I’ve seen the topic of eSports come up a few times recently in the past few weeks and most of them seem to be centered around the question of whether eSports can rightfully call themselves a “sport”. The question seems to have come to the forefront because last Sunday, April the 26th, the Championship finals of a video game tournament of Blizzard’s new MOBA Heroes of the Storm aired on ESPN2. The airing of a video game competition on a channel dedicated to sports has received support, curiosity, and animosity from the sports and gaming community (h/t to Rowan for that link). So the question has naturally come up, can eSports, like what was shown on ESPN2, be considered a true sport?
First, that’s not the real question being asked. When someone asks whether an activity like video games can be considered a “sport”, what they are truly asking is “Can video games be taken as serious as organized sports like baseball, football, hockey, etc. and stand among them when the topic of sporting events come up?” Asking whether it’s a sport or not is a moot point, the question is really if it can be taken seriously. Is Ultimate frisbee a sport? How about Pool? Jiu Jitsu? Poker? Fistball? Horse racing? NASCAR? Chess? Bocce? Fencing? Disc golf? The list goes on and on. Some of these you will say yes to and some you may say no. It’s all about your personal history and how much you identify with the sports themselves. NASCAR, for example. All these people do is drive around a track over and over again. How can that be considered a sport? Or chess? There’s barely anything physical going on there! And Disc Golf and Fistball? What the heck are they?!
From the great comic PvP (http://www.pvponline.com/comic/2015/04/29/semantics)
But let’s be real here. Sports are a topic that many have taken in as part of their identity, and when someone who grew up in a town that worshiped their high school football team is then asked to accept that playing video games ranks on the same level as football, it’s taken as a personal insult. The definition of sports, no matter what Websters says, is different for each and every one of us. Therefore, the subject of what is and is not a sport is both completely meaningful and completely meaningless at the same time.
From a personal perspective, I play Ultimate during the summer with friends and disc golf all year long. I have a friend that played on the 2014 US Women’s Fistball Team and competed in Germany last year for the Fistball World Championships. My mother-in-law drives a Legends Series racecar on weekends at a local track. My cousin is a world-class professional BMX Biker. A friend of mine is a ranked chess player. I officiated Bocce last weekend at a Special Olympics competition. Our prom queen from high school has competed in Ironman races! So when I’m approached with the question of what is and is not a sport, in my mind almost everything is a sport. Almost literally everything. Heck, even the way my mother is capable of finding deals at yard sales and Ebay can be considered a sport, it’s that impressive.
The Legends Series #37 at a showcase. You can’t tell me that’s not a ballin’ racecar.
But the real question: Whether eSports (terrible name, by the way), though serious in it’s own right, will be held up as a “serious” sport the same way that baseball, football, hockey, and basketball are? I don’t think we’ll be seeing that anytime soon. It’s not because the Nielsen ratings on the Heroes of the Dorm broadcast (also a terrible name) were less than stellar. It’s because if you take a look at the list of other sports that have been trying to gain legitimacy in the eyes of people who only see four sports, their efforts have been less than encouraging. And yet they’re still there where it truly counts, pulling in niche crowds, getting on the 2nd string sports networks, finding dedicated fans, and making decent money.
So a big congratulations goes out to the UC Berkeley’s “Golden Bears” for taking home the Heroes of the Dorm Championship. Their fantastic rewards for their efforts: Paid. College. Tuition. $25,000 per year for up to 3 years. If that isn’t a phenomenal incentive to compete at the top of their game, I don’t know what is.
And the next time someone asks you how you can consider something you enjoy to be a sport, try not to take it personally. We all enjoy what we love for our own reasons, disparaging each other’s pursuits and hobbies gets us nowhere. But in a world where even the line between Fantasy Sports and RPGs is blurred, we do have one thing distinctly in common: Passion.
Keep that passion burning, all. It’d be a boring world without it.
//Ocho
P.S. – Now excuse me while I go score some tickets for an upcoming Philadelphia Spinners game.
*Header image taken from a screenshot from Heroes of the Storm promotional video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=21&v=tpdgGfu4gWw)
Ocholivis was the name of my first World of Warcraft character that I now use across all games. Gaming is my primary hobby and I’ve been playing games of all types for as long as I can remember all the way back to the Atari 2600. Fun fact: I still consider Mission: Impossible for the Atari one of the hardest games I’ve ever played.
I’m a fan of all styles of games, but generally tend to gravitate toward MMORPGs, RPGs, First Person Shooters, Strategy, Adventure, and Real Time Strategy. My Steam library is kinda ridiculous. My first real PC game I ever played was Ultima VI, and to this day I’m still a huge fan of the Ultima series.
My first MMO was, like a lot of people, World of Warcraft. I started playing the game in December of 2004 soon after it released and played it for much longer than I care to admit. Now, I play many games of many styles and will jump from game to game, genre to genre, but I love MMOs more than any other type.
Keep on being awesome and thanks for reading Holosuite Media!
//Ocho
- Are eSports Considered a “Sport”: The Quest for Legitimacy - May 2, 2015
- Tales from the Backlog: Champions of Krynn - April 21, 2015
- Developer Appreciation Week 2015 : Giving Thanks - April 4, 2015