Essentially, Esports 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 totally 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 in to a sport, they should make organizational changes. Let’s continue to use MLG as an example. A Halo 3 team in MLG should have to be sponsored by a corporation or person. A sponsor does not just pay for trips to Meadowlands and provide you cool gaming rigs. That person should own the team and they make the roster changes. If Ogre 1 and Ogre 2 don’t like Walshy any more, too bad. They don’t have a say, the sponsor does. Teams shouldn’t be just a group of friends that got together one day as well as have played together since. They should be solid foundations which will exist years from fundamentally, with our without it’s current player roster.
They should implement a regular season. In place of going to a handful of tournament events or competing in certain online ladder, the teams linked to 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. In the event you are scheduled to play a team, you go to that location and play them. Real sports teams and players travel a great deal. It seems gamers sit at home training for the next event. You train during 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 will not make sense. So there is no reason they should not be traveling around the country to play their next scheduled opponent.
Each team would have the exact same range of games played. After the season is over, playoffs could be seeded and played within the tournament-style events like Meadowlands. That should be how playoffs are executed. Right see here now it seems they have no relevance at all the other than winning you money and giving you points.
There must also be a scouting combine. You can not simply up and join an MLG competition one day. You will have to enter into a separate league and compete there until you are invited by a team owner to join an MLG team. That might give legitimacy to the league as well as probably weed out a whole lot of want to-be’s and posers because they aren’t going to want to compete and travel a lot.
Another idea I had for American professional gaming could be to hold state tournaments which would recognize the very 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 will be more feasible than a minor leagues for gaming. And c’mon, who does not like saying aspects such as I went to states in 2009.’
Physicality does not matter
A lot of men and women say gaming isn’t a sport because it is not physical. I’m not saying this since it is debatable whether or not sports require physical activity. After all, NASCAR is recognized as a sport by some and the driver just sits there. Bowling is additionally considered a sport and that involves very little physicality. It is also debatable whether gaming has no physicality in 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 men and women say gaming just isn’t a sport is simply because of the ones outlined above. It just seems more like a hobby and doesn’t conduct itself in a professional or sports-like manner.