A controversial decision has been made to officially include E-sports as a pilot event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
The news was met with open arms by many, but not without an equal amount of push-back.
One criticism originated from Gloucestershire’s Olympic silver medalist Sharron Davies who said in a response to the announcement over Twitter: “Not a sport…a game!”
Not a sport … a game!
— Sharron Davies MBE (@sharrond62) February 9, 2022
This illustrates the divide within the public between those that support the idea of E-sports being accepted as if they were any other sport and those that believe they should be kept separate as you would any other non-competitive game like Monopoly or Cluedo.
Davies opened the floodgates on discussion around the topic with replies going on seemingly forever as people went back and forth about the debate.
League of Legends player Adam Leaning told Park Life: “I think it’s great honestly, any exposure to E-sports is great to help grow the industry and bring more awareness.”
When asked if he thought that E-sports belongs in an event like the Commonwealth Games Leaning said: “It’s always a debate whether or not E-sports are actually sports,
“And I think mentally, very much, they are sports, people invest so much time and effort into improving in these games and things.
“But physically I would say they aren’t sport, I think I would consider them to be a genre of sport.”
Leaning elaborated that E-sports would clearly never replace traditional sport and instead “just be an extra genre in the industry, for example an E-sports section in the Olympics or Commonwealth Games”.
He added: “But it’s there for both parties, they get more people interested in the Commonwealth Games and we get more people interested in E-sports, its just beneficial for everyone.”
Ben Solomons, UOG League of Legends second team member also spoke out, stating: “Both physical sports and video games started out as fun activities, neither designed to be highly competitive nor lucrative at their conception.
“But games like League of Legends were designed to be competitive and played at a high level, and sports are also called games because well, you play them for fun don’t you.
“It’s exactly the same as video games, they were meant for fun, but you can also play them at a very high level.”
League of Legends is likely to be one of the video games selected as E-sports in the Commonwealth Games pilot, as it has already been selected as one of the eight selections for E-sports’ debut in the Asian Games set to take place in September.
Whether the public wants it or not, the world seems to be moving towards inclusivity towards E-sports, with progress already being made with E-sports in the Olympics and Asian Games, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility to see E-sports become part of the main programme by 2026.
