So you wanna play games?
Esports also known as Electronic Sports has been around for many years starting from arcade machines to know playing with Xbox Ones and Playstation 4s. This has been one of the most well-known sports for teens and young adults watched by many different people around the world. They claim that this is a sport, but many others disagree.
For the players that play these “sports” it's not just a game to them but a career. Optic Gaming is one of the most well-known gaming groups in the world with more than 1 million subscribers to their YouTube channel Optic Nation. This group has teams and many different Esport games such as Halo, Call of Duty, and CS Go. Many of these groups believe that Esports is a sport and there isn’t anyone that can tell them otherwise.
Seth “Scump” Abner is a professional Call of Duty player that has won many different tournaments such as MLG (Major League Gaming) Anaheim and COD XP Championship and is also a X games gold medalist in the professional gaming team Optic Gaming. For Seth, many hours have been put into these games to help not just improve himself but improve his team. This is a sport to him and he has built himself from nothing to being a star not just on YouTube but on the stage he performs on for the Optic Gaming Call of Duty team.
Esports has some of the biggest prizes and budgets in any “sport” around the world. Esports is looking at having 427 million people watch these teams compete just in 2019. Esports has also developed itself into being on ESPN in the Sport category. This sport has grown from nothing to a billion dollar corporation in just a couple of years and is still growing at a phenomenal rate. Maybe Esports isn’t a sport but millions of people stop to watch these tournaments not just live but on stream to.
Looking at Esports many question how is this a sport or what makes Esports a sport? Esports is filled with some of the toughest gamers in the world that also have some of the best reflexes and fastest reaction times you will ever see. The best way to watch this is to go onto Twitch.TV or MLG.TV and watch these people practice live on stream. These quick reflexes and reaction are what makes these people professional gamers.
But it’s not just about the reactions or reflexes, it’s about the love of the game. You have to love the sport to enjoy the sport. It’s like football, if you play Football, and you don’t enjoy it, then it’s not a sport you want to play. But unlike football, Esports has multiple games that you can play so it doesn't exclude anyone out.
The development of Esports has grown from a small group of kids playing arcade games to a worldwide online gaming community. Esports has developed from the game Donkey Kong in every arcade to CS Go, one of the world's most played game, on computer. Many people will agree that the original Mario games were very popular and fun to play. But some people look at Mario as their first love and have helped make these games get better every year. Mario was just a couple pixels put together now he's a cartoon character that has been featured in many off game such as Donkey Kong and Super Smash Bros.
Now looking at what gaming has developed into from a handful of people to see it as a sport or even a career. Jessie Ridgway, also known as McJuggernuggets, is a YouTuber that did a fake series called the Psycho series.
This series was based on Jessie trying to make gaming a career of his own by uploading his gaming content on YouTube. Jessie's Dad, on the other hand, doesn't believe that playing video games is a career or even a job. During this series Jessie’s Dad would “purposely” destroy his games trying to make the point that playing games is just a waste of life. Jessie made this series for almost 3 years until he came clean that it was fake.
Jessie helped many people understand that others might not say it's a job or even a sport but it depend on what you believe. Jessie wrote this story to help other get past nonbelievers and criticizers about games. You have the right to your own opinion, and people might say it is or is not a sport, but it’s something you can do that might help.
I personally think that as long as you get paid and have a good time doing it, it’s a job. I also believe that if you think it's a sport, then it is. I personally see Esports as a sport I have watched Esports for the past few years, and as long as I can remember many people have watched this as if it was a sport. The development of the sport has been remarkable in my point of view, and it’s been great getting to know the sport not just from a journalist POV but from a gaming POV as well.
