Argument Essay

In today’s advanced technological world there are countless types of new technologies that people can use in different ways. One type of technology that has had a steady increasing market over the past several decades is video games. Developers today have been able to create virtual games using advanced gaming systems and computers that give the player an incredible single player or multi-player online experience with others in several different types of themes like a sports game where you can play as your favorite athlete, a military strategic game where you can make yourself feel as if you are on a military mission in enemy territory, or a more fictional game full of exciting fictional creatures and settings that bring a person’s imagination to life beyond the real word. In the past several years video gaming has taken a large step into the sporting world. Gamers have begun to gain sponsors that have created the professional face of gaming you see today. The major term that has come to represent professional video gaming is eSports or Electronic Sports. There have been arguments on whether these video gamers are actually true professional athletes in their line of work. Many people say video gamers are not athletes at all because sitting in front of a screen playing a video game has no attempt at physical exertion which is what you see in all other sports like soccer, football, tennis, or lacrosse. Though the video game industry has its doubters, many people have come to see video games as a new and upcoming sport that calls for extreme mental and physical skills to perform at a professional level. Video games should be considered a real sport because to perform at a professional level a player must have a high set of skills to perform like an athlete in any other professional sport and there is a very large world market for video games.

I play video games almost every day as well as other common sports like basketball and tennis. Anyone can evaluate that there are major differences between being something like a professional video gamer compared to a professional football player. Does the lack of physical activity in gaming truly not make video games a sport? By definition a sport is “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature” (Kipfer). To be a professional video gamer one most likely must have outstanding hand eye coordination as well as an extreme mental capability to process everything that is happening on the screen in front of them. For teamed sports in video gaming a person also must show a high level of communication by being able to process large amounts of data on the screen then having the ability to relay it to fellow teammates. Is all of this enough for eSports to be considered a real sport rather than just a hobby?

Three major components that can be compared for a video gamer to other athletes are strategy, fitness, and reaction times. Strategy is a major changing and complicated part of online gaming in games such as League of Legends, StarCraft, Tom Clancy’s Siege, sports games, etc. Some scientists have done studies on video games to analyze brain activity and some have actually come to say that video games may give better indication of exceptional intelligence than a game like chess. Teams that are apart of eSports who want to succeed most likely must spend large amounts of time coming up with different types of game plans for all different scenarios which they might see in competitive gameplay (Dirs). Typically, eSports players do not have any type of physically fit criteria they must meet to be a part of a team or organization. Other major sports typically almost always have some form of physical endurance, fitness, or strength testing like in soccer or boxing. Though there are not usually set criteria for players, most eSports athletes have come to accept the notion that regular exercise and eating healthy lead to having a fitter more adaptable mind (Dirs). Reaction times are a crucial part of eSports gaming because in competitive gameplay, whether it is one on one or a team vs another team, the fastest players will most likely win. Most eSports athletes have remarkable minds with lighting fast reflexes. An average eSports athlete can make more than 300 actions per minute in a team based framework. Studies of eSports athletes compared to the common population has come to show that their reflexes and mental agility are much higher (Dirs). Though information like this is available, many people still argue that because of a lack of physical exertion eSports is not a true sport. Former UK snowboarding champion Tim Warwood is a prime example of these thoughts by stating

“To have kids sitting there looking at computer screens indoors, alongside snowboarding and freestyle skiing and all the rest, it just doesn’t seem right,” he says. “When I was a kid, sport was all about getting outside,