Should Video Games be Considered A Sport?
Video Games or competitively known as Esport is becoming widely popular among the new generation. Many so-called gamers are even making living playing video games. Whether streaming themselves gaming or pursuing a professional career as an Esport Players, the gaming market is a big market to make money. We here at Adrelien even working in cooperation with EPI Surge to launch our gaming team Adrelien Gaming. So in that context we all have the same question, is gaming actually a sport? or Esport is just a fancy name to give for professional players?
To answer this question we have to take a deep dive into the meaning of sport. As we are not language experts we will do our best to interpret the meaning and understand it. According to the oxford dictionary,
Sport is an activity that you do for pleasure and that needs physical effort or skill, usually done in a special area and according to fixed rules.
Gaming in general is bound by rules, which differ in each game. Furthermore, each Esport event or so-called Esport tournament is bound by rules just like any sport. Whether it is the number of the roaster to time and location. According to the meaning rules alone are not enough to consider it gaming as a sport. Skills are the factor that renders gaming an actual sport. The dictionary clearly stated that physical effort or skill is needed to be present in an activity to be called a sport, ‘or’ being the keyword here. Given that most gamers do have pleasure or fun playing the game. In a game where skill plays a role, It is safe to call playing a certain, competitive, is actually a sport. Just like there are physical activities that can be called a sport and some that aren’t. There exist some games that are made purely for fun and games that are made to be a competitive sport or so-called Esport.
Formula 1® Esports Series
Formula 1 being one of the well-known sports around the world, started back in 2017. F1 realized and acknowledge the Esport importance and started the F1 Esport Series. This goes to show that physical effort, as in being in a real F1 car, is not what makes sport a sport. it is also worth mentioning that even some Esport F1 drivers are trained in the same facility, environment, and training with real F1 drivers.
Banks are Joining In
İş Bankası a Turkish bank started with wave-making a Gaming Skinned Cards. Having your favorite game on a card and also perhaps getting discounts can’t get better than that. As the market is expanding banks are capitalizing on the opportunity that the new upcoming generation is so loyal to their gamines and so into gaming that getting into this market seems like free marketing for these banks.
In essence, given that gaming combines both skill and fun in a competitive environment it can be called a sport or Esport since it is electronic. Gaming as a sport is growing in a rapid manner and it is a really big market. F1 started having their races as Esport. This goes to show that indeed it is a sport and it is also being widely accepted. CS-GO, a widely known first-person shooter accumulated a prize pool of 15.85 million in 2020. In the end, if you are a professional Esport player hesitant to chase your career or dream hopefully this post cleared things up for you. Gaming is an upcoming big market. Being the early adopter is hard, but it might be worth it.
