"Esports in Mass Media" by Marvin V

(The video that I will be mentioning will be copied and pasted to the bottom!) I'm going to be honest with you guys this post will be completely bias, i've been playing video games for most of my life and will try and defend my hobby as much as I can. While using the the computer I came across a video featuring Gordon Hayward (who plays on the NBA’s Utah Jazz) “defending” Esports. For those who don't know, Esports is simply another term for competitive gaming and spans several genres with games from Shooters to Real Time Strategy. Being a fan of Esports and being a fan of the NBA and Gordon Hayward specifically I clicked the video. I listened to a interview with Colin Cowherd a host of a sports show for Fox. I was absolutely shocked at the ignorant questions that he had asked Gordon Hayward. Many of his questions and rebuttals were not based on actual statistics but on his own observations and stereotypes that I thought were eliminated and shows the lack of respect that surrounds the Esports community. But it's wasn't so much the opinion that Esports is not necessarily a “sport” but his stereotyping and very closed minded view towards video games on a professional level. And makes me wonder if Esports will gain ever respect from the media.

     One of the things that bothered me in the video wasn't his thoughts on Esports. But his reluctance to accept the fact that Esports is growing at an alarming rate. One example is the amazing growth of the game League of Legends on the Esports scene. “Worlds” is a yearly tournament in League of Legends that pits the top teams from around the world against each other for a prize pool of over 2 million dollars. The viewership for the second annual tournament in 2012 had 8 million unique viewers and 1.1 concurrent viewers during the finals, not too bad right. But the growth after is amazing, the next year, 2013 Worlds, the finals were hosted at Staples Center and was seen by 32 million unique viewers with 8.5 million concurrent viewers. The next year the finals were held in Korea inside Sangam Stadium, which hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and had 27 million unique viewers with 11.2 concurrent viewers. 2015 Worlds is expected to have similarly amazing numbers as well. This had grown from a small community to a entertainment streamed to people all over the world.

     It's not that surprising the opinions that Cowherd had, there have been several instances that Esports in general has been criticized when put in front people who are not interested what is being shown or video games in general. An example being when ESPN aired the final series of “The International” a Dota 2 tournament held in 2014. That tournament featured the largest prize pool in Esports to date with a 10 million dollar prize pool and 5 million going to 1st place. But there was backlash from a large portion of ESPN’s viewers most of whom voiced that “this wasn't a sport”. An argument that I find funny considering they also air Poker on ESPN, but i'm not entirely sure many have accepted that either. This year the “The Invitational” shattered its previous record in August 2015 by having a 18 million dollar prize pool with 6.5 million going to the winning team a record which probably won't have any other prize pool come close, until next year's tournament of course.

     What also infuriated me is his use of stereotypes to describe what he thinks of Esports. Saying that these guys are unfit so this shouldn't count as a sport. Whether or not this counts as a sport relies on your definition of a sport so i'm not going to dive into that, but rather focus on the stereotype of the unfit gamer. Specifically he compares them to Gordon Hayward which is a very high bar, him playing basketball all year long. But Gordon brings up an excellent point, professional gamers don't need to have that body type to be successful at their craft. Gordon Hayward has that body type: 1. because of genetics not everyone can be 6’8, and 2. he needs to have that body type to be successful in the NBA. So comparing the two is having unrealistic expectations and nitpicking, some players in the PGA and Poker Tournaments are not exactly in peak physical condition themselves but because that is not needed there isn't a problem. Esports of course requires the least amount of physical fitness but that doesnt mean professional players let themselves go. They like any other professional have a daily schedule for practice time and free time which is usually used for exercise to keep in shape. Another argument I don't understand is Colin Cowherd asking why fans and commentators are so excited when watching other people play. That can be turned around on him as why do people get excited when watching NBA, NFL, MLB and other sports. Watching someone do something amazing and knowing how much skill and practice that would have taken is a perfectly fine reason to get excited and should not be allocated only to sports.

     It's a stretch but a predicament I find similar to the one Esports is in currently, was that of Soccer in the United States. Many people saw the sport as boring, slow, and full of people faking injuries or at least that's what I thought. Soccer especially in the MLS was not getting the respect from the American Sports Media. That was the case until the World Cup where the United States was able to see higher level soccer. This event was the turning point in soccer in the United States and got people interested in soccer. The Esports community is getting solid numbers but still lack the respect of mainstream media as evident by comments and criticisms made by people such as Colin Cowherd. So maybe Esports just needs that one final push to win over a little bit of respect from the media. While the day may never come that Esports is watched by everyone I at least hope that eventually a day will come where it is not attacked or belittled by people who do not enjoy this form of entertainment. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52G2aUPKi_A