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Joshua Rollinson

Jackie Burr, Instructor

English 2010

February 13, 2020

Esports, An Open Letter

Dear, Sports

Sports. Loved by all, and bring joy to those around them. It brings people together, and

creates extreme and fantastic events and the test of strength, stamina, and perseverance for these

athletes to win these events. Although, what defines a sport? A sport in a very simple sense is

basically a competition between two players or teams usually involving a game to settle the

score. It is also described my most as an active activity, but that’s where it gets touchy. There are

plenty of instances of “sports” that aren’t recognized as a sport because of the lack of physical

contact or movement. This is a huge reason why Esports, a billion dollar industry that

demonstrates these sports like skills, isn’t recognized as a sport. On top of that, basically any

adult in this time or age still doesn’t understand the fact that video games are the new form of

professional sports. Many news channels reported on when Boogie, a teenage professional

fortnite player, won the world fortnite cup, with the largest singular winning prize pool of 3

million dollars. That kind of money is typically the kind you would see a movie star or sports

star make. So why can’t esports be a sports star? The media itself was great for the community

and esports, but simultaneously the adults on the news channels made fun of the sport and career.

This is unacceptable considering you would never make fun of a professional soccer player for

playing soccer for 8 hours a day, yet playing video games for 8 hours a day, to maintain and
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improve their skill levels is laughable. It’s honestly super sad and the level of ignorance these

channels show towards a growing kind of community and is a social problem. This affects the

players within the community and it for sure discourages others from coming into this

community. Kyle to this day still to this day continues to practice these ridiculous hours in hopes

to make it back on the big stage to make another huge moment in esports history.

Next, a quote from a Ted talk by Anthony Betrus says, “Don’t Judge Someone Unless

You’ve Walked a Mile in Their Moccasins.” This should be a given, but society today simply

just doesn’t want to follow such a simple rule. To directly compare this to another social problem

would be the importance of sports for women as it is to men. Wage gaps, social constructs you

name it, are all reasons to make sure women also get the right to play sports in an equal manner

as men. Same goes for Esports. There is no reason to take the talent away from these players who

spent countless hours practicing and competing to become the best they can be. This would

defeat the whole purpose of training for anything, not just Esports. Imagine practicing and

practicing to just be told that this isn’t viable, and that you are just wasting your time. Now after

all of this ranting, how big is this esports I speak of? Well it reached it’s 1 billion dollar worth

back in 2019, and the LCS for the game League of Legends the worlds events, meaning the

matches between other players usually repping their teams and countries, got more active

viewers than the superbowl. With over 100 million people watching it live it outclassed the

superbowl in viewership. These gaming events are humongous and are only getting larger. Now

this presents a new problem, with this popularity it would certainly bring about training kids to

become these new video game rockstars. It has already started, but similarly it has the same

ignorance issues that regular competitors in esports have. Schools don’t want to unblock certain
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games and allow students to practice, let alone have a club to represent themselves. Now, there is

a college in California where they are one of the 13 colleges in America that will give out

scholarships for Esports. These college students will play for UCI or University of California

Irvine. They have the opportunity for one to play the games they love, and also to get a great

education and have it be half paid for. Generally there are steps being taken in the correct

direction but we need further guidance to allow esports to be properly recognized. All these

issues derive from the main problem itself. So to help allow adults, teachers, anyone to

understand the complexity and athleticism of esports, would be to go to one of these events and

directly compare it to sports. Now obviously they can’t see the players running or anything like

that, but the stage itself is very similar to those of sports. Millions watching, thousands watching

them in the stand, money on the line, representing a team, and so on! So please sports! You need

to understand the struggles and social problems you are creating! Let alone esports, but all the

other problems you cause for other forms of sports! If we as a people can go and change the

definition of Sports, and let everyone understand and accept it. The near will be bright and full of

new entertainment, and plenty of new opportunities for males or females.

Esports is a sport. Will grow like a sport. Will have support like a sport. Has money like a

sport. Finally, it has the community behind it like a sport. On top of the community, there are

plenty of jobs that are created because of me! Stream Teams, Photographers, Coaches,

Merchandise Teams, Social Media Marketers, the list goes on.

Scientifically, it can be considered a sport, and the list goes on. Repetitiveness is the only

way to get the point across, so esports will continue to break new boundaries and convince the

general public that I Esports, am a true sport like the rest of the other sports. I hope to stand the
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podium with you in the future soon, continue being great, and I’ll show you that I deserve to be

there as well. Throughout my history is enough to show everything sportlike you would ever

want. It’s upcomings, shortcomings, players, popoffs, celebrations, gatherings, and so much

more. So please, accept me for who I am and for what I stand for!

Sincerely, your favorite sport, Esports.

Works Cited

Betrus, Anthony. “Esports is Real Sports” Ted: Ideas Worth Spreading, August 2019