Recognizing Esports as a legitimate sports

 

 

It has been a rocky climb but gamers all over the world have started gaining recognition for doing what they do best. Recently, the US government has agreed to allow professional athlete visas to gamers participating in League of Legends tournaments in the US. This signals the beginning of the end of the public notion that esports and gaming in general is just a hobby and brings professional gaming into a better light. 

 

It may seem insignificant as we normally think of gamers going overseas to participate in tournaments lasting a few days or weeks but on further scrutiny, we can see deeper resonnations within the move. Players issued a professional athlete visa (or a p-1 visa in US terms) can stay up to 10 years in the US to participate in their respective fields.

 

With players like LoL's Edward moving from Europe to play with Curse US, this opens up a floodgate of possibilities for player swaps across continents. Will we be able to see WIckd from Evil Geniuses (Previously playing under CLG.EU) join CLG Prime as their new top laner? Could we see CJ Entus Frost Madlife move to the US and play in the NA LCS? More importantly, will we be able to see an All World League, where the best teams from all over the world play in one location for longer than a single tournament?

 

 

With certain leagues like the Garena Premier League, we see a vast gap in between the leading teams and the rest of the pack, leading to more blowouts and overly dominating performances. Even in the NA LCS, we see Cloud 9 blazing through the rest of the competition to a 13-2 record, leading to a large fan following, but less interesting matches. Hopefully with the new rules being implemented, we might see a league similar to that of the NBA where teams face each other throughout the year, allowing for more main event matches to take place, like Gambit Gaming vs TSM Snapdragon, on a bi weekly basis instead of a bi yearly basis. Yes, there is a World Championship event happening annually with the best teams playing against each other but much like the NBA playoffs, that doesnt really curb the appetite of LoL esports fans for the entire year. 

 

Not only does it impact tournaments and competitions for Esports, this announcement may have rippling effects across the perception of Esports in governments all over the world. Traditionally, it has been a hard sell for companies to forge an identity for Esports as a legitimate sport.With this change acknowledged by a world superpower, we hopefully will be able to see a paradigm shift across the globe with respect to how esports and gaming in general is viewed by the general public as well as government bodies. This will open up more sponsors, more gaming related events and possibly even more government grants to nurture our growing subculture of sports. 

 

League of Legends and Riot Games (the creators of LoL) have always been at the forefront of generating new precedents for Esports, so it's no surprise that they would be the ones to lobby for such an exception for gamers. With the door to Esports integration into mainstream pop culture blown wide open, we can only wait and see what lies in the next chapter for Esports' legacy.

 

Are you excited that eSports is finally making headway into serious recognition as a real sport? Let us know in the comments secion below! 

Source: PC Magazine