In the ’80s and ’90s, when the first video games for consoles were born (who’s a huge fan of Atari or Nintendo here?), they were conceived as a hobby or moment of leisure, were being useful in a particular game only served to boast and brag in front of friends of the skills that one had with the console. At the time, it was a utopia to imagine that you could make a living from video games (actually the thought that it was anymore than just a hobby was non-existent), except for those who made them, who made a living from it. Today, however, professional gamers in the esports industry already make a living as video game players, very successfully too! This makes many young people and teenagers want to be professional gamers to earn much money and retire soon as if they were a World Cup star.
How Can Playing Games be a Sport?
People who are not in the gamer environment often associate the word video game with obese kids who never leave their room and who lack a social life. But that is far from the reality nowadays. They go further when they hear the word esports (electronic sports). People argue to say it can’t be a sport because there’s no physical activity or because they’re competing sitting down.
Paradoxically, the public considers that motoring, in which the driver is in a seat when competing, or archery, an Olympic discipline in which the one who equips a bow and arrow standing in just one place, are. Others claim that chess in its competitive version is a mental sport (and is recognized as such by the International Olympic Committee). So… why the one and not the other? There is widespread prejudice as to what is right for the mind and what is a hobby or nonsense.
The image that comes to mind the most if we think of someone who plays chess is a kind of genius, a crack of tactics and strategy, a person who uses his brain to the maximum for a very mental game. What is the difference between chess and the League of Legends or the Counter-Strike (to cite two popular games here)? To the surprise of many, in these esports, the winner is not the one who presses a button the fastest, but the brain must be used as much or often more. The ability to think quickly and react even quicker in these popular esport titles are a skill that very few consider to have.
All three are strategy games we’ve mentioned: chess, League of Legends or Counter Strike, in which you have to think about a tactic based on the opponent’s style of play and modify it throughout the game to ultimately come out on top. A false move can make you lose but, in esports, unlike chess, you have to react before your opponent, and a tenth of a second already made the difference.
The most popular Esports is played in teams, and the objective is usually to eliminate the opponent or destroy their base. When everyone faces each other, there is a display of reflexes in which the player must attack, defend, and help his teammates, all in thousandths of seconds, while the opponent does the same. The head is used in all its splendor (LoL, Dota 2, Overwatch, CSGO, Paladins, Smite, Fortnite, PUBG, Call of Duty, are clear examples). If the chess player is a genius… why not the gamer? After all, there is more variables at play in any top 5 esport title than there is in a game of chess, not to say one is better or not.
Games Create Bad Behavior
“But those things harm health and mind,” some argue. It turns out that, contrary to what many believe, playing video games brings benefits. According to a study by the University of Rochester in New York, people who practice these disciplines improve their reflexes, can make decisions faster, learn more efficiently, and find it easier to do different tasks simultaneously.
In addition to chess, there are several disciplines considered sports according to the IOC, in which the movement with the body is minimal, and the head is used more: motor racing, motorcycling, archery, billiards, bowling and bridge (it is a game of cards). The same happens with the Winter Olympic Games, which are in sled: the luge, the bobsleigh, and the skeleton.
Esports is More Popular than Traditional Sports
Also, there is another crucial point: esports is more popular than most traditional sports, and the numbers are surprising (to those that aren’t aware of it). Last year’s League of Legends world championship final was held at Bird’s Nest Stadium in China. There were 40,000 present and 75 million viewers online! Viewership of popular esport titles are already beating out traditional sports viewership by the highest of margins.
Teams like Fnatic, a very respectable esports organization from Europe, have more followers on Facebook than Independiente, Racing and San Lorenzo put together (2.5 million and 2.1 million respectively). All this did not go unnoticed by the IOC, which began to internalize the reality of it all. On July 21 of this year, a meeting was held between the IOC, the Global Assembly of International Sports Federations (GAISF), and representatives of the Sports (players, coaches, team owners, brands, etc.).
“It was a unique opportunity to listen to a wide variety of stakeholders. There was a consensus that future collaboration will be based on ensuring that any activity supports and promotes Olympic values. We are in a strong position to coordinate and support the broader commitment of the Olympic Movement to electronic sports”
Kit McConnell – IOC Sports Director
In Asia, the mecca of video games is a topic that is no longer discussed. This year, they were part of the Asian Games (the competition equivalent to the Pan American Games). There were eight titles in which they competed for a medal: LoL, PES, Arena of Valor, Starcraft, Hearthstone and Clash Royale.
Esports is Very Much a Sport
Professional gamers are excellent competitors who should not be stripped of any merit, as video games require skill and concentration, like many other skills that are also not considered a sport. You’d be surprised, training and the amount of hours put into esports on a daily basis is actually often more than the practice put in traditional sports.
Sport teaches young people, from a very early age, to lay the foundations to eradicate violence, something that in many esports video games teenagers have to kill – in the game – their enemy to get the victory. We speak, therefore, of esports as a sport, for those who believe so, quite dangerous.
The IOC pointed out that esports “could be considered as a sporting activity,” but that to reach an Olympic Games, they should be about sports and not about entertainment games. And esports are the set of different games, such as League of Legends, CS: GO, DOTA 2, Fifa and StarCraft 2, among others, but do you imagine that someday they arrive at the Olympic Games? What game will arrive? Will you create a new neutral video game that defines how to compete? Would establish universal rules as in traditional sports and not some that change from time to time, as happens today?
