Should Esports Be Considered As Real Sports
Should esports be considered as real sports? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Box01YzekaQ http://youtu.be/kMh2b_n7cKw?t=12m32s
A new kind of competition has sprung up in recent years, inciting passion and fervour as sports have for centuries. However these competitions take place not on a court or on a field but inside the world of video games. So called esports are growing rapidly and powerfully: the current dota 2 tournament offers a large prize, a huge audience, and plenty of glory for the winners. And it’s not the only one. E-sports have devoted fans and famous superstars, huge spectator numbers and plenty of trash talking.
A quote from Vlad Savov, who recently wrote an article on esports and traditional sports said, “E-sports are like email: The digital equivalent of something we’ve been doing for centuries.” It’s true that excelling in a video game is not as physically demanding as running down a field, but athleticism is, in my opinion, more of a secondary feature of sports anyways. Their core appeal is conflict. That’s why gymnastics and weightlifting, some of the most physically intensive competitions you can engage in, are nowhere near as popular as games like footy or baseball where the batter and pitcher can stare each other down.
Just like their traditional counterparts, e-sports have teams, star players, jersey sponsorships, and millions upon millions of adoring followers producing volumes of fan art. Dota 2, the other biggest title besides League of Legends that is driving the rising popularity of e-sports, last year sold out seattle’s KeyArena in less than an hour. The weeklong event that everyone was so eager to attend was The 4th Internationals, which took place in July last year to decide the winners of a considerably large prize pool of $13.6 million dollars. Up until then, those who considered pro gaming inferior to professional athletics could point to the gap in money and event attendance difference between the two. This is no longer so.
A new kind of competition has sprung up in recent years, inciting passion and fervour as sports have for centuries. However these competitions take place not on a court or on a field but inside the world of video games. So called esports are growing rapidly and powerfully: the current dota 2 tournament offers a large prize, a huge audience, and plenty of glory for the winners. And it’s not the only one. E-sports have devoted fans and famous superstars, huge spectator numbers and plenty of trash talking.
A quote from Vlad Savov, who recently wrote an article on esports and traditional sports said, “E-sports are like email: The digital equivalent of something we’ve been doing for centuries.” It’s true that excelling in a video game is not as physically demanding as running down a field, but athleticism is, in my opinion, more of a secondary feature of sports anyways. Their core appeal is conflict. That’s why gymnastics and weightlifting, some of the most physically intensive competitions you can engage in, are nowhere near as popular as games like footy or baseball where the batter and pitcher can stare each other down.
Just like their traditional counterparts, e-sports have teams, star players, jersey sponsorships, and millions upon millions of adoring followers producing volumes of fan art. Dota 2, the other biggest title besides League of Legends that is driving the rising popularity of e-sports, last year sold out seattle’s KeyArena in less than an hour. The weeklong event that everyone was so eager to attend was The 4th Internationals, which took place in July last year to decide the winners of a considerably large prize pool of $13.6 million dollars. Up until then, those who considered pro gaming inferior to professional athletics could point to the gap in money and event attendance difference between the two. This is no longer so.