By Kyle Chan
The scene of esports has been blowing up over the past few years.
Whether it’s the rise of North American talent in Counter Strike: Global Offensive or the current events of the World Championships in the League of Legends community, esports are becoming more popular.
Whatever game you decide to watch or play, there is probably an esports community for it, no matter how small.
Esports has often been compared and has fallen short to traditional sports by the masses.
It has even been talked about by sports broadcasters with Colin Cowherd who is against it, and doesn’t consider it to be a sport.
However, Rick Fox, a three time National Basketball Association (NBA) champion, talks highly about esports and promotes the development of it, as well as his own esports team.
The number of hours players spend a day honing their craft in the esports scene can be thought of as similar to the amount pro athletes do to improve their performance.
They often put in eight hours a day scrimmaging other teams, breaking down gameplay, analyzing mistakes, and then play more games to work on their individual mechanics.
Esports players spend about 14 hours of their day just working on their craft, which is more than the average professional athlete.
Other reasons why esports should be considered on par with traditional sports is because of the stages and stadiums they play in, mostly filling or selling out the arena they host.
The significance of the esports industry growing shows that you don’t need to follow the path of traditional jobs.
The whole esports scene is growing at a rapid pace that even sports organizations have took notice and are buying in to it having a team represent them.
NBA organizations such as, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Houston Rockets, and the Golden State Warriors all have teams in the League of Legends Esports scene.
Not only are their teams supporting esports, but even players in the NBA are supporting them too.
The point guard for the Atlanta Hawks, Jeremy Lin, supports the DOTA esports scene, and Gordon Hayward, an all-star small forward for the Boston Celtics, supports the League of Legends esports scene as well.
Esports is no longer an underground event where people can come play tournaments for small figures of money.
Now it’s being televised and streamed around the world; selling out sports stadiums and offering six figure payouts.
So, next time you see someone playing a game in the library remember their face, because they’ll either be another person just trying to kill time before the next class, or they could be the next big face of the game.
Kyle Chan is the president of the George Brown College League of Legends club.
