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ESports: A game or a sport?
By Jerry Un

Over the past decades, playing video games was considered a child's play, it was nothing but merely a way of entertainment. However, as time goes, the gaming industry has grown to a point that it created a community which had unparalleled passion. Eventually eSports is born. So, what is eSports?

Electronic Sports, or in short, eSports, is a new type of sports where competitors hone their skills and overcome the other team/teams fairly in a wide array of games. These games can be varied between First Person Shooter (FPS), Real Time Strategies (RTS), fighting games and etc. ESport competitors are all considered the best players amongst the respective games which they compete on. Imagine them as professional basketball players from NBA, or baseball players from MLB. And of course, there are some star players among these professional gamers. In fact, eSports has been exploding and approaching to be on par with other sports competitions. Therefore, playing video games might not be the same as you think just pure entertainment, it might also become a potential career for the new generation.

Not only that, just like other sports entertainment, eSports also provides new opportunities for new industries to profit. For example, computer goods and gaming console can profit from sponsoring professional gamers teams and advertising their products, while streaming, a method has emerged which broadcasts gamers playing on live and interacting with viewers based on the game they support. Lastly, game enthusiasts will also be more likely to engage in game-related activities such as E3 (electronic entertainment expo), Gamescom etc. And some will even personally spectate worldwide game tournaments.

Statistics from Newzoo, a game market intelligence agency showed a rise in revenue of eSports from 2016 to the expected outcome in 2021. In 2017, eSports registered US$655 million of total revenue, comparing to US$493 million in 2016, a 33% increase. The figure consists of merchandise related to gaming, sponsorship of professional gaming teams, media rights for tournaments broadcasting, and advertisement tickets. Newzoo also predicted that at the end of 2021 there will be US$1.65 billion in total revenue. That will be a huge increase. Gaming might not be interesting for everyone, but one cannot ignore the fact that mainstream views on games have changed because of eSports.

However, not everyone shared the same optimism. Overwatch (OW) World Cup Hong Kong Team Co-coach Colman Wong suggested that the booming of eSport industry might only be temporary and might face its downturn soon. "Although the eSports industry has provided such huge opportunities and needs for companies to earn profits, the success of eSports heavily relies on the content of the game itself."

Wong continued, "Successful games such as OW, League of Legends (LoL) are able to benefit from their worldwide eSports tournaments thanks to their good balancing and constant management of the games. On the other hand, some game tournaments might suffer when the popularity of these games starts to decline."

Wong also pointed out that the development of eSports has created many superstars for teenagers to worship, thus these tournaments have guaranteed income from sponsorship and advertisement. Yet these tournaments might require the audience to have relatively more knowledge of the game in order to enjoy it.

On the current development of eSports in Hong Kong, Wong said, "The stereotype of eSports enthusiasts in Hong Kong are infamous, people usually think of them as useless, misfits. Therefore the public is generally not familiar with eSports. As we are speaking, our team needs to secure traveling fares to participate in the world cup by ourselves without any effective support from the government......"

"The current image of eSports for Hong Kongers remains as promotional figures play video games with each other casually, while in other countries such as South Korea and America there have been specific policies and facilities to train their players. If this concept is still going on for our development on eSports, there won't be any future at all."

Without any doubt, eSports has developed seriously over the past years. Its potential is unmeasurable, both profit and fame opportunities. But is it only an illusion? Will the public view eSports as the same as any other sports? It is an argument that can't be settled for now, but one thing is assured; video games will never be the same after eSports is introduced, and games are not only for kids anymore. With Hong Kong having one step forward ahead of Macao in regards of eSport, this is also a good time for us to think about how we approach eSport as well.