It has come to my recent attention that there is a sector of gaming culture called esports, which is competitive online gaming.
The competition range varies immensely. There are tournaments you can enter with a team where you can win hundreds of thousands of dollars, or you can play one-on-one against your friend sitting next to them in your basement. Either way, the added component of competition is what sets it apart from other types of leisurely gaming.
Now, I understand why people consider this type of gaming to be a sport – there are ways to increase your skill as a player to do better the next game, there’s the team camaraderie aspect of winning and losing together, and I suppose you can count the violent movement of one’s fingers on the controller to be physical exertion.
However, I just can’t say that I agree. I grew up a semi-serious athlete, spending long hours running laps around a field, having to stretch out sore and overused muscles, pushing through exhaustion on the hottest days of the summer because you knew college recruiters were watching. I wish that I had the chance to just sit down and look at a screen for hours and hours on end.
But I didn’t and I’m glad that I didn’t. Less video games and more hikes. That’s all I gotta say.
