it is growing, and growing quickly. We have seen much more attention paid to the E-Sports industry in both the media and popular culture in the last few than we ever have. Though the debate as to whether E-Sports are in fact sports will go on, we can see without a doubt that the business is growing at an exponential rate, and with the proper strategies and advertising, will grow into a massive industry.
