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Benton Liu

Professor Michael Fauson

English 110

13 March 2017

Is Esports a Sport

The first thought people think of when hearing the word sports is an open field, people

bumping into each other, and physical exhaustion. Within the last decade, however, something

different is emerging. Electronic sports (Esports) is quickly gaining recognition. In 2010, League

of Legends, a free online game created by Riot Games, was released and had a small viewership

of a few hundred thousand for their League Championship Series (LCS), a professional League

of Legends league that was funded and operated by Riot Games, compared to today, a whopping

14.7 million viewers for their finals. Dota 2, a video game that is in the same video game genre

as League of Legends, was released in 2013 and made by Valve Corporation, had a few hundred

thousand for their first final, The International. Today, The International garners millions of

viewers from all around the globe. The winnings for LCS is $5 million dollars and for Dota 2 is

$20 million dollars. To be the best, players, or rather, athletes, must train hours and hours a day.

Given this requirement to succeed in video game competitions, an activity many may view

trivial, competitive video gaming makes a very compelling case to be seen as more of a sport

than a leisure activity.

The time to train for a sport is the same with esports. A typical professional athlete would

typically train around six hours a day, six days a week (Suchde). A typical professional esports

athlete would typically train around twelve hours a day, with only a few days off a month
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(Stanton). The number of hours is greater than those of professional athlete. Even though there

are no physical contact for esports athletes, they typically study their opponents play style, to

out-strategize their opponents; practice their execution in keystrokes, to execute their

combinations faster than their opponents; and to practice different character or maps. Like in

chess and poker, they are very much so considered a sport by many, even though there are no

contact whatsoever. Like esports, chess and poker require mental strength, rather than raw,

physical strength. Even in esports, there are doping scandals, just like their counterparts in

physical sports. Athletes in physical sports are banned from using performance enhancing drugs

like steroids. Similarly, esports athletes are using performance enhancing drug, Adderall, for

mental strength, not for physical strength (Summers). If esports is not a sport, then there should

not be a need to resort to a performance enhancing drug to enhance players performance.

Because there is a need to take it, esports is as mentally straining as a physical sport is physically

straining. Because there are multiple doping scandals in the esports scene, this shows how

serious some players take esports and how competitive esports are. Because of the numerous

doping scandals, esports is very much so a sport. To reiterate, for physical sports, to get ahead of

their opponent, some, though illegally, take steroids to be better than their opponent. Like their

physical counterpart, there are similar cases within esports. To be better than their opponent,

esports athletes take Adderall. With the amount of money on the line and the amount of work

they put in, this does not come as a surprise. Furthermore, esports and physical sports require

teamwork. In Counter-Strike, players depend on their teammates to trade kills and to execute

strategies that would catch opponents out and take point. Similarly, in physical sports, athletes

depend on one another to defend point and attack point to defeat their opponents. Nevertheless,

esports athletes are also paid a salary and sign-in bonus, like their counterparts, physical athletes.
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For example, Nikola Niko Kovac, a Counter-Strike player, had a sign-in bonus of $500,000

and a salary of around $10,000 per month, totaling to about $120,000 a year (Brautigam). Even

though it pales in comparison to physical sport athletes, they are still receiving a salary, thus

making it a job and thus furthering the point that esports is indeed a sport. Esports and sports

have many similarities when compared to each other. Both have long, strenuous hours of

practice, both require strength, though in different areas, both depend on their teammates and one

another, both has a salary, and both have performance enhancing drugs that make athletes

perform better.

Esports, like chess, do not involve physical fitness, but rather mental fitness. Chess is

considered a sport by the International Olympic Committee (Recognised Federations). If chess

is classified as a sport, then esports should be considered a sport as well. There is no physical

activity in chess, only mental activity, like esports. In chess, players simply do not move chess

pieces randomly, rather, they play multiple possible moves in their head, thinking ahead of the

game to best their opponent. In League of Legends and Counter-Strike, game-sense as many

players would call it, is needed to predict where players are in certain situations. Esport athletes

play many scenarios in their head, thinking where their opponent may be at, so they can be ahead

of their opponents, so they can defeat their opponent, enabling the victor to take point. Another

sport that does not require much physical effort, but is considered a sport, is NASCAR racing.

With science, researchers prove NASCAR racing is just as intense as physical sports. Research

done by Lara Carlson shows that racers are subjected to immense mental pressure. They are

subjected to high amount of stress and attention to detail because without it, they would crash

(Carlson). Many may think that racers sit in the cars, letting the cars do most of the work;

however, drivers need to have a keen sense of awareness of where others are and their
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positioning. Without the awareness, they crash into each other and cause horrible fatalities. Like

in esports, players need a keen sense of positioning so that they are not caught out and easily

bested by their opponent.

There has been much research whether esports athletes and physical sports athletes are

like one another. Physically, they are not; however, mentally, they are, some suggest that their

mental capabilities may even surpass physical athletes. The mental acuity required for esports,

like Counter-Strike and League of Legends, are extremely high. In Professor Ingo Frobses

study on esports he believes that esports are just as demanding as physical sports:

The amount of cortisol produced is about the same level as that of a race-car driver. This

is combined with a high pulse, sometimes as high as 160 to 180 beats per minute, which

is equivalent to what happend [sic] during a very fast run, almost a marathon. That's not

to mention the motor skills involved. So in my opinion, eSports are just as demanding as

most other types of sports, if not more demanding. (qtd. in Schtz)

In the eyes of many, esports players have it easy. Many have a misconception that esports players

randomly mash their keyboards and move and click their mice erratically. This notion, however,

is false. Games like Dota 2, League of Legends, and Counter-Strike require a high degree of

thinking and precise motor skill to defeat their opponents. Instead of physical exhaustion, esport

players depend on their fine motor skills. With asymmetric movement between their left and

right hand, and their hand-eye coordination, it is very much similar to physical sports like

basketball and football. Basketball players depend on their hand-eye coordination to move

around the court, steal the ball from their opponent, and to score a goal by moving their hands,

feet, and eyes. And with football, they have their eyes scan the area around the field for players

so they can look for a hole in their defense, exploit it, scan the sky for the ball, catch the ball with
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their arms, and run with their feet to the end zone to score a touchdown. Very much like esports,

where they have their eyes scan the screen for enemies, use the left hand to position themselves

strategically, use the right hand to aim, click, and kill. Additionally, their reaction times are like

those in physical sports. Mentally, they are like athletes, high stress, high level, and high pressure

to win. Esports are just as competitive as physical sports. They are challenged as mentally as

athletes are challenged physically. Research done by Walter R. Boot suggests that gamers, when

compared to the general populace, who play four or more hours of video games, have shorter

reaction time and that visual processing is quicker as well (Boot; Mcpherson). The reaction time

can be compared to that of physical sport; a split-second difference can determine whether a

receiver catches a phenomenal fifty-yard pass done by the quarterback or a failed pass. With

esports, it can mean the difference between surviving a firefight and taking point or dying in the

firefight and giving up the point to the enemy.

In the eyes of many, they may believe that esports is simply not a sport. However, it is

quite the contrary. They are subjected to high stress environments, high level of teamwork, high

level of thinking and reaction speed, like physical sports, but without the physical part.

Therefore, esports are very much a sport, just as physical sports are. They are mentally

challenging, require teamwork and sportsmanship, and fast reaction time.

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Works Cited

Boot, Walter R., et al. The Effects of Video Game Playing on Attention, Memory, and Executive

Control. Acta Psychologica, vol. 129, no. 3, 2008, pp. 387398.,

doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2008.09.005.

Brautigam, Thiemo. NiKos Buyout Was around $500,000. Dot Esports, Dot Esports, 13 Feb.

2017, dotesports.com/business/niko-buyout-faze-clan-mousesports-breaks-csgo-record-

4744. Accessed 12 Mar. 2017.

Carlson, Lara A., et al. Physiological Strain of Stock Car Drivers during Competitive Racing.

Journal of Thermal Biology, vol. 44, 2014, pp. 2026.,

doi:10.1016/j.jtherbio.2014.06.001. Accessed 12 Mar. 2017.

Mcpherson, Jason, and Nicholas R. Burns. Assessing the Validity of Computer-Game-like Tests

of Processing Speed and Working Memory. Behavior Research Methods, vol. 40, no. 4,

2008, pp. 969981., doi:10.3758/brm.40.4.969. Accessed 13 Mar. 2017.

Recognised Federations. International Olympic Committee, International Olympic Committee,

26 Jan. 2017, www.olympic.org/recognised-federations. Accessed 12 Mar. 2017.

Schtz, Martin. Science Shows That ESports Professionals Are Real Athletes | Sports |

DW.COM | 12.03.2016. Deutsche Welle, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Der ffentlich-

Rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten Der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 3 Mar. 2016,

www.dw.com/en/science-shows-that-esports-professionals-are-real-athletes/a-19084993?

maca. Accessed 13 Mar. 2017.

Stanton, Rich. The Secret to ESports Athletes' Success? ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 29

May 2015, www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/13053116/esports-athletes-put-hours-training-

reach-pinnacle. Accessed 12 Mar. 2017.

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Suchde, Siddharth. A Professional Athlete's Fitness Regime: An Insider's Guide.

TheHealthSite, Essel Group, 28 Feb. 2014, www.thehealthsite.com/fitness/a-professional-

athletes-fitness-regime-an-insiders-guide/. Accessed 12 Mar. 2017.

Summers, Nick. Top 'Counter-Strike' Player Admits ESports Has a Doping Problem.

Engadget, AOL Inc., 14 July 2016, www.engadget.com/2015/07/17/esports-adderall-

doping/. Accessed 12 Mar. 2017.