By FLORO MERCENE
eSPORTS were featured at the 2018 Asian Games as a demonstration sport, meaning medals won in this sport will not be counted in the official overall medal tally. Six video game titles will be featured in the demonstration. At the 2022 Games in Hangzhou, China, it will have full metal status.
“e-sports” is simply the short name for electronic sports. But it doesn’t just take place inside living rooms between friends and family. Huge eSports tournaments now take place all over the world in big arenas with large crowds. The biggest eSports event in 2015 was the League of Legends World Championships final. The tournament drew 36 million viewers, five million more than the NBA Finals, in front of a sellout crowd at the famous Bird Nest stadium in China. eSports business is estimated to be worth almost $1.5 billion by 2020, with some players already competing for prize pools of up to $24 million.
They are also likely to play in teams, rather than their own. Not everyone agrees that computer gaming should be considered to be a sport. Some people think that sport should involve being more physically active. But others think that even though it may not be as physically athletic as tennis or rugby, the skill involved means it can be considered a sport. Some players might train for up to 14 hours a day to make sure that they have extremely quick reflexes and reactions. Players might make more than 300 actions per minute, so they have to be able to multi-task extremely well. They also have the heart rate of a marathon runner.
The earliest eSports could make it to the Olympic games appears to be 2024 during the games to be held in Paris.
