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| (Photo courtesy of VideoGameVisionary.com) |
The sound of keys on a keyboard clicking, the sounds of mashing buttons on controllers, and the sounds of people cheering as they watch all the action on a big screen. This sounds like a group of friends hanging out together to play some video games over the weekend, but those actions can also apply to the experience of the modern phenomenon known as Electronic Sports, better known as eSports (or E-Sports as another alternative way of saying it).
eSports, in a simple way of explaining it, is competitive video gaming. Ever since the start of the current millennium, it has only been growing rapidly as a phenomenon that's gone worldwide as people from North America in the western hemisphere to people from Asia in the eastern side of the world travel long distances to take part in something that's grown from just a fun hobby back in the 1980s and 1990s. It's even become a possible career as there's often cash prizes that can be won at events that even goes into millions of dollars.
With all of this in mind, the hype behind eSports has reached the point of people pushing for it to be in the Olympics. While there has been plenty of criticism about this particular topic, there is plenty of reason to think it might actually benefit the Olympics more than some would think and could actually happen in the future.
Something that has been becoming more true today is that the Olympics is that it's slowly getting out of touch with younger people specifically millennials. With the reports of the median age for Olympic ranging from people in their late-40s to mid-50s since 2002 while the number of viewers from 18 to 34 has dropped when comparing London (2012) to Rio de Janeiro (2016), having eSports be involved would help fix this problem considering it's mostly millenials who have come across eSports.
As eSports has been becoming more popular and mainstream, there has also been plenty of arguments about having these type of events involved in the Olympics, including, but not limited to: not functioning like traditional sports, not requiring as much effort and commitment to being the best in competitions, and not having to be in peak physical condition like traditional athletes. However, there has been plenty of evidence that suggests otherwise, such as the LCS (League of Legends Championship Series) having a structure similar to traditional sports leagues like the NBA, players willing to play injured like a hockey player getting hit in the face by a puck, and people training 8 to 12 hours in some parts of the world to be the best just like any other athlete.
Believe it or not, there are actually steps being taken now to incorporate eSports into the Olympics, as the 2022 Asian Games are looking to have gaming events included for a test run to potentially lay the groundwork and bridge the gap for having the two entities come together. Also taking place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is the Intel World Open, which will feature games Street Fighter V and Rocket League, sanctioned by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) itself. Even the IOC in 2017 has already recognized eSports as sports activity, which is a step forward. The Paris 2024 Olympics are also having it as an exhibition event as well.
Considering how much progress eSports has made in about the past 20 years, eSports being in the Olympics would be a ground-shattering step forward and provide so many benefits from this potential collaboration.
I chose "eSports" to be typed as it seems the hyphen isn't used often according to Google Trends. The Olympics is also good to add to the title since the Olympics conveniently are happening this year (Tokyo 2020). The title is typed as it is since it brings up more articles connecting the two topics (eSports and Olympics) more often.
