Introduction

In the summer of 2018, esports surprised many people by making it onto the stage of Asia’s highest multi-sport event, the Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia. Esports is a derivative of the online video game market, but not just a game, it is a new sport that can bring economic benefits while being highly ornamental and competitive. However, over the years, many people have prejudiced against it, believing that Esports is violent, skill-less, unheeded, and doesn’t do anything physically. Consequently, I will discuss these arguments in this paper to change the false stereotypes.

 

Is Esports a Sport?

For a long time, there has been resistance to treat esports as a real sport, because they usually associate esports with traditional video games, and think the match of esports does not compete through the player’s physical activities. In fact, esports is very different from video games. Video game players only focus on entertainment activities, which is affecting the player’s study and work. And the game manufacturer will also add a variety of chargeable skin, special weapons, and loot boxes to incite the vanity of the players and the psychology of comparison, attract players to spend money, and indulge in the games. However, esports has the basic characteristics of sports to a large extent. Due to the need to ensure fair competition, there are no special weapons or something else that would affect the fairness of matches, which is mainly focusing on operation ability and teamwork. Also, esports is the same as the traditional sport in essence. Physical activity is one of the most important parts of the esports as well because the esports requires hand-eye coordination and human-computer interaction, and the high-intensity training also requires good health conditions. Therefore, Esports is “a form of sports where the primary aspects of the sport are facilitated by electronic systems; the input of players and teams as well as the output of the eSports system are mediated by human-computer interfaces” (Hamari & Sjöblom, 2017).

 

Is Esports Still Unheeded?

Semi-professional clubs that may be disbanded at any time; semi-professional events that are intermittently operated; low esports event award and player salaries… Various factors have caused professional players to have to face many practical problems-meager salaries, Family ‘s opposition, the social pressure of public opinion and even their own confidence, and so on. The original esports industry was small and unheeded, but it is heading to a new era after decades of development. “Double-digit growth rates, sold-out stadiums, millions of spectators, and award money totaling several million euros clearly show that eSports stopped being a fringe phenomenon long ago” (Schrage, 2019). Various data show the prosperity of today’s esports industry. In a sense, the esports industry is developing in the same way as the traditional sports industry. Because “the esports industry basically functions like those of traditional sports: The teams play games that are organized in leagues or tournaments and the fans can follow them on a variety of platforms”(Schrage, 2019). As the esports events are becoming more popular, the value of esports players is rising. The transfer value of esports players has reached astonishing tens of millions which is not even lower than well-known sports stars. Nowadays, esports has formed an integrated industry chain that contains clubs, advertising sponsorship, stream, live broadcast of sports events, esports training, and so on. The vigorous development of esports has made it an indispensable part of today’s society.

(Schrage, 2019)

 

Esports, Only for “Nerds”?

Like fast food; not taking a shower often; messy hair; NEET; shy and not good at socializing. These are probably the opinions of most people for esports players. That is not true! “The eSports community is global, young, digitally literate, and very well-educated. The core audience is between 18 and 34 years old. Women account for about 30 percent of the total — and this proportion is increasing. Two-thirds of esports fans are university students or graduates, and many of them are studying or have degrees in IT, engineering or management ”(Schrage, 2019). These evidence show that most esports players are not nerds, they have stable jobs; they are well educated; they are usually good at socializing as public figures; they also have dreams. As an esports fan for almost 10 years, I really hope everyone can respect esports because esports fans and players were always facing unequal biases in the past years. The person who has a dream is worth respecting.

(Schrage, 2019)

 

Conclusion

In the future of the world, half of the sports are real sports, while the other half of the sports are virtual esports. The audience can cheer for the players or teams they supported and cheered for their wonderful operation and perfect team fight. This is the real stimulus brought to the audience by esports. With the fierce development of esports, esports will gradually integrate into our daily life like traditional sports. Inadvertently, esports is changing your life.

Reference: 

Hamari, J. and Sjöblom, M. (2017), “What is eSports and why do people watch it?”, Internet Research, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 211-232. Retrieved from https://www-emerald-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IntR-04-2016-0085/full/html

Schrage, G. (2019, January 25). “But that’s not a sport!”, Daimler blog. Retrieved from https://www.daimler.com/magazine/culture/esports-mercedes-benz-gaming-misunderstandings-lol-dota2.html