ASSIGNMENT #3

Case Study 2: Esports

Sitting in front of a computer and playing video games is not the image that comes to mind when a person thinks of an athlete. Instead, an image of someone who may not be physically fit and lacks athletic abilities is usually the stereotype that is associated. In some cases, people would refer to a gamer as a nerd or associate it with nerd culture (Kendall, 2011). The term gamer can be used to classify many different types of people. The most popular classification are people that play board games, collectible card games, and video games. or the purpose of this paper, the term gamer will be used to describe individuals that participate in competitive video gaming. With the advance of technology, competitive video gamers are starting to demonstrate the same athletic properties as traditional sports athlete. The concept of video games has also changed. Instead of playing video games recreationally, people are starting to play video games competitively in tournaments that closely resemble sports competition.

What are esports? Esports turn a variety of video games into a professional sport. USA reported mentioning that Call of Duty could be considered the “football” of the gaming world. Esports – played by competitive video gamers and watched by spectators from around the globe, drew more than 258 million viewers last year, according to research from SuperData, USA reported.

Esports has been rivaling all other sporting events 2014, ESPN reported at the time. The competitive gaming industry is made up of players, fans, sponsors, and tournaments, just like the sporting industry.

As video games soar in popularity, gamers themselves are becoming stars and gathering fans by the tens of thousands. Prize money and viewership for game tournaments have grown astronomically in recent years. Just this year, the Season 4 Finals of League of Legends sold out 40,000 seats in the Seoul World Cup Stadium — Asia’s largest soccer stadium. As e-sports increase in popularity and realism, celebrity gamers will challenge physical sports stars for fans’ adulation and screen time.

The first video game competition can be traced back to October 19, 1972, at Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in which about two dozen students competed playing Spacewar (Li, 2016). One of the first recognized competitive tournaments in video games was when Atari held a multi-city competition that offered 10,000 participants a chance to become a world champion in Space Invaders (“Players Guide”, 1982). Since then the way video games have been played has changed. The evolution of eSports is now known as competitive video gaming (Li, 2016). ESports can be a general term that includes all the various eSports leagues from around the world. Each league could be compared to a different sports league that plays the same sport such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Bellator and Invicta Fighting Championship. The various eSports leagues have different rules, play different games, rank professionals differently and host tournaments and competitions. The consistent aspect throughout the leagues is that the competitors play video games and the athletes that win matches consistently could progress to a professional level.

One of the biggest debates concerning eSports is whether competitive video gaming can be defined as a sport. The definition of sport has been attempted many times, and a universal definition has not been determined (Perks, 1999). Rather than a definitive academic definition, people refer to the Oxford English Dictionary (n.d.) definition, “An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment” (para. 1). The definition of sport needs to be discussed to ensure that eSports can be defined as a sport.

According to recent figures by the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board), 67% of households play video games, and the average gamer is 34 years old. With Nielsen reporting that the biggest segment of sports viewers are essentially the same demographic, video games could chip away at the traditional sports revenue stream.

Traditional sports viewership may lose its pull as a generation raised on gaming seeks more interactive entertainment. As metrics and simulation modeling become more available to the public, fans will increasingly want to run the teams themselves.

As video games soar in popularity, gamers themselves are becoming stars and gathering fans by the tens of thousands. Prize money and viewership for game tournaments have grown astronomically in recent years. Just this year, the Season 4 Finals of League of Legends sold out 40,000 seats in the Seoul World Cup Stadium — Asia’s largest soccer stadium. As e-sports increase in popularity and realism, celebrity gamers will challenge physical sports stars for fans’ adulation and screen time.

Last year, Robert Morris University in Illinois offered 45 athletic scholarships to  League of Legends video game players. Yes, athletic scholarships for joystick jockeys. It turns out that when gamers stop playing against the computer and instead play against other real people, videogames take on the human drama of sports. E-sports are here to stay.

One challenge for the sports industry: making sure kids keep playing sports titles rather than other genres. One leg up: Sports are a universal language, easy to get grounded in and understand. Drop into a basketball video game for the first time, and you intuitively have a sense of what to do — get the ball in the hoop, or go for a rebound. Drop into League of Legends, and the average rookie would be totally lost. This is sports’ massive initial advantage — which it needs to press forward on immediately while this market emerges.

Although it is difficult to predict the future, fans will find it increasingly easy to “play” against their idols. Not only will individual gamers become famous, but teams leagues, and franchises will also coalesce. EA has invested heavily in FIFA Pro Clubs, which allow for up to 11 players on one team to face off against opponents online. A talent ecosystem will emerge, including coaches, high school and college teams, ranked amateurs, farm clubs, semipro and full-time professional players. As with sports, scouts will evaluate and offer contracts to younger and younger players.

Question abound. They include issues of fairness, gender equity and Title IX for example. If athletic scholarships are offered, what about governance and the NCAA? How about governance at the professional level and inclusion in the Olympics and other worldwide events? Now we also have to deal with legalized sports gambling. Going back to the beginning and central question, though: should esports be treated like other sports, and are they “real sports” anyway?