Sean C. Soler
Ms. Wielenga
AP English Period 3
18 Feb. 2015
Are video games mental sports? Many teens in today’s society are severely obsessed with modern video games that consist multiple players that allow them to have teams in order to fight against the opponents. The famous game that most individuals play is League Of legends, a game that both teams compete against each other. Many pro gamers join a game competition in an arena, just like typical sports, with audience as well. Some people feel that this should be considered as a sport because this type of video game requires strategies as well as physical sports. However, in our society’s definition of sports, sports require athletes to be physically competitive. Nevertheless, video games make individuals become cognitively competitive due to its strategy standards it require gamers to have. Therefore, video games that consist combative teams should be considered as a sport because they are similar to physical sports. Perhaps more people have an access to these combative video games because they can be played in other technologies such as consoles and computers. Statistics show that consumers in
U.S. have spent $8.4 billion and spend time playing them at a minimum of 30 minutes
(“Statistics”). Thus, those gamers must have been skilled as pro gamer because they play them everyday just like practicing everyday for sports. Also, video games such as League of Legends are combative type of game compare to typical games like Angry Birds and Flappy Bird that are meant to entertain the audience. However, critics say that video games are not comparable to
Soler2
physical sports, such as football that requires to practice for long hours to be competitive, unlike video gamers that only use the character’s skills to be competitive (“Esports”). However, a professional game designer, Rob Pardo, states that combative games mandate players to have critical thinking skills and high reflexes to operate the game competitively (Fitzpatrick). This indicates that those type of games are identical to the sport chess because players have to be cognitively competitive. Similarly to physical sports, video game players are also considered in colleges in some universities in U.S.. The Robert Morris University Illinois offers plenty of scholarships to gamers because they have launched an eSport program in their school (Sanserino). This would be beneficial to students who have been skilled on video games to go to college and pursue the thinking skills they have acquired on playing video everyday. However, opponents may feel that it would be a waste of money to aid gamers instead of supporting other sports’ expenses.
However, video gaming teams, such as League of Legends players have made $18.7 million as a prize, as it was stated in eSports website (Fitzpatrick). It’s worth advocating video gamers because they could win high prizes on the competitions they join. Similarly to sports, video game teams also get sponsors for their competitions. Amazon recently bought a live stream
