Esports legitimacy and other “sports” (darts comparison)

[Nocte]

One of the most streamed competition in bars and pubs across UK are darts tournaments. And I was wondering why events like these are considered legitimate sports by society at large while electronic tournaments are not?

 

Darts does not involve any physicial strain, and somewhat revolves around hand-eye coordination, which is what Esports are all about. I might be missing the point here as I do not play darts myself (and to a certain exten I am biased about this as an esport fan). 

 

This is just a quick post and I do not want to make an essay out of this. Just seeking some opinions about this comparison that crossed my mind. 

 

Happy new year

[samcool55]

It's not a computergame and doesn't require any tech at all to do, that's probably where the difference comes from.

Most people think esports is just a bunch of button mashing kids playing against each other and probably don't realize it requires a lot of skill like a quick reaction time, solid strategies and for most games solid teamwork. I mean if you compare darts to something like CS:GO or LoL it's just on a whole other level.

 

[Bananasplit_00]

18 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

solid strategies and for most games solid teamwork. 

comming from someone that was up there in the Paladins esports scene for a while, not even those that want to get into esports understand these two so why would 50 year old non techy farts in the goverment?

[Nocte]

3 minutes ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

comming from someone that was up there in the Paladins esports scene for a while, not even those that want to get into esports understand these two so why would 50 year old non techy farts in the goverment?

That’s like saying that those who want to become professional footballers understand teamwork and strategies. Truth is, most of them don’t, yet football is the most popular sport in the world (with this I’m not saying that Esports should be as popular). 

[samcool55]

2 hours ago, Bananasplit_00 said:

comming from someone that was up there in the Paladins esports scene for a while, not even those that want to get into esports understand these two so why would 50 year old non techy farts in the goverment?

Probably because they don't understand the scale of it and how many parameters there are to keep in mind when creating and executing new strategies.

 

I mean if you don't understand the game it basically looks like a bunch of people fighting each other without any strategy and a bit of teamwork... It might sound a bit rude but i'm quite sure that's what they think of it, i mean i compare them with my mom, she doesn't understand esports either and thinks it's mainly a lot of show for something that's not a big deal.

[Nocte]

15 hours ago, samcool55 said:

It might sound a bit rude but i'm quite sure that's what they think of it

I totally agree with that line of thinking. Whenever I am talking with friends who are not into gaming and the discussions somehow shifts on esports, I just cannot explain to them how they work - because they have no idea how competition in video gaming can even exist.

[LogicalDrm]

Think about it this way. Darts has majority of viewers and players who were young in 60s and 70s. In fact, professional darts has started in 1976 (Wikipedia...). At the moment eSports have very few mid-aged personel to get it growing. Old fashioned folks (like those who play and watch darts) don't believe bunch of kids could run multi-billion dollar operations like eSports tournaments. Wait 10-20 years and darts is the one in shadows. Streaming is already beating TV as viewing platform, and those folks don't know how to use internet (being bit sarcastic here). We just need to wait that people who have grown up with eSports are in that middle aged demographic who says what is worth of watching.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Because video games haven't been accepted in Western culture as anything other than "scary new media" by the old farts in charge.

[Ailithic]

Hmm lol... so 2017's League of legends Esports prize pool was 4 million dollars 3 mil generated from tickets and sales and 1 mil from donations etc, Where as with sports you can easily get million dollar contracts and fill massive stadiums around the world, I wouldn't say that its a people problem, more of an infrastructure thing plus the players are super young atm. "I mean if you were given the chance to attend an esports event in your area would you not take it?".
 

Btw strategies are what you use going into a match and tactics are things like ball interception, so your strategy might be to play passive and intercept balls more.

As for teamwork(No game can work without team work), If you can't work as a team in a game you might as well be playing alone against the other team lol.