By Rein
Website: http://promodskin.com/
I hear quite often from the mainstream media about how eSports or professional gaming (online) doesn’t make any sense.
There is clearly not enough knowledge of the subject by the people who is saying it; I mean sure they’ve read some articles, maybe look for some statistic, and maybe took a glance at the professional gamer’s profile.
It’s kinda annoying sometimes, so this is my message to the wide stream media and whoever else who wants to listen.
I find football boring, watching it is boring as well. I play rugby myself, but there’s no fun watching it all, but eSports? I find myself watching for hours and completely lose track of time.
eSports is incredibly immersive, some of my friends who don’t play Counter Strike: Global Offensive find the matches are fun to watch, noting that the casters are a lot more energetic and entertaining than commentators from traditional sports.
Note: ESPN made their own page dedicated to eSports which is cool. They never stop expanding.
Person’s Preference
It’s completely down to preference of what you like to watch. If you don’t play the game or don’t have any knowledge of it, of course, you’ll find watching it boring. You have no idea what’s going on and have no idea why these people are so much more skilled than the average person.
This is just simply down to exposure. We’ve all seen or played athletic sports at some point of our lives, and we all appreciate how difficult it is to be good at it.
The same goes with eSports. Practice is needed to become good, and consistent practice is needed to stay good. It’s just the most people didn’t realise this because they haven’t tried it.
As an aspiring eSports player myself, I regularly practice my aim and knowledge (CSGO) daily when I can, and I strive before improving myself.
The great thing about eSports is that it takes very little to set up your team and get started to its vast world.
In eSports, warming up is necessary like any regular sport. Regarding CSGO, you have to get your aim refined to be hitting the crucial shots that are needed. You need to practice different grenades to give your team tactical advantage, and you have to be able to read the game and predict your opponent’s moves.
In League of Legends and DOTA 2, it is more complex because you need to practice on last hitting your enemy creeps to have a gold advantage so you can buy good items to help your team win the game. Mechanical skills like warding, aggro-creeping, and skill timings are essential.
Just like traditional sports, it requires dedication and is not just a casual thing you can do now and then. It is not instant that can happen overnight to be good at it.
Interesting Case Study
This study by Professor Ingo Frobose states that “The eSports athletes achieve up to 400 movements on the keyboard and the mouse per minute, four times as much as the average person.”
This case study proves that eSports are quite intensive because the entire thing is asymmetrical because both hands being moved at the same time with various parts of the brain are also being used at the same time.
He also said that this level of strain even exceeded sports such as table tennis which requires a very high level of hand-eye coordination.
There’s a hormone that your body releases called cortisol, which is released in response to stress. Frobose states that, “The amount of cortisol produced is about the same level as that of a race car driver.”
Again, a race car driver. These people is required to have some of the fastest reactions out there just to stay alive while racing on a track.
This is what an eSports player has. Their pulse increases to, which can often increase to as high as 160 to 180 beats per minute equivalent to a runner.
Conclusion
Playing video games has a long history in our civilization, some people may raise their eyebrows if they hear that it is a sport but believe it or not, there are proofs that eSports should be considered as a sport and USA is issuing an P-1 visas for e-gamers, which is the same visa issued for traditional sports.
eSports has still a long road to cross before everyone accept is a sport. But every single step is an achievement in the industry, not mentioning the money that the industry is generating per year.
Injjj is the owner of promodskin.com where you can download free mod skins for LoL and DOTA 2.
