Competitive gaming has been around for a long time on PC with professional Starcraft leagues or tournaments for games like Quake and Counter-Strike. The Xbox 360 has made competitive gaming much more popular in recent years with Major League Gaming, or MLG for short, being classified as a sport by many gamers. Even sports news coverage like ESPN has jumped on this new craze called E-Sports and now covers MLG games on their website and even mentions them on Sportscenter sometimes. But is this attention justified? Are E-Sports really sports? The answer is no and here are reasons why this is so.
Lack of a wide innate ability gap
I thought I’d start with this reason so that any player who thinks this is the only reason for this article can be resolved immediately. I’m not saying I can beat a Halo 3 player like Tsquared. He is better than me. The lack of an innate skill gap means that, with dedication, almost any player can become a pro in the game they want to compete in. This is not true for everyone and here is an example. When I used to play SOCOM II, a friend of mine had been connected to the game online for over 2,000 hours. He had less than 50 hours, but he was a much better player than him. I think as much as he played, he would always have been better. But on the other hand, there are many gamers like me who are naturally good at video games. I have a K/D ratio of 2.5 on Halo 3, but I rarely play and don’t take it seriously. I don’t even like it. However, I have a feeling that if he played 8 hours a day or more with the intention of taking it very seriously, he could probably compete at the MLG level. I have a feeling that most of the Halo 3 players who are into it would be able to compete at the MLG level.
This is not so with sports like hockey, basketball, baseball, even golf or tennis. I used to play hockey as a kid, but no matter how much I play, there’s a 99.999% chance I’ll never make it to the NHL. I think the same can be said for thousands, maybe even millions of athletes in major sports. But not games. You have a very good chance to be able to compete in the field of gaming just by training and dedicating yourself to it.
Maybe I could never beat TSquared, but because games don’t involve physicality, the difference between us would be only dedication. He is much more dedicated than I am, and has been for a long time. The professional gamer plays video games like his life. I think he has a different career path. Just like I wouldn’t be as good a forensic investigator as someone who has 20 years of experience, I wouldn’t be as good a player as TSquared if I competed against him right now.
There is no scan combination.
In most major sports leagues like the NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB, there are minor league or college-level games. That’s how players get to the majors, play through college and then get drafted to a team or play in the minors, prove themselves and get called up. In E-Sports there are no minors. You don’t have to prove yourself to compete, you just pay to enter an event. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve watched a sports game on TV and heard an announcer say something like ‘You’re in the majors, you should be able to make that play’ or something similar. There is no prestige to being an MLG player, it doesn’t make sense. Anyone can become one at any time. Now, you might get beaten if you’re not good, but it’s because you’re competing at a level you shouldn’t be. There’s a reason that major league players in MLB get sent down to the minor leagues on a rehab assignment or something that they’re proficient in or that a player who could dominate in triple-A or the AHL for hockey could aspire to the NHL or MLB, it’s a completely different level of play.
Esports doesn’t have game levels like this (of course there is CAL and CPL, but it doesn’t work the same way). Either you are competing or you are not. I think to be considered a sport, MLG should remedy this by incorporating a minor league where players are grown to compete in the majors. This would be the only way to get into the majors: be invited, not just sign up and pay a fee.
Lack of unity or organization.
There are many gaming leagues out there. There’s MLG, CAL, CPL, GGL, Gamebattles (actually an offshoot of MLG), Starleagues, and many others, some more legit or popular than others. Sure there are different sports leagues, but I don’t think anyone is going to say that in America there is a more legitimate or popular football league than the NFL or a more legitimate and popular hockey league than the NHL. Why don’t games have a legitimate league? Why is it so fragmented? If it were a real sport, it would have to have an organizational unit. Instead, the leagues are privately owned and run, leading to so many different ones. Are MLG players better than CPL players? Who knows, they are different leagues with different games. I can say with confidence that the players in the NHL are better than those in a European league.
This brings me to another point, the organization of E-Sports is nothing like a sport. There is no regular season, there are only events and ladders. Even leagues that claim to have seasons only run ladders for a specific period of time and call it a season. Stairs don’t work like stations because you can join or exit a stair at any time. If you go 0-5 in Gamebattles, delete your team and remake it and delete your bad start. The teams do not have the same number of games played. You can challenge other teams at your leisure so you never have to play a team you know could beat you unless you make the Playoffs. Real sports are not like that. There aren’t just a handful of tournament-style events throughout the season.
making it sportier
In general, esports leagues seem to be trying to make gaming look like a sport without making it one. Like the addition of trainers in MLG games like Gears of War and Halo. That seems like a completely ridiculous addition to professional gaming and that doesn’t even make it more of a sport. Why does a player need a coach?
To turn the game into a sport, they should make organizational changes. Let’s continue using MLG as an example. A Halo 3 team in MLG must be sponsored by a corporation or individual. A sponsor doesn’t just pay for trips to the Meadowlands and provides you with cool gaming gear. That person should own the team and make the changes to the roster. If Ogre 1 and Ogre 2 don’t like Walshy anymore, too bad. They don’t have to say it, the sponsor does. Teams shouldn’t just be a bunch of friends who got together one day and have played together ever since. They should be solid foundations that will be around years from now, with or without their current roster of players.
They should implement a regular season. Instead of going to a handful of tournament events or competing on some online ladder, the teams involved in the season are established at the start of the season. No more teams can be added or withdrawn once the season has started. Thus, schedules are established for each team. If you are scheduled to play against a team, go to that location and play against them. Real sports teams and players travel a lot. It looks like the players are sitting at home training for the next event. You train out of season in a sport and play during the season. Why would competitive play take place online when you have network issues, potential cheating, and lag? Has no sense. So there’s no reason why they shouldn’t travel across the country to take on their next scheduled opponent.
Each team would have the same number of games played. After the season is over, the playoffs will be seeded and played in tournament-style events like the Meadowlands. This is how the playoffs should be done. At this time it seems that they have no relevance other than earning you money and giving you points.
There should also be a scan combination. You can’t just go up and join an MLG competition one day. You will have to enter a separate league and compete there until a team owner invites you to join an MLG team. That would give the league legitimacy and also probably weed out a lot of wannabes and posers because they’re not going to want to compete and travel a lot.
Another idea I had for the American professional game would be to organize state tournaments that would recognize the best players that live in each state. These players would then be eligible to compete on the main MLG or professional circuit. I think something like this would be more feasible than a minor league for games. And come on, who doesn’t like to say things like I went to the states in 2009?
no matter the physique
Many people say that games are not a sport because they are not physical. I do not say this because it is debatable whether sports require physical activity or not. After all, some consider NASCAR to be a sport and the driver just sits there. Bowling is also considered a sport and that involves very little physicality. It’s also debatable whether games don’t have physicality in the first place. The game requires reaction time and motor skills, as well as critical and analytical thinking, just like real sports. I think the real reasons people say gaming is not a sport are the ones outlined above. It just seems more like a hobby and doesn’t behave in a professional or sporting manner.