Are e-sports part of real sports? This question has been stirring up heated debate throughout the years of the existence of e-sports. The legitimacy of esports as a true sporting competition remains in question although e-sports has been widely recognized as a sport in some countries such as China, South Korea, and Indonesia, and has also been featured in a major multinational sporting event. Many people from the e-sports community, including myself, support the notion that e-sports indeed qualifies as a traditional sport. However, many people still are not convinced that e-sports are a true or real sport. From my point of view, it is only natural to conclude that the answer to the question is currently subjective due to the subjective nature of the term sports in people's minds. Aside from the heated and prolonged debate in the community, I believe that e-sports has a lot of benefits to offer to the young generations.

Despite the legitimacy of e-sports as a true sporting competition remains in question, the growing popularity of e-sports has created a number of viable careers. However, we don’t need to be professional gamers to land a job within the e-sports industry, but what other options are available? A number of viable careers in the esports industry, even more, keep emerging as the industry develops, such as professional player, host, coach, content creator, marketing executive, admin or referee, social media manager, production crew, agent, and event manager.

I want to find a way to make a career in the e-sports industry, but not as a professional gamer. However, gender diversity in e-sports has become a talking point in the industry, with women are still constantly under-represented since the toxic atmosphere deliberately pushing them out. As everyone knows, e-sports continues to be an industry that heavily male-dominated with women are making inroads in the gaming industry but progress is slow. From my point of view, the e-sports industry is not particularly friendly towards women in general. as such, making a successful career in the e-sports industry as a woman is no easy feat.

         As modern technology continues to advance and shift at pace, video gaming is changing and evolving rapidly from being an occasional hobby into a booming business and professional career opportunity. The professional gaming industry or also known as “E-sports” has already been an established phenomenon in Asia in the past decades and is now rapidly growing in many parts of the world. 

      E-sports tournaments typically consist of amateur or professional gamers competing against one another at the regional or international level for a large sum of cash prizes. Some of the most popular video games include League of Legends (LoL), Overwatch, Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and Call of Duty; they are widely considered to be the biggest e-sports games in terms of viewership, prize pools, and popularity. Professional teams normally have coaches, analysts, or even managers that help the teams to grow and develop, get the most out of the players with great potential, and organize strategies.

Image credit: LoL Esports/Flickr

I had never imagined myself getting obsessed with a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, such as League of Legends (LoL). Back in 2017, I found the game by a mere coincidence since I came across a Youtube video with a random snippet of something that I can dub as the biggest esports tournament. Then, I clicked the video and watched the entire thing until the moment when the broadcast camera zoomed in on a weeping pro player, broken down moments after a crushing defeat. A list of questions pops into my mind, "It is just a game. Why is he crying out loud? That makes no sense!", “What makes the game worth playing?”. 

I immediately downloaded it and began trying to figure out everything about the game. After playing the first two games for a while, I found myself spending hours every day playing the games. Sadly, I came to the conclusion that my addiction to League of Legends was the biggest hurdle to overcome. I think there is something about this game that keeps me coming back, despite it makes me feel mad, angry, bitter, and stressed. I realized that I could not uninstall the game that I crave for more matches. What is worse is that the more I play the game, the more I learn, and I crave it even more.

Image credit: LoL Esports/Flickr

    Not to mention, the League of Legends ranking system consists of nine tiers from "Iron” to “Challenger”, which represents a player’s skill level. Then, the ranking system is used to match players up with and against others of similar skill levels in online games. After years of playing the game, I still stuck in the introductory tiers of Iron and Bronze for quite a while, despite using multiple champions, switching roles several times, and investing countless hours into learning the game.

Image credit: The Potato Ward/Facebook

Along with the popularity of online gaming, the phenomenon of toxic behavior has always been a core part of the game and the abusive behavior by players has been hard to root out. The toxic language and behavior are beyond appalling and undoubtedly common in gaming environments. Women are constantly underrepresented and discriminated against in the e-sports industry because of the toxic atmosphere pushing them out. There were times when I got a lot of abusive comments or negative remarks from players I have played against if I played so badly. However, if I never started playing League of Legends, I would not have met a lot of the friends I have now. 

I also have mad respect for most pro gamers for the amount of time and effort they dedicate to their careers. I know that the biggest issue of having a career in the e-sports industry is parental concern about whether their kids can be able to turn a passion for gaming into a viable and fulfilling career. I think there has and always will likely be pushback to the idea of gaming as a career, especially older generations who think of gaming as something that people would do to only waste their time. 

For me, League of Legends is not just an online game, but it is also a medium to release stress from work or daily life and meet new friends. On the other hand, some people, such as professional gamers or streamers, probably treat e-sports as a primary source of income or simply a way to have fun and earn a little extra money because the multi-billion-dollar industry is rapidly growing. On a positive note, I hope many people will not see e-sports as just simply playing video games in the foreseeable future. League of legends? It is indeed more than just a game!