It’s about time that sports evolve. I’m talking about the ever-growing world of eSports. Competitive video gaming has been around for a long time, but with popularity rising with the advancement of technology, eSports might find themselves mainstream pretty soon. Thank goodness, I say.
Of course, there will always be people who don’t have the plasticity to admit gaming is a sport, but if you’re wondering why it is, I’d be happy to key you in.
Let’s start with the very definition of the word “sport.” Upon looking up the noun version of the word in most dictionaries, you’ll find a sport is some sort of a contest or game. Furthermore, it often requires physical skills, has a specific set of rules and hosts competition between multiple parties.
“Now hold up a second,” some people say. “What’s physically demanding about sitting at a keyboard?” It’s a valid point, and frankly, it’s the only thing keeping eSports out of the picture when it comes to sports.
Sure, it’s not necessary for these professional — oh yeah, they make money — gamers to be in peak physical condition, but the skills required to make it the big leagues are virtually superhuman. I’m going to nerd out for a second and give a couple of examples that represent truly extraordinary skills, things practically no one else could do, and we’ll understand better the vast amount of talent involved in eSports.
In Starcraft II, pros have been recorded at making 600 actions per minute. In simpler terms, they press 10 keys in every second. Google an “actions per minute” test and see what you can do just by spamming. Then realize that the pros’ finger whirring corresponds to specific actions in the game that can make the difference between a win or a loss. If you’re not feeling up to testing your finger speed right now, let me break it down another way. For argument’s sake, the average word length is something like five or six letters. That translates to a typing speed of 100 to 120 words per minute. I would have finished this column in six minutes if I could manage to maintain a Starcraft level of speed and accuracy.
If this doesn’t indicate the speed and precision — words we find often associated with traditional sports — there’s another aspect of a player’s skills that are super human. Professional gamers have reaction speeds rivaling other traditional sports. In fact, gamers are better and faster at making decisions based on visual observations, according to a study at Duke University. I’m not suggesting we put them head to head, but science indicates if there were a drop of a hockey puck or a jump ball, while maybe not matching the athleticism, a professional gamer would most likely react before a professional athlete. In gaming terms, “GG.”
According to the NCAA, anywhere from 1 to 9 percent of college athletes will make it to the pros across a variety of traditional sports. In North America, there are no more than 200 upper-echelon League of Legend players. If you consider that, there are about four million players on League at any given time, according to Riot Games, League of Legends’ developer. So kids, if you’re thinking about making it big in professional gaming, good luck — the chances are slimmer than becoming a professional athlete.
All right. I clearly believe eSports deserve a little more attention and an honest representation in modern culture. Of course I love video games, but I’m not the only one. Just this past weekend, the first-ever North American major took place for a game called Counter-Strike. I was watching through my client of the game and noticed a whopping 700,000 other viewers — one of which also attended Boston University. Beyond that, about 400,000 viewers were watching online streams of the tournament. That’s more than one million viewers for a video game. Tell me there’s not potential.
More people watch big tournaments for video games than traditional sports. For example, League of Legends has a world championship, and in 2014, it recorded more viewers than the 2014 World Series.
There’s no way around it. eSports are going to be a big part of the entertainment industry for some time to come. They already have great production value and good commentators and casters, and the players are simply world class. With the introduction of virtual reality gaming, the possibilities may even incorporate some sort of physical involvement for those still stuck on the physicality of a sport. But then again, think about golf.
I encourage you to watch some videos on YouTube, or maybe try your hands at gaming. BU even has some awesome competitive teams. Show your Terrier pride and support all sorts of gaming.
