Recently I read a couple of articles expressing how the University of Utah has been giving out scholarship money to E-Sports “athletes.” While I found this amusing at first and was kind of confused about it, the more I’ve thought about it the more I came to the real that E-Sports are in fact sports.
All of this is up for debate, but to alleviate some confusion, let’s get clear on the definition of sport. A quick Google search will tell you that a sport is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.”
So let’s break this apart, let’s start with the most obvious connection, entertainment. I don’t play a lot of video games but I do play Super Smash Bros and occasionally a video of a couple of pros duking it out will come up on my YouTube suggestions, and holy cow is it impressive to see the skill these guys play with. I wouldn’t sit down to watch a multi-hour tournament like I do with other sports, but it is entertaining to watch a little on occasion. I know there are people out there who watch hours of E-Sports so I know there’s a market for this kind of entertainment.
As for competition, it’s fairly obvious that a lot of video games are built around a competition aspect. So in E-Sports, there is a clear winner and a clear loser. They know exactly how to measure who is winning at any given moment and it is heated at times. These gamers are extremely competitive and it shows.
Lastly, the most controversial part of E-Sports fitting into tge definition of a traditional sport, physical exertion. Now when you see these kids playing their games one of the last thoughts that comes to your mind is “athlete.”
They are by no means going to be able to step into a real world athletic competition and do very well. Not that they all are this way, but as a general idea, this is how they are. But studies have shown that during a competition, E-sports athlete’ heart rates averaged out around 160-180 beats per minute, which is faster than my heart beats when I run a few miles. Multiple sources have argued that the physical tax taken on the body for these E-sports athletes is comparable to that of professLionel athletes in traditional sports.
So even though it is obviously a hotly debated topic, I’m going to lean towards the side of the battle that argues for E-sports being a real sport. Yeah, it’s not a traditional sport, but it fits the bill. So next time you see an E-sport, take a second and admire them because some of these E-sport athletes could become as famous as the greats of sporting history.
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