The “Is eSports a Real Sport?” Debate


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The "Is eSports a Real Sport?" Debate

Seeing the "Is eSports a Real Sport?" debate in almost every second article mentioning eSports over the years, I decided to gather together some key viewpoints that keep repeating themselves.

To start with, the "Is eSports a Real Sport?" debate generally divides into four different stances:

  1. Yes, eSports is a real sport.
  2. No, eSports is not a real sport.
  3. eSports will become regarded as a real sport in the future, but public opinion still isn't ready to regard eSports as a real sport.
  4. Who cares whether or not eSports is a real sport?

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1. The "Yes, eSports is a Real Sport" Stance

On this side of the debate, you'll usually see it headed by a definition of "sport," followed by how "eSport" fulfills each aspect of that definition.

For example, let's take Merriam-Webster's definition of "sport," which is:

  • a contest or game in which people do certain physical activities according to a specific set of rules and compete against each other
  • sports in general
  • a physical activity (such as hunting, fishing, running, swimming, etc.) that is done for enjoyment

Breaking it down with regard to eSport:

  • eSport is definitely a "contest or game." This is a no-brainer: games are what gamers play.

Well Duh

  • eSport does include "certain physical activities according to a specific set of rules." The physical activities involve lots of intricately focused movements of the hands and fingers on either a computer or console. For example, StarCraft 2 players are known for needing to have high APM (actions-per-minute) rates in order to be successful at the game. APM is an average rate of how quickly one's fingers move, and according to pro StarCraft 2 player Nada, to win a StarCraft 2 championship it is expected to have an APM of 200+ to 300+ [Source: Korean Gamers: APM Demonstration].
Losira APM
Losira playing StarCraft 2
  • There are most definitely a "specific set of rules" that players abide by in order to "compete against each other."
  • Moreover, the first definition of "sport" above better defines a pro eSports gamer, whereas the third definition better defines a casual competitive gamer.

Some key players in the conversation surrounding whether or not eSports is a real sport include former pro gamer, referee, coach and ESL (Electronic Sport League) director, Michal "Carmac" Blicharz, Razer's eSports associate manager Drew Holt-Kentwell and even the U.S. Government.

Michal "Carmac" Blicharz, a former judo practitioner who today dedicates much of his life to the world of eSports, states his "Yes, eSport is a real sport" stance quite definitively:

I’ve sweated on the judo mat enough times to have a good opinion about it. ... Judo and eSports are not that dissimilar. ... There are tournaments, you have to climb up a ladder to eventually compete with the best. In terms of training you have to put in the same amount of hours, perhaps even more in eSports. You study strategy, technique and opponents. All the elements are there – the excitement, the adrenalin, players crying tears of sorrow and joy. [Source: BBC, "Is Computer Gaming Really Sport?"]

Also quoting the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of "sport," Razer's eSports associate manager Drew Holt-Kentwell gave a thorough, even passionate statement about how he considers eSports to be a real sport:

The issue of what is or isn't a sport isn't really a question of opinion. According to Merriam-Webster, a 'sport' is 'a contest or game in which people do certain physical activities according to a specific set of rules and compete against each other, eSports is a competition, absolutely. Moreover, gaming athletes have to train bodily and mentally to be competitive or they lose. eSports requires extraordinary coordination, hyper-fast reflex responses, teamwork, and physical and mental dexterity and endurance — often for extended periods of time under the pressure of strictly enforced game rules. [Source: Polygon, "Does eSports need ESPN before the mainstream accepts it?"]

What was one of the biggest breakthroughs for eSports garnering recognition as a real sport took place in 2013 with the U.S. Government. As of 2013, the U.S. Government acknowledged professional eSports gamers as professional athletes and started granting pro eSports athletes U.S. visas. As written in a 2013 Forbes article:

It’s not just the eSports community that views players as athletes now, the U.S. Government does as well. ... After long back and forth with the government, the U.S. finally now recognizes eSports players as professional athletes, and will grant them visas under that identifier. This will dramatically streamline the process for foreign players to enter the U.S. for events, and it’s a big victory for the scene. [Source: Forbes, "The U.S. Now Recognizes eSports Players As Professional Athletes"]

2. The "No, eSports Is Not a Real Sport" Stance

Usually, what you'll see thrown around on this side of the debate is that:

  • eSports is a "game" and a "competition," but not a "sport"
  • eSports is more like a board game than a sport
  • eSports is not a sport because the finger and hand movements don't justify it as being an "athletic activity," which is also prevalent in many "sport" definitions (e.g. the definition of sport at Dictionary.com: "an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature.")

The most infamous of all "No, eSports is not a sport" arguments came from ESPN President John Skipper at a New York conference for Re/code's Code/Media Series when he was asked to comment on Amazon's $1 billion acquisition of Twitch: "It's not a sport. It’s a competition. Chess is a competition. Checkers is a competition. Mostly, I’m interested in doing real sports."

Common among "No, eSports is not a sport" arguments is that they mostly come from the older generation, and they also mostly come from people who are either unknowledgeable, inactive or uninterested in eSports.

This picture becomes most evident in the HBO Sports' show Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel where a panel including Mary Carillo, Frank Deford and Bernard Goldberg (i.e. a bunch of older generation folk) ridiculed eSports and its fans. In the show, one of the speakers commented that "it's a game, not a sport," while they continued to crack jokes comparing eSports fans to Star Trek fans, obviously stemming from a lack of knowledge about eSports and a lack of any connection with the eSport community.

However, Sam Byford is neither of the older generation, nor someone who is unknowledgeable or uninterested in eSports. Sam, however, still holds the view that eSports is not a real sport. His main point is that competitive video gaming has been around for decades, but only due to the recent rise in popularity and money going into gaming tournaments is this "Is eSports a real sport?" debate taking place.

I think it’s cool that millions of people will watch Dota players compete for millions of dollars this week. Really, I do. But to apply a label like "eSports" is optimistic at best and specious at worst. It implies that a substantial paradigm shift has occurred, all the while ignoring the fact that serious gaming tournaments have been going on for decades — and often with games that have much more in common with actual sports than MOBAs. Let’s call Dota tournaments what they are: very well-organized video game events. Yeah, you can get a scholarship in League of Legends, if you’re good enough. But you could have made a living playing Quake in 1996. [The Verge, "Can Video Games be Sports?"]

 

3. The "eSports will become regarded as a real sport in the future, but public opinion still isn't ready to regard eSports as a real sport" Stance

Generally, those who mostly identify with this statement are those who believe that eSports is a real sport, but that the definition of eSports as sport depends on public opinion generally accepting that statement.

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In other words, until you could walk up to the next person on the street and ask them "Is eSports a real sport?" and they would respond with, "Well duh" (i.e. the same kind of response you'd get today if you asked someone whether basketball is a real sport) then you could safely say that eSports is a real sport.

Gfinity's Mr. Jonno 95 states that it's a matter of the younger generation's ready acceptance of eSports as a real sport, due to our growing up with the Internet integrated into our lives, vs. the older generation's non-acceptance of eSports as a real sport, due to it being too new of a phenomenon to grasp. So then it just becomes a matter of time until today's younger generation grows up, thus growing the awareness of eSports as a real sport into the public mindset:

I view eSports as the sport of a modern generation. Within our era, we have grown up with YouTube celebrities and competitive gaming as the norm, while older generations are more comfortable around the typical characteristics of standard television and entertainment.

eSports will continue to grow at a rate previously unheard of in other sports industries, therefore I have no doubt      that it will be classed as an authentic sport in the near future. However, for the time being, I do believe eSports enthusiasts and community members should reframe themselves from pursuing the vindication from other outlets. In time, they will grow to understand us, but at the moment we are still technically an anomaly, and that is okay. After all, we are first people to pioneer this new phenomenon. [Source: Gfinity, "Is eSports a Real Sport?"]

In another "Is eSports a Real Sport?" debate article, The Verge's "Can Video Games be Sports?," Vlad Savov adds that eSports has all the same paraphernalia that sports has, and that it's just a matter of time until the "Yes, eSports is a Real Sport" consciousness spreads among the masses.

Just like their traditional counterparts, eSports have teams, star players, jersey sponsorships, and millions of adoring followers producing volumes of fan art. Dota 2, the other big title besides LoL that’s driving the rising popularity of eSports, recently sold out Seattle’s KeyArena in less than an hour. The weeklong event that everyone was so eager to attend is The International 4, whose main event starts next week and will decide the winners of an astounding $10.5 million prize pool. Until now, those who consider pro gaming inferior to professional athletics could point to the gap in money and event attendance between the two. After this epic tournament is done, it’ll be hard if not impossible to distinguish between eSports and conventional ones.

4. The "Who cares whether or not eSports is a real sport?" Stance

Mostly, people who are deeply involved with eSports on a day-by-day,moment-by-moment basis have heard this "Is eSports a real sport?" debate going back and forth so much that they just pull out of it swiftly with a "Who cares?" stance.

The common idea behind this stance is that eSports is powering forward, there is a lot of work to do and a lot more progress to make, so who cares whether or not it's a real sport? Let's do what we need to do, let's keep adding to the eSports community, and let other people bother themselves with philosophizing over whether or not eSports is a real sport.

One of the most evident materializations of this attitude took place in "The Business of eSports" panel discussion held at the Georgetown University in 2014. The panel brought together four heavy duty members of the eSports world, each having lived and breathed eSports for a long time: Sean "Day[9]" Plott (eSports host & personality & game developer), Chris Radtke (Director of Content Strategy, Ziff Davis), Ben Goldhaber (Director of Content Marketing, Twitch), and Rod "Slasher" Breslau (veteran eSports Journalist).

You could feel the tiredness of dealing with this topic exhaustively in Rod Breslau's quick-draw response when the topic arose from an audience question:

It does not matter if eSports is a sport! We can stop having this argument. We never ever have to have it, ever again. It does not matter. Stop asking this question, really! People like to play it. There's competition around it. There's money around it. There's an industry around it, and that's all you need to know, and we never need to talk about this ever again! [Source: "The Business of eSports"]

Sean Plott quickly followed up Breslau's statement by rephrasing "Is eSports a sport?" as "Are potatoes art?"

Tech in Asia writer C. Custer wrote an article on the "Is eSports a real sport?" debate, which concluded with the "Who cares?" stance along the same lines. Other than giving more meat to this stance within the "Is eSports a real sport?" conversation, Custer did mention he considered one context in which eSports being considered a real sport mattered: that pro eSports gamers could get visas to travel.

eSports players are already considered athletes for the purposes of getting their visas, and that’s the only context       in which the definition of eSports as a sport (or not) really matters.

Whether or not Dota 2 (for example) is considered a sport has no bearing on how the game is played or how it is enjoyed. You can still have fun watching TI5 next year even if ESPN’s president doesn’t think eSports are sports. And you’ll still be able to play League of Legends like a casual video game, even if your friend considers it a serious sport. Whether or not the public considers eSports a sport affects nothing. It doesn’t matter.

Of course, in posting this article, I realize I’m perpetuating the “is it or isn’t it” discussion too. But I think this is worth pointing out because this argument takes a lot of time and energy that could be more productively spent elsewhere.

Call eSports whatever you want. But instead of arguing over definitions, let’s focus on improving the stability of local competitive scenes, improving the reputations of eSports gaming communities, and improving the experience of watching the best players ply their trade in competitive matches. I think the eSports scene will grow more quickly (and more healthily) if we stop caring about the definitions, stop trying to compare it to established sports, and focus on improving the scene without worrying about what category it falls under. [Source: "Are eSports Actually Sports? Who Cares"]

The exponential boom in eSports popularity is undeniable. Along with more money, more sponsors, more competition and more of an industry building up around eSports, this "Is eSports a real sport?" question constantly presents itself the more eSports expands. So far, convincing the U.S. Government that eSports is a real sport has paid off in that non-U.S. players can compete and stay in the U.S. more easily. Is this really the "only context in which the definition of eSports as a sport (or not) really matters," as C. Custer put it?

There are still plenty of venues and events hosting sporting events that haven't yet recognized eSports, so wouldn't it matter if eSports gets in those too? Wouldn't it be great if there were League of Legends, Dota 2, StarCraft 2, World of Warcraft, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Call of Duty, etc. tournaments at the next Olympic Games?

Interestingly enough, when eSports became recognized as a 2nd level Olympic sport by the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC), you'd think that gamers would be happy in having another step forward for eSports becoming recognized as a real sport.

But that wasn't the case. Gamers complained about the move, saying how the Olympic organizing committee was getting desperate to reach out to youth, how the sheer amount of games and the changing nature of eSports complicates the idea of having it as "one sport" at the Olympics, as well as remarks favoring keeping sporting events and eSporting events separate [Source: eSports Now Recognized as 2nd Level Olympic Sport].

What Do You Think?

What's your stance on the whole "Is eSports a real sport?" debate? Write your response in the comments below...

  1. Yes, eSports is a real sport.
  2. No, eSports is not a real sport.
  3. eSports will become regarded as a real sport in the future, but public opinion still isn't ready to regard eSports as a real sport.
  4. Who cares whether or not eSports is a real sport?

Exclusive Blog Post Bonus: Click here to get access to a free report on how to launch your pro eSports gaming career »

 
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