Can playing a video game really be a sport? It’s just sitting in a room playing Call of Duty all day, how hard can that really be?
With millions of people around the world now tuning in to watch games like Call of Duty, League of Legends being played competitively we thought it’d be fun to look at some facts and figures that shed some light on the world of eSports.
Call of Duty XP:
Well lets break it down into some quick facts.
1. eSports players are often young, between the ages of 18-25. They train between 6-8 hours for between five to six days a week.
2. Skill requirements for playing Call of Duty include having incredibly fast reflexes, the ability to think tactically and the ability to work well as part of a small team.
3. Spectator numbers vary from around 10,000 per game all the way up to half a million for the Championships. These numbers get even higher when you look at games like League of Legend and DOTA 2.
4. Training can include playing the game, working with their team members to come up with tactical strategies that could give them an advantage. They also religiously watch themselves and their rivals, searching for weaknesses which could give them an edge.
5. Teams will sometimes be so close-knit that they’ll all share a ‘Team House’ where they’ll live together and train together. They’ll have nutritionists and exercise routines because as the saying goes: “A healthy body is a healthy mind.”
6. In 2013 the US started granting eSports players professional athlete visas.
7. The most successful eSports teams will have major sponsorship deals which can net them huge sums of money.
8. Some, but not all, players will have chosen to play Call of Duty competitively simply because of a competitive drive, outside of the game they’ll have spent their younger years playing football, American football or a whole variety of other sports.
So there you have it. Whether or not you agree that playing a video game can be a sport it’s hard to ignore the simple truth which is that even if you don’t, they do, and if they do, isn’t that enough?