What is Esports?
The electronic sports or esports are not only the competitive side of video games but a revolutionary way of understanding sport. An adolescent industry (barely twenty years old) orchestrated around professional videogame competitions that are currently undergoing its consolidation process in countries such as South Korea, the United States, Sweden, and Germany while extending to other countries such as Spain.
There is a reductionist argument that tends to point to any videogame (Super Mario Bros.) and compare it negatively with a sport (Football) to justify that videogames cannot be a sport. The error that does not take into account that esports, by themselves, are a differentiating element of the narrative medium of video games.
Currently there are barely a dozen video games that can be considered as esports titles (League of Legends, StarCraft, Dota, Counter-Strike, Call of Duty, Hearthstone, Street Fighter, Smash Bros., World of Tanks…) and all of them have to share a series of common characteristics that, in general terms, are the following:
- The game allows the confrontation between two or more players who compete on equal terms and whose victory is determined by their tactical or strategic ability.
- Existence of official leagues and competitions with rules, teams, and professional players.
- Thousands of fans who play for fun and follow the competitions becoming consumers of the broadcasts and informative coverage of the competitions.
- The media broadcast the competitions and provide the public with the demand for information.
- A parallel advertising market that finances the industry and sponsors clubs and competitions (most esports are free video games).
The esports are here to stay. Month by month, the numbers increase, and their records are surpassed. The number of spectators, players, teams, organizations, and competitions continues to grow, and the consolidation of a growing industry is just around the corner. The show has only just begun.
Electronic Sports
Electronics has changed our lives in many ways; now, our whole world is electronic and digital. In this sense, electronics has allowed the appearance of a new form of sport, known as e-sports, which have been gaining more and more public, and probably saw something about electronic sports on the Internet, and that’s why you got here.
To explain only what electronic sports are, basically, competitions or tournaments of videogames, in which a certain number of players participate, who test their skills in the console or pc in different types of videogames. Nowadays, esports is one of the most popular competitive sports events that exist all over the world.
Thousands of people around the world attend these types of events, to support their favorite competitors and live the adrenaline of their games watching the screens. Although some people may disagree that electronic sports are considered a sport. However, experts believe that these types of competitions can be considered a sport.
At first, it may seem strange, since when they talk about sport, we usually think of men and women performing tests of great physical dexterity. For this reason, we will now study why these competitions are considered a real sport.
First, there is a misperception that for something to be considered a sport, it requires participants to engage in intense physical exertion. At this point, it is essential to remember that chess is considered a sport, and there are even world chess championships, and this sport only requires mental effort on the part of its participants.
Besides, various studies have shown that, in electronic sports competitions, players are subjected to similar or even higher amounts of stress than in sports such as Formula 1 races.
In the same way, there are sports like billiards, where everything is based on the player’s intelligence and physical effort is minimal. However, you’ll be surprised to learn that e-sports competitors tend to follow a diet and exercise regimen; in this way, they ensure maximum performance in the game.
