By: Ian Garcia

Video games were first created in 1958 and are now a multi billion dollar industry that makes more money than the entirety of Hollywood, and with billions of video game players worldwide, it is still an ever-growing industry. At first, they have and still are considered by many as purely a casual form of entertainment, but as it’s grown many are beginning to see it as a competition. A competition which pits player against player, or teams of player against another team of players, to determine which is best.

Sounds familiar? Sports hold a similar principle and history. Once they were seen as entertainment for its participants, but as the popularity of sports grew people wished more and more to see which team or athlete was superior, which led to the rise of professional sports. And much like there are multiple sports and athletes, there are also multiple genre of video games that are played professionally by many players.

While competitive video gaming is nowhere near close to the size of the monster that is professional sports, it has an audience. It has been estimated in 2013 that over 71.5 million people watched competitive video gaming that involved some form of prize money, and in 2015 this so called ‘eSports’ generated over 493 million dollars.

This had lead to various television networks picking up professional video game tournaments, including ESPN and TBS. The rise of eSports has begun a debate between many: is the competition of professional video games a sport? We’ve tracked down various people on campus who play these competitive video games, to see their opinion.

“I know why people can’t accept it.” Said Caleb Happach. Caleb competitively plays a fighting game called Super Smash Bros, he competes in tournaments every weekend and often travels out of state to participate in national tournaments. “Some people will say it’s too easy, and there isn’t enough physical activity to be called a sport.” He began to explain.

“But the fact is, in the game I play there are thousands of people who compete, and everyone is striving to get better, people spends dozens of hours per week to improve. I personally go to the gym every week, not just because it’s healthy, but because I feel I gain a physical and mental edge on my opponents by staying fit. It’s basically what an athlete does with training. Looking it this way it’s hard not to call it a sport.”

Caleb isn’t the only one who shares this sentiment.

“I understand why people don’t think eSports are a sport.” Said Andrew Blasco, a high ranked online player in the game Overwatch. “But it really is difficult. Most games played at a competitive level require some insane kind of skills. For shooting games, you require some crazy twitch reflexes, for fighting games you need to have insane hand speed, in-fact many fighting game players have suffered injuries with their wrists and hands, just like real athletes. Playing competitively definitely takes a strain on the body, and so does age. Players who in their 20’s were once considered the best, are constantly falling behind at their 30’s, this is because with age comes slower reaction. Some people think video games can’t be a sport because all you’re doing is just sitting and pressing buttons, but that really is a gross oversimplification of the competitive aspect.”

Not all competitive video game players hold the same opinion on the topic though. Jacob Gonzalez is a former professional player for the game DOTA 2. “I really don’t think eSports are sports. There’s an e in the name for a reason.” He said. “While you can fit the act of competitive video gaming into the definition of sport, that doesn’t make it one. You could call exam taking a sport too if that were the case.”

When asked to explain his position, Gonzalez cleared up his comments. “I don’t think that competitive video gaming is easy, in-fact it’s really (explicit) difficult. But so is Chess. I think sports require more physical activity to be called well, a sport. This isn’t a to put competitive gaming down, I love it to be honest and think it has an amazing future, but it just isn’t a sport.”

Ten students in total were asked if they thought eSports were a sport. Each have identified themselves as ‘hardcore’ or ‘competitive’ video game players. Three of them play fighting games, three more play first person shooters, and the other four mainly played battle arena games. Of those 10, seven in total believed that eSports should be considered a sport.

The majority of fighting game players did not believe eSports were sports, and all but one of the other players thought eSports should be considered a sport. It’s clear that while a majority of competitive players would like for their occupation to be called a sport, it is not a total majority and opinion changes depending on the genre of video games the players compete in.

Regardless of what the total of competitive players believe in regards to if competitive video gaming is a sport or not, it is certain that the debate will continue for years to come.