Recently the United States government officially recognized League of Legends players as professional athletes. U.S. Immigration now allows gamers entering the States to use a P-1 visa. The P-1 visa is meant for professional athletes and allows them to stay in the United States for 5 years. The decisions came after a lengthy back-and-forth between League of Legends developer Riot Games and U.S. Immigration until finally the government accepted Riot Games’ evidence. Now that the U.S. has officially recognized professional gamers as athletes, effectively stating that gaming is a professional sport, can Video Gaming be considered a sport?
Putting aside the fact that one of the world’s most influential nations has recognized gaming as a sport, my answer would be a resounding erm…sort of? Technically? I guess? Not the most confident or smartest thing to say in a debate I know, but the definition of a sport is vague, and differs from person-to-person (hence this PCP), and various international organizations have different definitions and often contradict themselves in some cases.
Let’s first look at what a professional sports is: a form of entertainment. The thing that makes professional athletes “professional” is that they are getting paid. And they are getting paid with revenue accumulated from spectators, sponsors, and broadcasters. That is what makes professional sports a segment of the entertainment industry, an industry of which gaming, including professional gaming, is a key component. Let’s look at the similarities between professional sports and professional gaming in terms of entertainment value. Last year’s League of Legends World Championship had 8.2 million unique viewers and a peak concurrent viewership of 1.1 million people both on television and online. As Riot Games e-sport VP Dustin Beck has said: “Our viewership numbers are stronger than 80 or 90 percent of the sports covered on ESPN. In Shanghai [All-Star event in May, 2013] we had 18 million unique viewers. We are seeing growth over growth for every subsequent event that we do.” Also, events usually bring in spectators in the tens of thousands.
The spectators and broadcasting parts are there but what about the money? This year’s League of Legends World Championship is taking place in the Staples Centre in L.A. and will have a prize pool of $8 million, with the winners taking $1 million of it. On top of the prize money competitors will also be looking for sponsors. Currently sponsorship in gaming is growing, with top teams looking for 7-figure deals. Some of the best gamers have annual salaries of around $100,000. And though typically the sponsors are tech and gaming companies, just recently Adidas has sponsored a Danish e-sports team: the Copenhagen Wolves. Adidas will be producing all the merchandise and apparel for the team.
So professional sports and professional gaming both have spectators, broadcasting, sponsorship, and merchandise but does the fact that they are both similar entertainment sectors mean that professional gamers are the same as professional athletes? Well, we certainly took care of the “professional” part but let’s look at the “athlete” part.
As I said before there is no universally agreed definition of what a sport is. Probably the closest is the definition provided by SportsAccord. SportsAccord is an organization for all the international sports federations. They have 91 members, each of which is a international federation governing a unique sport. SportsAccord categorizes sports into five categories: physical (e.g. rugby), mind (e.g. chess), motorised (e.g. F1 Racing), coordination (e.g. billiards), and animal-supported (e.g. equestrian). I’m not going to be one of those guys who says, “Gaming is physical because you have to, like, move your fingers and thumbs and stuff.” Sure there are elements of dexterity, coordination, and endurance, but no more so than painting a portrait. I’ve played my fair share of League of Legends and I can say that it is more a game of concentration and strategy, and therefore should be categorized as a mind sport. There are some elements of dexterity and coordination that can make a great player even greater, but that is not what makes it a sport. It’s very much a mental sport, and if chess and bridge are recognized as sports by SportsAccord, then why not gaming?
The Olympics themselves traditionally only include physical sports, yet they recognise chess and bridge as sports through the Association of I.O.C. Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF). While we are on the topic of the Olympics, they have some questionable sports too. I wouldn’t necessarily call shooting a physical sport, though it requires a great deal of coordination, and while rythmic gymnastics is physical, there are points that are awarded based on the athlete’s costume and makeup. Equestrian is another questionable sport that belongs more in the Horse Olympics than the Human Olympics, although I feel that the dressage event wouldn’t make the cut to the Horse Olympics. Dressage is just the horse walking around an open field, occasionally galloping a little! I didn’t want to pull the, “If that’s a sport, then this is definitely a sport” card, but come on. If things like chess, bridge, and dressage are all considered sports, then why not gaming? It requires just as much mental strength, arguably more in some cases, and has a slightly larger physical component.
The definition of a sport is hazy to say the least. I like to think that there is a scale to whether or not an activity is a sport. I’d like to see someone try to argue that hockey isn’t a sport, but activities like equestrian or billiards can be argued both ways. Some sports are just more…sporty than others. Which brings me back to my weak answer to the question “Can Video Gaming be considered a sport?”, which was: sort of. Technically. I guess. Professional gaming should be considered a sport, it’s just very low on the “sporty” scale.
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