Is E-Sports Considered to be a Real Sport?

A lot of athletes participate in many sports like basketball, volleyball, cross country, track, soccer, you name it. But have you ever heard of Esports? Esports are sports that are played on electronics and many people argue that they should be included in the sports category. However, I disagree with these people because I think it should not be considered a sport. I think that since Esports does not require the same effort physical sports do. 

Esports have already been recognized as a sport by the Asian Games (a multi-disciplinary sports event held once every four years), universities, and many countries around the world, as well as the United States. Many people believe Esports is a sport due to the fact it requires dedicated concentration, precision, and execution; based on genuine skill. I disagree with their reasoning because I think that just because something requires skill does not make it a sport. If everything requiring skills was considered a sport you would consider activities such as art, writing, and cooking sports. They are clearly not sports so you can see where I’m coming from. My point is that anything requiring skill is not always a sport.

Another reason people consider them as a sport is that Esports involve competition. But I don’t think that’s a reason they should be considered as a sport since a lot of non-sport activities involve competition. You wouldn’t consider a reading competition, a cooking competition, or board games like chess or monopoly a sport would you? So these people are basically saying that video games are a sport since they require competition which I disagree with. So if you ask me, just because they require competition does not make them a sport.

Another reason why I think Esports should not be considered as a sport is due to the fact that they don’t involve physical activity like any other sport. Sports involve athletes doing a lot of physical training which is a lot of hard work. I’m not saying Esports don’t involve a lot of training because they do. In Esports, the competitors train by moving their hands or arms but that is not as much training as regular sports require. Athletes have to move their entire bodies to train while Esports gamers sit at a desk to train. From this comparison, you can easily tell that regular sports require more physical movement and harder training. Due to that fact, I think it is very unfair to consider Esports as a sport considering how hard athletes work in order to train for their sports.

To conclude, I think Esports is a great avocation and require a lot of skill and training, but I also think they should not be recognized as a sport. Esports involve skills just like any other activities that require skill but sports require different types of skill. Sports use different strategies and different ways to train and participate in them. Esports differentiate from sports since they require gamers to compete online rather than in person. Due to the differences, Esports has compared to sports, I think Esports shouldn’t be recognized as a sport.