By Alex Kurtz Sports editor
When a team hoists a championship trophy to a sold-out crowd in Los Angeles’ Staples Center, the first thing that usually comes to mind is that the Lakers probably won the NBA Finals. However, the picture that many people around the world imagine from that statement can be much different.
Ask anyone in South Korea, and they might tell you SKT Telecom T1, a professional League of Legends team, before they say any team involving Kobe Bryant. Three years ago, SKT won the League of Legends World Championship in front of a sold-out Staples Center crowd.
28 million people watched them lift the Summoner’s Cup online, which was a total higher than the clinching games of the Stanley Cup and World Series from that year combined. ESports, or electronic sports, have become more than just a phenomenon, but also a reputable sport around the world.
To start, many people claim that it is simply not a sport and that major networks, such as ESPN, should not cover it like they do.
While eSports are not as exerting as a football game per say, it is actually much more exerting than one would think. A 2015 study by Ingo Frobose from the Germany Sports University concluded that an eSports player during competition has a higher level of hand-eye coordination than a table tennis player and they can input commands faster than the time it takes a batter in the MLB to judge if he wants to swing at a 100 mile per hour fastball.
These factors have all led to teams focusing more on the health of their competitors. North American-based Team Liquid, which was recently purchased by Magic Johnson, has discouraged all forms of soda and has hired a personal chef in the team’s house to provide meals that will benefit the players’ health. Chicago-based OpTic Gaming also took strides to keep the players healthy after partnering with United Kingdom apparel company Gymshark to provide players with adequate workout equipment and clothing.
Changes like these have resulted in multiple pro players such as Bora “Yellowstar” Kim and Mitch “Krepo” Voorspools losing substantial amounts of weight. Kim, who was a part of Team Solo Mid during the North American League of Legends Spring Split, said he runs a couple miles every day and makes sure that he and the rest of the team frequently visit the gym to stay in good shape.
They do this on top of grueling practice sessions. TSM’s mid-laner Soren “Bjergsen” Bjerg, who is one of the most popular players in North America, said in an interview with HyperX that he and his teammates practice 10-12 hours a day to stay in top form for competition.
Gaming in the United States was reported to be a $23.5 billion industry in 2015, which was a five percent increase from the previous year. The eSports industry has also been calculated to grow as much as $2 billion to $4 billion by 2019.
The money is not only there but it is growing. Owner of eSports team Echo Fox, Rick Fox, has gone on record and said that eSports have the possibility to pass the NHL in terms of popularity in the next few years, and it is quite possible indeed. The most popular eSport, League of Legends, currently has a player base of 67 million people. Other games have millions of players as well and tournaments worth large sums of cash for the winning organization.
ESports have arrived as a mainstay in the sports community. The large player bases combined with the large amounts of money and chances at profit have shot the exposure for it through the roof in the past few years. The industry should not see a game-over screen any time soon.
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