In June it was announced by The World Health Organization that 'gaming disorder' was classified as a new mental health condition in the 11th edition of its International Classification of Diseases.
The three major diagnostic features of ‘gaming disorder’ are: gaming behaviour taking precedence over other activities to an extent that the other activities are taken to the periphery, impaired control of these behaviours even when negative consequences occur, and the third is that the condition leads to significant distress and impairment in personal, family, social, educational or occupational functioning.
By these definitions you could classify almost any teenager I’ve ever met as having video game disorder. I would have certainly fit the criteria when I was 16.
For many young people, spending all day, seven days a week, playing video games sounds like a dream. Video games have become a hobby to millions of people across the world, a way to unwind from a day and relax.
Gaming, in recent years however, has taken a turn from being a hobby, to being a viable profession, and now a sport.
I know this comes as no surprise to most of the younger people I talk to, it only makes sense, in an environment that breeds competitiveness as much as video games do, it’s only a matter of time before a competitive scene develops, and as video games become better and better, so do the pro players.
You may be saying to yourself that there is no way video games can be a sport, all they are is sitting in front of a screen how is that possibly be a sport?
Well consider this before you make any decisions. The average esports player spends roughly eight to 10 hours daily practising, they practise anywhere from five to seven days a week, and they are the best, of the best, amongst millions of players from around the world. They commit their lives to becoming the best at what they do, and staying there.
A sport is defined as an activity involving physical exertion or skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment, and to me esports fits that definition.
In 2017 Valve’s 'Dota 2' game paid out roughly $38 million in total prize money to players. In May it was announced that Epic Games will provide $100 million to fund prize pools for 'Fortnite' tournaments during the first year of competitive competition. The 2018 Mid-Season Invitational Final for professional League of Legends surpassed over 100 million unique viewers, a number equal or slightly above the unique viewership of the most recent Super Bowl.
It’s easy to say that esports aren’t truly sports because you get to sit down, and the level of physical exertion compared to traditional sports like basketball, football and hockey is quite low, however, I challenge anyone with the mindset that what these professional video game players do is easy, to put their money where their mouth is and try the video game. Arguably far more young people now a days participate in online games than they do in school sanctioned sports, meaning the competition to be the best is far and away much harder.
League of Legends recorded more than 100 million active monthly players in 2016, that means to be considered a professional you would have to find yourself within the top 100 players out of 100 million on a monthly basis, and then you have to stay there.
Esports are constantly changing, unlike games like football that stay relatively the same throughout the years besides small rule alterations, video games change and adapt constantly. Constant updates to a video game with a competitive scene means new maps to learn, new playable characters to learn and new mechanics that may be completely game altering. This revolving door system of improvements means that those who find themselves at the esports level must train constantly to retain their position, a task that has driven many young esports players to drug dependency and mental breaks.
Video games have now become a market far bigger than experts could have ever imagined. The gaming industry generated more than $108.4 billion dollars in 2017, whereas only $11.37 billion was earned at the box office in 2016 for the film industry.
The world of esports may be considered ‘not a real sport’ by those who are stuck in the mindset that a sport requires some amount of physical exhaustion, but in the coming years I believe we will see a major shift in that mindset. Esports are real sports, and they are here to stay.
