The gaming industry is emerging every day with the rising number of online and mobile games and esports in Olympics is a dream of every gamer. There are many fastest-growing, and highly untapped gaming markets across the world. This industry has set in motion due to the high percentage of the young population, rapidly rising disposable incomes, and an expansion of game developers. It is evident that the gaming industry has developed largely for the last few years now. The introduction to smartphones, fast internet services, immense mobile subscribers, and eventually the technically updated games have resulted to have amplified the gaming industry over the years.
However, online gaming has been conventionalized as an extensive waste of time by many. But professional gaming is setting its bars high. Professional gaming is developing and gaining recognition throughout the world. Well, professional gaming was a part of the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. It is seen that it is now accelerating to reach higher and hence become a part of the Olympics.
Gaming is an ESport and esports in Olympics could be seen soon. esports has already been a part of the Asian games and Lokesh Suji, director, esports Federation of India (ESFI), and vice-president, Asian esports Federation says that It’s not too far when we’ll be having esports in Olympics. Well taking that into consideration, gaming in the Olympics is not impossible.
We also have some reasons for including esports in olympics:
Esports In Olympics, rationale 1- Esports is an real sport
Regardless of what many of them think about esports in olympics, they can scientifically be classified as a real sport. Well, let us not mistake here by referring it to the usual late-night video game player. It is in reference to the people who study and play E-sports at the elite level, and also train and practice full-time.
Studies have shown that these people literally push the human body to master many superhuman feats. This means that they use many parts of their brain simultaneously and hence produce high, athlete levels of cortisol. They are able to make over 400 hand movements per minute and also display unmatched levels of hand-eye coordination. It is observed that their heart rates increase to about 180 beats per minute and this is similar to that of a runner during a fast run.
The standard definition of sport demands some level of physical exercise or exertion. However, people consider gaming as the exact opposite of this definition and is framed to stimulate the lack of physical fitness. Well, the definition of sports is not just limited to physical exercise and also includes skill and mental sharpness. This is the reason why chess, snooker, and darts have been held to be sports for so long.
Just because esports does not include any kind of physical movements, it does not mean esports in olympics should be excluded. There are some other non-physical sports also like Rifle shooting which does not require any body part except the finger.
Competition happens to be the most essential element in Sports and esports create some of the best competitive pressure in any sport. Along with this, there are various multiplayer video games that involve a level of teamwork and that is one of the most considered areas of human performance. Due to this reason, some schools of thought side for the inclusion of Esports In Olympics.
Esports In Olympics, rationale 2- Esports is a rapidly rising sport
At present, esports is gaining grip. As per the statistics, there are around 2.5 billion gamers globally. This number exceeds the total number of players of “popular sports” like basketball and tennis. And this number is still growing tremendously.
Along with the players, the number of viewers for 2018’s League of Legends E-sport Finals was around 99.6 million. This is because the spectators are also allured towards the E-sports.
With some bright projections from the fan base, this trend will continue and increase in the next few years. Since the access to watching a live stream is increasing, it is observed that more people are beginning to watch esports as the favored form of entertainment. The big prize pools and high stakes for the players have undoubtedly resulted to be a stirring form of entertainment.
It is noticed that the Olympics is facing a declined viewership. Hence, the increasing fan base and the imminent viewers can result in a piece of good news for the Olympics. E-sports will come in and spike some more interest. This is one of the points for Esports In Olympics.
Esports In Olympics, rationale 3– Gaming is an admirable pursuit
Though gaming is considered inherently unhealthy as it encourages a lack of exercise and social disconnection. China even recognized these issues and framed gaming as addictive that may lead to gaming disorders. This may lead to setting up treatment centers to deal with such disorders. However, this is not the complete truth about gaming and it has some things more to it.
There is an extreme dedication in the elite gamers. They commit a huge amount of hours to chase excellence that is even beyond the sports. Along with this, it requires extraordinary talent to rise above millions of other competitors. All these factors make these players the role models of human performance in the mental domain.
This is the reason behind hundreds of millions of fans of gamers. This particularly inspires the younger generation which is not fulfilled by any other sport. This clearly indicates that gamers are the sports heroes of the next generation. This is yet another argument Esports in olympics.
Esports In Olympics, rationale 4 – Gaming will introduce new sports to people
Since gaming has its own ideal position, esports already have loads of their own tournaments and championships. These tournaments and championships particularly cater to this form of entertainment. If someone is new to esports, they may find many games complex to understand as they won’t be having the knowledge of how to play the game.
However, the partial role of the Olympics is to broaden the people’s horizons and introduce some new sports to them. Also by this time, the gaming industry is an immensely established global entertainment industry. E-sports has fans in almost every country and hence it can be a more popular sport in the Olympics as compared to other new sports. This has to be the fourth reason for Esports in Olympics.
Esports in Olympics should be a Demonstration sport
A lesser-known section of the Olympics is known as demonstration games. These are played apart from the official sports in the Olympics. Demonstration games are basically the games that are held simultaneously with the Olympic games. The only difference is that these games are played without getting the winning medals.
Demonstration sports once included sports like tennis and bowling. They are considered as the stepping stones to get qualified as an official Olympic sport. However, it can be considered that it may take a while for to reach from a demonstration sport to the stage of Esports in Olympics.But it will undoubtedly result in a great way to help it acquire even more popularity as well as support. E-Sports will also bring more fan base to watch the Olympics. Hence this can be a win-win situation for both, the Olympics as well as the E-Sports. Thus,if want to see esports in olympics, esports being a demonstration sport is the next step.
Well, taking all these into consideration, it can be concluded that esports in olympics is a great idea. As esports has a gigantic fanbase with loads of entertainment quality. It’s not too far when we’ll be able to watch our first Olympic Esport champion.
