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Should Video Games Be Considered a Sport?

Have you watched a video game league such as League of Legends or

StarCraft? Like a soccer player, a video gamer plays the game and competes with
opponents in the video game tournament. As you can see the tournament, it shows
a fierce competition as much as in a sports event. The video game industry has
been grown fast, because a video game is easily accessible and hugely popular.
There are countless people who make video games their own career. Some of them
are pro-gamers who take million dollars pay as much as famous sports player.
Nevertheless, there are still people who think video games cannot be considered as
a sport because it is not a physical activity. Although a video game is not a physical
activity, it should be considered as a sport because of three reasons.
Firstly, video games have same properties with sports. Video games are
competitive. When you play a game whether you are alone or with together, you
compete with many opponents to achieve good results. It appears same in sports.
In addition, playing video games requires an ability to plan a strategy. To win a sport
match, sports players plan a strategy. Likewise, video game players also plan a
strategy to win a game. They analyze other players playing and make a strategy to
play better together and share it with others through the internet. Furthermore,
playing a video game require a cooperation same as in sports. There is a research
on the beneficial effects of cooperative game play and suggest playing cooperatively

can increase helping behavior (Velez 607). To win a match or reach the goal,
players try to collaborating each other and show their teamwork. This can also be
seen similarly in a sport play which is a team competition.
Next, there are lots of video game championships like sports championships.
From amateur to professional, many game players compete in the championships.
There is a professional league of StarCraft2 and League of Legends in Korea.
Players contest each other and are awarded who win an intense competition.
Besides, there are large scales of championships which had over ten thousands of
spectators. In South Korea, stadiums once used to host football matches at the
2002 FIFA World Cup are now frequently packed to capacity with a flock of video
game fans (Henry 1). Moreover, 36 million of people around the world viewed
League of Legends world championship final in 2015. These phenomena mean that
video games can be a one of the greatest worlds festival like The World Cup and
The Olympics. In addition, the highest cash prize of video game championship is
over twenty million dollars that is more than superball cash prize.
Lastly, there are also lots of organizations and professional teams. World Esports Association (WESA), Electronic Sports League (ESL), Korea e-Sports
Association (KeSPA), these organizations support their video game leagues like
sports organizations. They have many gaming leagues and award winner of the
tournament amount of cash prize. Surprisingly, there are broadcasting stations
which mainly broadcast video game leagues in Korea. Those TV stations broadcast
the leagues which are held internationally or nationally. People can easily watch
those video game competitions in their home. While video game leagues are
broadening, numerous professional teams are founded. They are generally

sponsored by a company and train their players. This is also same in sports team.
Some people say that video games cannot be a sport because they are not
physical activities. However, playing video games takes a lot of patience and strong
concentration. Those elements exhaust physical stamina. This also applies to
sports. Moreover, chess is acknowledged to be one of the events in the Olympic. It
means that a sport doesnt have to be a physical activity. In fact, we already call
video games as an E-sports. We define E-sports (Electronic sports) as a form of
sports where the primary aspects of the sport are facilitated by electronic systems
(Hamari 3). Therefore, we can say that video games which are not a physical
activity should be considered as a sport.
Video games should be regarded as a sport. They have similar
characteristics of sports which are competitive, strategic, and cooperative. They
have lots of championships, professional teams, and organization as well. Moreover,
video games take lots of patience and concentration which are important elements of
sports. These factors are significant basis of argumentation that video games should
be considered a sport. The video games have created a distinct and unique culture
surrounding it, including the players themselves, professional teams and their fans,
E-sports organizations and leagues, and enthusiastic spectators (Rambush 158).
Nowadays video games also can be combined to virtual reality technology. This
would unite the ideas and designs of video games with the fitness and physical skill
of real sports (Hewitt 81). Consequently, Video games will extend their position as
one of sports and we will be able to disregard it.

Works Cited

Hamari, Juho, and Max Sjblom. "What is eSports and Why Do People Watch It?" SSRN (2015): 134. Web.

Henry, Young. Seven-figure salaries, sold-out stadiums: Is pro video gaming a sport?
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/31/sport/esports-is-professional-gaming-a-sport. CNN. 2016. Web.
5 Dec. 2016.

Hewitt, Elliot. "Will eSports ever become widely accepted as official sports and how will they affect the
way we entertain ourselves if they do." Computers for everyone (2014): 81-83. Web.

Rambusch, Jana, Peter Jakobsson, and Daniel Pargman. "Exploring E-sports: A case study of game
play in Counter-strike." 3rd Digital Games Research Association International Conference 4 (2007):
157-164. Web.

Velez, John A, Chad Mahood, David R. Ewoldsen and Emily Moyer-Gus. "Ingroup versus outgroup
conflict in the context of violent video game play: The effect of cooperation on increased helping and
decreased aggression." Communication Research 41 (2014): 607-626. Web.