Fundamentally, E-sports leagues appear to be trying to make gaming appear to be a sport without actually making it into one. Like the addition of coaches in MLG games like Gears of War and Halo. That seems like a completely ludicrous addition to professional gaming and one that will not even make it more like a sport. Why does a gamer need a coach?

To make gaming into a sport, they should make organizational changes. Let’s continue to use MLG being an example. A Halo 3 team in MLG should have to be sponsored by a corporation or person. A sponsor will not just pay for trips to Meadowlands and give you cool gaming rigs. That individual should own the team and they make the roster changes. If Ogre 1 and link Ogre 2 do not like Walshy anymore, too bad. They do not have a say, the sponsor does. Teams should not be just a group of friends that got together one day and have played together since. They should be solid foundations that may exist years from simply, with our without it’s current player roster.

They should implement a regular season. Instead of going to a handful of tournament events or competing in certain online ladder, the teams involved in the season are set at the beginning of the season. No more can teams join or leave after the season is underway. Thus, schedules are set for each team. If you are scheduled to play a team, you go to that location and play them. Real sports teams and players travel a whole lot. It seems gamers sit at home training for the next event. You train through the off-season in a sport, and play throughout the season. Why would competitive play be held online when you have network issues, potential cheating, and lag? It doesn’t make sense. So there’s no reason they shouldn’t be traveling around the country to play their next scheduled opponent.

Each team might have the exact same number of games played. After the season is over, playoffs will be seeded and played in the tournament-style events like Meadowlands. That should be how playoffs are done. Right now it seems they have no relevance at all the other than winning you money and giving you points.

There should also be a scouting combine. You can’t simply up and join an MLG competition one day. You may have to enter in to a separate league and compete there until you are invited by a team owner to join an MLG team. That could give legitimacy to the league as well as probably weed out a whole lot of want to-be’s and posers while they aren’t going to want to compete and travel a lot.

Another idea I had for American professional gaming will be to hold state tournaments which may recognize the best players that reside in each state. These players would then qualify to compete on the main MLG or professional circuit. I think something like this could be more feasible than a minor leagues for gaming. And c’mon, who doesn’t like saying things like I went to states in 2009.’

Physicality does not matter
A lot of men and women say gaming is not a sport because it’s not physical. I’m not saying this since it is debatable regardless of whether sports require physical activity. After all, NASCAR is recognized as a sport by some and the driver just sits there. Bowling is also considered a sport and that involves very little physicality. It’s also debatable regardless of whether gaming has no physicality within the first place. Gaming requires reaction time and motor skills and also critical and analytical thinking, much like real sports. I think the real reasons that individuals say gaming just isn’t a sport is really because of the ones outlined above. It just seems more like a hobby and also does not conduct itself in a professional or sports-like manner.