Insight on E-sports

Although e-sports have come a long way, they still have yet to be accepted in western society, a place that holds athletic competition in deep reverie. Professional gaming has been striving to achieve the level of legitimacy professional athletics hold in the United States, gaining immense traction over the last decade, yet still the subject of ridicule and motley seemingly no matter where you go. Despite the sporting and video game industries being remarkably similar, the competitive side of both are incredibly distanced. Thus far, the professional gaming scene has proven itself to be quite modest while athletics are excessive in every regard. While top competitors in physical sports make tens of millions of dollars a year through paychecks and sponsorships, the highest earning cyber-athletes have earned -over their entire careers- what constitutes a mere fraction of a top athlete's yearly income.

It's easy to see why professional cyber athletes are few and far between. If someone absolutely has their mind set on a career in the video game industry, a job in marketing, managing, or coding is easier to get, make a living off of, and are generally always higher paying. Like professional baseball players in the late 19th century or semi-pro teams of today, many e-sports athletes must subsidize their income by any means necessary, such as a part, or full-time job, completely separate from their game playing.

Professional gaming can learn to be accepted, though some sort of stigma will presumably always be associated with the sport for the foreseeable future. Gaming superstar Lim Yo-Hwan (known as 'The Emperor' in South Korea)'s parents were, at first, disappointed by their son's decision to constantly play video games. His father, when asked about the subject, said, “Of course I was disappointed. He was my only son” Later on, his father would have a change of heart, and show pride in his son. He approvingly watches him play in matches and tournaments, and even utters small exclamations of joy when another opponent falls victim to Yo-Hwan's cunning strategy. South Korea is a land so different from ours that there are 2 cable television channels for games played 24/7. Starcraft, in South Korea, has been played by more than 10 million people. The population of South Korea is only 49 million. Compare this to America's most popular sport, football. In a nation of about 314,000,000, only around 3.5 million play football.

Competitive and professional gaming generally has not been a great success as a business thus far, and is widely unknown in most of the world, excluding a few areas. Despite this, when compared to the early days of professional sports playing, professional gaming is doing quite well. Being a sport dominated by a constantly changing wave of elite players, it continues to remain true to its roots of high-velocity competition, full of surprise and excitement. Competitive gaming has persisted as a sport dedicated to the pure essence of fun, because what fans and players both love the most is to enjoy themselves in-game. Professional gaming continues to bring players new opportunities and ways to express themselves. Cyber-sports are as genuine and austere as can be, and are everything an authentic sport should be considered.