Esports Can be a Sport

Esports are becoming increasingly more popular every day. There are people who make tons of money just by simply playing video games. There are tournaments, cash prizes, and now even schools and universities with their own esports teams. One game currently on the rise as one of the top games for esports competitions is Valorant. Valorant is your classic 5-V-5 FPS shooter, where there are many different goals to win. However, the main goal is simply, to kill everyone on the opposing team. Valorant brings something familiar like the COD aspect of FPS team fighting, along with an animated graphic style and even character abilities like an RPG. 

In Valorant, there are characters you can choose from to play for that game. However you can only have one of each character on a team, so sometimes that requires people to be skilled in using more than one character, but more on that later. Each character has unique abilities and styles that the player must learn to use in order to perform the best with that character. Some characters have grenades, some can heal teammates, and some can cause utter destruction. Now the easiest thing might seem to be to use the characters that do the most damage all the time right? No. The team needs a good balance of attack, defense, and healers in order to work cohesively as a team to win the match. This is where the sports aspect comes into play.

To work as a team to complete an objective is the basic outline of every team-centric sport ever created. So how is Valorant (or any Esports for that matter) any different? Perhaps it is the fact that you are seated the whole time, with your only active body part being your eyes and hands. However, this could not be farther from the truth. Your brain is doing an incredible amount of work. It is not only translating what you are seeing happening, but it is coming up with reactions and plans for what is happening, and then collaborating with other brains as well. This amount of mental work is exactly what it is like in traditional sports. It is a read-and-react situation, which - in my opinion - is the most important aspect of any sport.

Now back to the idea of mastering the use of several characters. You do need to practice and acquire some skills in the game and using more than one character. What happens if a teammate already chose the one character you know how to use? You are kind of stuck picking a character you have never used, and that can cost your team. This idea of practice and learning is another important aspect of all sports, and I think the necessity of it in Esports is what can classify it as a true sport.