The thought of esports, the competitive play of multiplayer videogames, being considered a sport, is often considered ridiculous, and it should be easy to find respected sources that share this view. However this is not actually the case, in fact it is almost the opposite, finding respected individuals in favor of esports is actually far easier than finding those apposed. This is largely due to the issue of esport’s status not fully being in the public’s view, if at all. Most people who are aware of the issue are already prone to having the opinion that it’s a sport, while those who might be against the idea are not aware that the issue exists. This said, There is not a complete lack of opposing voices in the debate, arising from those, usually related to traditional sports, comes a push back against the idea that esports are actual sports. These voices of opposition can be split into two groups, those of “traditional” sport athletes and members of older generations.
The first group are those who belong to an older generation, with little about video games aside from that teens and young adults seem to waste a massive amount of time on them. This is the case for Bernard Goldberg and Frank Deford from the the video clip of HBO Sports which I discussed in more depth in Esports, the Opposition. both correspondents believed that the idea of playing video games as a sport was a laughable idea, mocking the very idea that esports could be a sport and that anyone who would want to watch it is somehow crazy. I believe that this opinion stems from a lack of knowledge of what esports is and what is required of the people who compete.
The second group is made up of people who are either athletes for traditional sports, or enjoy viewing traditional sports. I believe their beliefs stem from the idea that what they do/view, is more than what happens in esports, and that to consider esports as an actual sport somehow changes what a sport means. professional snowboarder Tim Warwood is one of these people who fall into this category. As I mentioned in the aforementioned post, he believes that sports means going out and getting dirty and sweaty, therefor esports are not sports in his eyes. I however do not entirely agree with him here, I believe that a sport is an organized display of strength, stamina, dexterity, and/or, in some cases, strategy, between two or more competing parties, therefore an esport is a sport, and doesn’t affect what he does or the legitimacy of his sport in any way.
Finding someone who believes that esports should be considered legitimate sports does not take long, relatively. I think, as I mention earlier, that this is a fairly underground issue so the majority of people discussing this issue are already fans of esports and of the opinion that its a real sport. This said, die hard fans of the game are not the only ones who think that esports are real sports. Douglas Heaven from New Scientist stated in his article Heaven, D. (2014) Rise and rise of esports, that in esports “Some players carry out more than 300 such actions a minute” and “ Add in the need to think strategically and outwit your opponent by pre-empting their moves, and the top players start to look superhuman.” I believe after saying something like that it would be hard to not consider esports to be some type of sport.
references
Heavan, D. (2014). Rise and rise of esports. New Scientist, 223(2982), 17-17. Retrieved April 17, 4.
Esports and English 