This debate on whether online gaming should be considered a professional sport has been raging very strongly of late. With the ever-surging popularity of eSports, most people think that professional gaming bears numerous similarities to other conventional sporting activities. This article explores whether online gaming should be accorded the status of a professional sport.
Professional online gaming is an emerging field. It requires loads of skill, strategy, and dedication. Hundreds of hours are spent sharpening the edge of skills, learning the games, and thinking through strategies that would defeat other players. eSports gamers must possess quick reflexes and the ability to make instantaneous decisions while under pressure.
While playing the game won't require an equal amount of physical activity, it still demands remarkable effort from the gamer. Pro gamers often work too hard through rigorous practice sessions while taking care of their health. Physical exercises make way for better reaction timing and endurance. While mental practices are in store for maintaining focus and nerve during competitions.
Gaming offers a competitive hierarchy with, as stated, numerous tournaments at different levels. One of their structures is almost a mirror image of the traditional sporting event format. Events attract audiences running into millions, backed by multi-million-dollar prize pools just to prove the case of professional gaming competition.
At times, Pro-eSports players do have sponsorship deals like other athletes. The business goes around the teams and individual players with companies putting their money in support and branding. Again, this depth of professionalism and commercial interest seals the deal that online gaming needs to be taken as a professional sport.
With an exciting gaming app, it becomes transparent that professional gaming does not have a full stop here. This investment, viewership, and eagerness for competition set up a good argument for considering eSports as a professional sport. With the change in perception, one does feel certain that online gaming should be taken as a professional sport.
It's at par, or even larger than that, with a global reach and fan base that traditional sports boast. To this very end, fans can watch live gameplay streams and tournaments through Twitch and YouTube. For the greater part, it forms a great view and manned-up community to the tee. The kind of viewers that log in and the feel of the fans simply overwhelm the proof of the impact that professional gaming has on culture.
Much like traditional sports, eSports has organizations like the Electronic Sports League popularly known as ESL and Major League Gaming, or MLG. These bodies make sure due process is followed within set norms and guidelines regarding good player conduct. The existence of such regulatory structures also serves to further undermine the legitimacy of the idea of professional gaming as a sport.
Even with these solid arguments, several people still believe that online gaming does not deserve to be considered a professional sport. Opponents always point towards the lack of physical activity for its disqualification for any sort of characterization as a sport. This probable health impact through continuous gaming on strained eyesight and issues that relate to repetitive stress injuries further raises concerns.
On whether online gaming should be considered a professional sport, there is quite a hoary debate. If viewed from the competitive structure, professionalism, and global fans, eSports comes extraordinarily near to traditional sports.
Though there are valid arguments on both sides, growing popularity and legitimacy spell out a stronger case for professional gaming being classified as a sport. Once online gaming continues to grow in the industry, this sport shall finally be regarded as professional.