The idea of sports and competition has been around for a long time, and there have been some extremely culturally impactful sports created over the years. Now, there has been another type of sport to enter the picture: esports.
Esports have become increasingly popular in recent times, and with the constant rise of competitiveness in the video games industry, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop any time soon. With this constant rise, though, there has been a debate on whether or not these new forms of entertainment should be considered “real sports.” The general argument against the branding of esports to be sports is that sports are defined to be “athletic competitions” and that esports do not meet that requirement. Christopher Parks, the swim and dive coach at LASA, argued for esports to be considered sports.
“I don’t see why not, I mean, it feels like it’s kind of a new frontier for athletes nowadays,” Parks said. “I wouldn’t rule it out as a possibility for the younger generations.”
The Director of the esports team at Ohio State University, John Price, explained that the criteria generally used to decide whether or not esports should be considered sports are not necessarily the most important ones. He described that, when different criteria are used, esports should be put in the same category as their physical counterparts.
“That conversation is trying to look at sports as an athletic contest specifically,” Price said. “And I think for those individuals that value that element, they might not see it as sport, but for myself, sport is all about the competition and the community that’s around it. At the end of the day, there are a lot of activities that often fall under sports that might not normally fit those conditions as well.”
Griffin Vaz, a freshman at LASA, believes that esports are sports, just not with the athletic effort seen in traditional sports. He considered that they offer different challenges, though.
“They have competitions as well as the word ‘sports’ being in the name,” Vaz said. “Even though it’s not as much of a physical exertion, it’s a lot more mental of a sport compared to others, instead of physical. They also have entire teams dedicated to them.”
Parks stated that esports could match traditional sports in terms of spectator entertainment. He does believe, however, that it may not come as rapidly as some think it will.
“For me personally, probably not,” Parks said. “But for y’all’s generation, I think so. Whether it be a football game or a simulated recreation of war in a game, there is that desire to experience that thing in person, so I think it would be tough.”
Vaz also thinks that big developments in the world of esports in terms of entertainment will happen with the younger generations growing into adults. He believes that this could have esports compete with traditional spectator sports in that respect.
“I think they will begin to [develop more into spectator sports] because of the growing amount of technological use in the world,” Vaz said. “Especially as the younger generations get older, it will attract more of a crowd.”
Price believes that esports could easily be presented as a source of entertainment to older generations as well. He suggested that people just need to experience it for themselves.
“I talked to a lot of administrators, a lot of parents, and such, that don’t understand what esports are,” Price said. “But when I can show them an entire arena filled with fans cheering on this game, they have no idea what’s going on on the television. They don’t have to know what’s going on on the television to understand what it is everyone’s excited about.”
There are a lot of different ways to show prowess over others, and this one seems to be coming much faster than a lot of people are prepared for. This new era of competition will bring so many opportunities that weren’t necessarily possible in the past.
Looking for esports to compete with the likes of football, soccer, or baseball is not entirely realistic at the moment. They may, though, be a much bigger part of the sporting world in the future.
