Esports has been a part of our lives for about 25 years. No sport has ever spread so quickly throughout practically the whole world. That is our opinion. The quick advancement of technology and the widespread use of the Internet make this possible.
Traditional sports and eSports share many similarities, but we will show you where they diverge in this text. In spite of the majority of the contrasts, we will discover that eSports offers benefits that, in another 25 years, will probably enable us to strike a balance between this relatively new discipline and traditional sports.
Let’s begin with the athletes, who are the core component of sports.
1 Esports Is Open to Everyone
The fact that all competitors are treated equally as human beings is exactly what made esports so successful and will keep doing so in the future. Genuinely equal. There may be variations in gaming equipment, but there is no separation on the basis of race, gender, or culture.
There is frequently a historical clustering of individuals with particular traits in traditional sports.
Although there are age restrictions for some competitive games, there are no further obstacles to playing along. Today’s multiplayer games require the Internet, and if a player has a link to the Internet, they can instantly go abroad. Undoubtedly, there are regional concerns regarding gamers from particular countries, but this does not prevent eSports from being played.
Traditional sports are typically distinguished by gender. Trans athletes have a greater impact on competitive distortion in athletics. Men and women are categorized differently due to physical differences in their bodies. Separations based on body weight or age are also highlighted.
In eSports, none of this is present. A 16-year-old can triumph over opponents who are much older. Furthermore, it makes no difference whether it is a boy or a girl.
2 Esports Equipment Is Typically More Expensive
We are aware that there are exclusions to this rule. For instance, the initial fees and maintenance for horseback riding, speedways, and other specialized niche sports may be extremely high. The initial investment expenditures for traditional sports as a whole, however, are significantly lower than those required to compete professionally in eSports.
Okay, let’s not think about the fact that sponsors pay a lot of money to athletes for their gear in all sports. Take the upfront costs or the admission barrier as an example.
Several instances from conventional sports:
- How much does American football equipment cost? Ranging from $1,000 to $2,000. Here, we are referring to NFL standards. You may undoubtedly enter the lesser leagues with much less.
- How much does a tennis professional’s equipment cost? $1,000 – $2,000. Once more, it is not about the casual player who shows up at the tennis court with a racquet and a few balls; it is about the competitive game.
- What does the gear used by a pro basketballer cost? $500 – $1,000. The equipment costs for several other athletic disciplines (such as long-throwing running sports, jumping, and running) are even much lower.
Now, let’s compare the gear used by an eSports competitor:
- PC $2,000 – $4,000
- Monitor $500
- Chair $300
- Table $250
- Tech stuff (USB hubs, routers, power outlets, etc.) $200
- Mouse $150
- Headset $150
- Earbuds $150
- Clothing (jersey, armsleeves) $150
- Mousepad $50
- Keyboard $50
The final amount is somewhere between $4,000 and $6,000.
Keep in mind that professional equipment must cost more in order to be technically comparable to the competition. We will fix the distorted picture in the following point.
If you are reading this and assuming that whether you are using a $50 headphone or a $150 headphone does not really matter, let us assure you that it does. With a $50 headset, the difference appears to be cheating from the player’s perspective. A professional gamer can hear exactly where rivals are, what surface they are walking on, and where they are shooting from with greater quality audio. It was money well spent, then.
3 Esports Has Minimal to No Travels
Now let’s reverse a little of what was said earlier. At the professional level, traditional sports typically have substantially greater operating expenses.
Esports simply requires a little bit of mobility or travel. There are neither away nor home games where a whole team must travel great distances by bus or plane. Nevertheless, there are occasions when that occurs, for instance, at world championships. Professional gamers can choose to play at their homes or, in the case of major eSports teams, at a venue that is made available.
Therefore, when electricity is taken into account too, the carbon footprint of eSports is still relatively low in today’s world. Google to learn more about how video games relate to traditional sports in terms of CO2 emissions. Some blog posts compare gaming to hiking. Spoiler alert: Avoid the latter activity if you would like to protect the ecosystem.
4 Esports Has Dynamic Structures
Esports still lacks one strength that traditional sports have. To be fair, it must be noted that this potential is only now beginning to materialize, and eSports is still in their infancy when compared to more traditional sports.
Here, we are referring to supporting structures. There is an organization or club structure that encourages youth growth in practically all traditional sports. Or the job of finding fresh talents is taken over by the schools in North America. Athletes can focus nearly fully on their sport while receiving full assistance, even in amateur leagues.
We are not sure if there are existing scholarships available for eSports competitors, but it is difficult to focus on your sport when you are facing constant pressure to find a way to support yourself. The systems in eSports are currently quite fluid.
The publisher starts a league or a huge event the moment a new game comes out. The players are always in for a surprise, regardless of whether the publisher sticks with this system for several years or decades, as League of Legends has done, or whether the game grows to have such a sizable community with numerous organizers, like CS: GO has. Young players probably should not base their futures on that. So, in the majority of cases, it is difficult to design a career because of extremely dynamic structures.
5 Self-Motivation as a Priority in eSports
This point is somewhat related to the one preceding it. In contrast to traditional sports, where coaches are frequently offered voluntarily, in eSports, such coaches are only available if you are currently contracted with a professional-level eSports company.
Up to that time, a player must be extremely self-motivated to spend years perfecting their playing style, mental abilities, and mechanics. Esports is still quite young. It is therefore even more crucial for an ambitious player to join a solid team as soon as possible, one that helps each member grow through training, criticism, and analysis.
6 Esports Always Immediately Embraces Diversity
Traditional sports prioritize the national viewpoint above anything else. NBA, NFL, Premier League, Bundesliga, and so on. They do become international or continental when important sporting events occur.
You generally connect to a game server in an area with several nations when playing eSports. Multinational competitions and leagues are also typical for prize money. Europe, Asia, North America, and South America are roughly divided, but no one is shocked to see Chinese users on a North American server or when Brazilian teams compete in Europe.
As was already stated, in eSports everyone is on an equal footing. This naturally results in a lovely role model function that encompasses anti-racism and anti-sexism in addition to fair play. When these ideals are broken, the gaming community has frequently demonstrated a swift backlash – even in isolated instances.
7 In eSports, You Cannot Get Far Without Speaking English
Internationality and diversity are constants in eSports. In voice chat, everyone automatically switches to English if a player does not understand the language being used. This is only required for sports that are advertised internationally by the media in traditional sports, which are occasionally only played locally. But typically only in the upper divisions. Some gold medalists from the Olympics do not speak a word of English.
Esports, in our opinion, is even more tolerant than conventional sports.
8 Place in Society
Hopefully, this argument will be moot as soon as eSports is included in the Olympic Games in some capacity or are acknowledged as legitimate sports by all nations. United States of America, China, South Korea, Germany, Finland, Pakistan Ukraine, Russia, Thailand, Brazil, Italy, Indonesia, Nepal, North Macedonia, Turkmenistan, South Africa, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Uzbekistan are currently the nations that recognize esports as a sport.
Esports still has a somewhat niche existence even though the majority of those under the age of 50 have interacted with video gaming and many have integrated them into their daily lives. Esports is not shown on mainstream television in Europe. Video games still are discouraged in classrooms, and gamification as a teaching strategy is seldom ever considered.
But there is optimism because of recent development. Particularly over the past five years, there has been noticeable development in the direction of mass suitability. Large sporting organizations have established eSports departments, and an increasing number of businesses want to be seen as sponsors in eSports.
Esports currently does not have the same level of social acceptance as traditional sports, but two factors indicate that this will soon change:
- Almost no other industry in the world is expanding as quickly as the gaming industry.
- Video games are a common pastime and sport for digital natives, just as tennis, marathons, and auto racing.
9 Multiple Esports in One Sport
You cannot play tennis with your handegg if you play football. If you attempt to play football with your tennis racket, everyone will stare at you in shock.
If you participate in eSports, you can always utilize the same equipment to participate in another sport. Switch to Valorant from Call of Duty? Sure. Dota 2 instead of League of Legends? Sure. Change to League of Legends from Valorant? Works as well. So you can switch not only between a genre but also throughout genres at any time.
Esports evolves more quickly than conventional sports do. Some sports experience more frequent yet smaller changes. For instance, rules in racing alter frequently year. In some professional eSports tournaments, such as Call of Duty, the game can radically alter from year to year. You must be able to adjust to that in order to be a professional.
To make up for the high dynamics, professional gamers currently have rather brief careers.
Final Thoughts
We absolutely do not want to portray this as a conflict between two universes. Esports and conventional sports both have the right to exist.
There can be a shift from the real to the virtual in some disciplines. Why are chess players still required to physically confront one another?
In other sports, world champions will simply be proclaimed twice. A world champion in actual basketball and a world champion in virtual basketball might exist side by side.
In the end, these players love the very same sport but have quite distinct skill sets. There will then be completely absurd esports that might only exist in your imagination using virtual reality. Why not?
Let’s eagerly await the upcoming years and the growth of eSports. It is a wonderful moment to be alive if you are an eSports player, a bettor at H1Z1 betting sites… well, an enthusiast.