E-Sports Competition
- Jomar Graza
- Mar 26, 2017
- 6 min read
Competition in terms of sports, mainly regarding the Olympics, has been going for centuries showing varying sports, each needing different levels of skill aspects to compete, to become the best. Most of these sports involve some sort of physical activity, with athletes training to compete in those conditions. But what about e-sports? E-sports or electronic sports is “a multiplayer video game played competitively for spectators, typically by professional gamers” (Google Definitions, 2017). When someone is asked this question they would normally think that video games should not be put into big sporting competitions such as the Olympics. Why is this?
Firstly, what games are included in the e-sports community?
League of Legends (LoL) is a free to play game available on PC and Mac. It is a fast-paced, competitive online game that blends the speed and intensity of an RTS (Real Time Strategy) with RPG (Role Playing Game) elements – according to League of Legends official website. There are two teams who go head to head, battling it out on the battlefield, killing each other to earn gold. The first team to destroy the opposing team’s "nexus" wins.
Overwatch is a paid game available on consoles (PS4 and Xbox) and PC. It is a team-based multiplayer shooting game, which is a first-person type of game. This means you see in the character's view of things. There are different game modes in Overwatch, all which involve shooting other players on the enemy team.
Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a paid game available on the Steam network for PC and Mac. It is a team multiplayer shooting game, with first-person views. It is the fourth game under the Counter Strike franchise. In competitive games, there are two teams, counter terrorist and terrorist. The counter terrorist’s aim is to kill all the terrorist before they plant the bomb and explode. The terrorist objective is to plant the explode the bomb.
There has been a rise in video game competitions recently, with games including League of Legends, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch and Defense of the Ancients 2. These games have held global competitions, with professionals who are very skilled in these games earning mass amounts of cash worth more than $5 million. According to esportsearning.com, the League of Legends World Competition in 2016 had a prize pool of $5,070,000, with 16 teams playing for the money. Streaming platforms have risen with the coming of video games and their own rise, with thousands of viewers streaming the content. Video game streamers earn a lot of money too, by just talking and playing video games live.
Many sporting organisations are now buying and acquiring e-sport teams. The Philadelphia 76ers own Team Dignitas, who have different teams playing in League of Legends, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm competitions. Organisations are buying these e-sport teams because of the money they will gain from the investment. Teams earn money from streams and playing in the competition, which have millions of viewers each game.
A lot of people don't see video games as a sport because of the perceived 'lack' the amount of effort and physicality that is needed. A lot of people see this and determine that people who do spend plenty of time playing video games are given the title of being lazy. Sure, playing specific video games don't require a lot of movement but that's why they are called e-sports. But in reality, professional e-sport players need a lot of skill with their reaction time, hand-eye coordination, knowledge and overall ability to play the game. No one says that we can't implement another category of sport into these competitions and it also fits in with the Olympic sports criteria. If people say video games aren't sports, why did one of the biggest gaming competitions hold its event in one of sport's greatest arenas. League of Legends World Championship sold out the Staples Center in LA, home of the LA Lakers and LA Clippers of the NBA. It was sold out, not for a basketball game but for a video game tournament.
These e-sport games admittedly lack areas regarding physical exertion although makes up for it with the amount of knowledge, mentality, eye-coordination skills, team communication, peripheral vision, patience, a certain degree of mechanical skill of the game and prediction skills needed. E-sport games aren't just watched by millions of people around the world for the game, they are watch for the players as well. The professionals that have high skill levels and IQ competing with each other predicting their moves with comebacks happening everywhere because of each individual team having high skill assists. For example, the League of Legends World Championship in 2016, over 43 million unique people were watching with a team winning the championship for the 3rd time.
However, should we invest our time to compete in e-sports? People around the world look at sports as not just some physical activity or hobby, but also as a career, That being said, should we do the same for e-sports? Thinking like this in a career aspect is sort of a gamble, just like most other sports. You train hard, work hard and work for the respect or you fail and sink to the bottom. So should we? Some people say it has too small of a chance, others say it is going to neglect academic opportunities that might arise, or some people say do what makes you happy in life. Although taking this chance will be risky, but that is pretty much the same for any other career in school, even if you study for one thing it still may be proven difficult to find a job in that position or you may have to neglect some subjects that are not in your proposed field of work and can be regretting in the future. But taking risks in life is normal, taking no risks inline and just playing it safe your entire life may be successful but would you be happy in the end? Would you regret all those missed opportunities you had to neglect simply because of you not wanting to take any risks? You can choose e-sports as a career as long as you want it. Want it hard enough and be dedication to it, just like any another career option you have to study hard for. You can't choose it as the career of your life just because you like video games, you need to have a passion for that one game itself. If so, dedicate your free time to the game, study everything in it, and strive to become the greatest player there ever was. Just like a traditional sport, train and do your best.
But you must remember to keep up with your school work. Where you are in high school or university, school is still important. A career in video games will not last a life time, so you should have a back-up plan. Being able to pursue your passion is great, but you should be prepared for the future, where you become one of the greatest e-sports players or a bust.
There are so many people who have dropped out of school in order to pursue their passion in professional video gaming. An example of this is Faze Clan. Although many of the members in Faze Clan are Youtubers now, they were once competitive Call of Duty players, competing to be the number one team. They pursued a career in Call of Duty, but they still finished high school, still needing to learn the essentials needed in life. They earned money from playing video games, and have now created their own e-sports company 'Faze Clan', hiring different players for different competitive games. They turned a hobby unto a career.
The professionals of these games are highly praised and respected because of their intelligence, skill and ability to predict actions and movement. Even if e-sports cannot be implemented in the Olympics, I'm confident they would grow a decent amount on their own, although both the people of the Olympics and of those in the e-sports community would benefit going more attention from people around the world. Who knows, maybe when people have mastered augmented reality and VR, or any other relating things, this could be implemented into the Olympics and e-sports, making it more enjoyable and fun. If e-sports can't get in, how can the future of 'sports' progress?
Download League of Legends here.
Buy Overwatch here.
Buy CS:GO here.
Download DOTA 2 here.
Watch e-sports live on Twitch here.
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