In the summer of 2019, over 12,000 fans were at Wembley Arena in London, shouting and cheering. Thousands more were watching online. But this wasn’t a football, basketball or tennis match. It was e-sports, or competitive computer gaming. The prize money for the winners: £3 million.
professional gamers
Millions of people in the UK play games for fun. Some of them have become professional gamers, playing games as their full-time job. Did you know that football teams such as West Ham and Manchester City employ e-sports players? They send them around the world to compete in football video game competitions. It’s not easy being a professional gamer, though. They practise for ten or more hours a day, five or six days a week. They do exercises like typing something and trying to type it faster and faster. They also study videos of other players and plan ways to beat them.
olympics e-games?
As well as playing games, many people like watching them, too. You can watch games on video sites like Twitch and YouTube and in the UK there’s a TV channel showing e-sports 24 hours a day. They can be exciting to watch: Just like other sports, there are close games, last-minute victories and amazing performances. Sometimes online viewers can interact with the game. For example, some games rename characters in the game with the names of online viewers! But are e-sports really sports? Are players athletes? Some say no. E-sports players don’t need to run, jump, throw or make major physical movements. At the moment, the UK government classifies e-sports as kinds of games, not as sports.
But others say yes, e-sports are sports. Players do need some physical skills, especially hand-eye coordination, reflexes, accuracy and timing. If darts, snooker and shooting are classified as sports, then perhaps e-sports should be, too. In fact, the governments of China and South Korea do classify e-sports as sports, and they will be an official medal sport in the Asian Games starting from 2022. Next step the Olympics?
popularity
For many e-sports fans and players, though, the most important thing is that e-sports are growing in popularity and importance. If e-sports are not as important as ‘normal’ sports at the moment, they definitely will be in the near future.