Sport, an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. This has been the same definition for years, with little to no revision. And for a while, no revision was necessary. Now however, with the uprising of E-Sports, people have started to question whether they are real sports.
Let's look into the main similarities. Traditional sports, usually have a full roster of people, with backups. Look at basketball. They can have a maximum team capacity of 12 people. This applies to the 5 players playing at all times, and some reserves.
E-Sports also has a similar situation. With CS:GO, or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, there are 5 players on each team, resulting in 10 players in a match at a given time. There are also reserve players in case of some kind of emergency.
Traditional Sports teams have a coach and a manager. People who manage the background politics of teams.
E-Sports has the same thing. They have a coach and manager to sign them up for certain tourneys, and they also have an in-game coach, to decide what plays they should do and when.
Traditional Sports players have set aside training and scrimmages to further their skills, every day. Sometimes for 8-10 hours per day.
E-Sports players train with their teammates every single day, sometimes for 8-12 to even 14 hours per day. Keeping up with the meta of the game they are playing. A lot of teamwork is necessary to play these games at a competitive level.
There are many misconceptions about gamers, and the gaming profession as a whole. "Live in their mom's basement" or "completely overweight". These are the sorts of things that are said about gamers every day. But when you look at some of the top teams, they go to the gym every day and are in peak physical condition.
Often, these teams live together in their own house together, go to the gym together, and do everyday activities with each other. This furthers the bond that teammates have with each other, and their gameplay reflects it.
With all these similarities, one could argue that E-Sports is a sport. Technically, by the very definition of the word, sport. It is not a sport. But in the updated sense and how E-Sports are treated right now, they don't need to be called sports. They are in their own genre of entertainment that they run all on their own. The numbers that E-Sports pulls in every single day, are absolutely undeniable.
E-Sports are some of the fastest growing networks of entertainment in the world, and they are growing more everyday. So it is better to accept the future, than be left in the past.
I fully support E-sports, I think that it should be a sport and in truth you can ask almost anybody and they will say that it is a sport I mean... its in the name E-"SPORTS" Ive always wanted to be really good at E-sports so we'll see what happens :)
ReplyDeleteI don't understand your thesis statement? Also, you seemed to contradict yourself in your first three sentences. I don't think you release enough kinetic energy crunching buttons in E-sport than you would in any other sport. ;)
ReplyDeleteIt is not a contradiction, as I was just stating that people are starting to think about the definition of sport, not whether it is a sport or not.
DeleteI see the points you are both making. the reader can tell what you meant, Jarrett. But, you could have been more clear. Instead of saying, "...people have started to question whether they are real sports." You point could have been more clearly expressed by saying something like, "...people are starting to question the traditional definition of the word 'sport' to include E-Sports."
DeleteI really like what you did with your post. Now all they need to do is make Super Smash Brothers an E-Sport. very competitive game. anyways, E-SPORTS=SPORTS
ReplyDeleteI think I understand E-sports a little better now from this post. I would need to see a "round" or tournament to really understand, but this helps a lot.
ReplyDelete