Whether or not esports, the competitive play of multiplayer video games, should be considered sports next to the likes of traditional sports such as football, golf, or basketball. There are some people, such as myself, who advocate that esports be given the same recognition as any other sport. On the other hand there are people who think the esports should not be considered a sport. When it comes to the debate on esports, I believe the groups with the most influence are colleges, television stations, and the different game developers.
In my previous blog post titled Esports, an Introduction, I mentioned that there are couple schools in the United States that are offering sports scholarships for esports athletes. I think this is important because it shows that there is money in esports, for both the school as well as the student getting the scholarships. The sports scholarships also show that choosing to be a professional esports athlete can be just as viable of a career goal as trying to become an athlete in what might be considered a traditional sport. I also think esports will get more attention if collegiate teams become successful, garnering the attention of other schools. Hopefully in the future other colleges and universities will accept esports, and if enough do it might bring esports to the attention of larger and more influential organizations, such as TV networks.
I feel that Television has a lot of influence on the legitimacy of esports. Television networks would be able to broaden the audience and expose esports to potential viewers. For example, ESPN started broadcasting poker and over the course of three years the number of participants in the Poker World Series grew by over one thousand percent and the prize pool nearly quintupled, according to the article Miller, H. (2013) Should Competitive Gaming Be On National TV? Experts Are Divided. I can only imagine what television coverage could do with esports, where some games already have more viewers than some traditional sports, says Soper, T. (2014) The rise of eSports: More people watch video game competitions than major sporting events. Unfortunately there are a couple problems in this way, mainly television companies that don’t consider esports sports, as I mentioned in my previous post, and secondly there is very little pressure from game developers trying to get their games on TV.
Game developers and different companies are able to choose how they want to promote their games. Companies like Riot, who made league of legends, Blizzard, who made Hearthstone and StarCraft, and Valve, who made DOTA2 and Counter Strike, all of which are currently the top games played in esports. I feel most of these companies don’t want to take the risk of trying to get their games televised. They are content with online streaming sites such as twitch.TV, an online streaming site, which in 2013 boasted viewership of 45 million users, according to O’Neill, P. (2014) Twitch dominated streaming in 2013, and here are the numbers to prove it. They feel that Twitch.TV is safe. The issue with Twitch.TV is it will not expose esports to new viewer since most people who use it already know what they are looking for. I think game developers need to take the risk and try to get more recognition from the general public.
References
Miller, H. (13, February 28). Should Competitive Gaming Be On National TV? Experts Are Divided. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
O’Neill, P. (2014, January 16). Twitch dominated streaming in 2013, and here are the numbers to prove it. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
Soper, T. (2014, April 3). The rise of eSports: More people watch video game competitions than major sporting events – GeekWire. Retrieved March 2, 2015.
Esports and English 