For those of us who take part in the eSports community, whether as a spectator or as a player, it is no big secret to us that the community has seen an unprecedented change in the past couple of decades. Games like "Dota 2," "League of Legends," and "Counter Strike: Global Offensive" have broken stream viewership records and have raised the prize money significantly to the point where those who earn their title can lead a comfortable lifestyle. The community has grown so much that it is starting to put some famous sporting events to shame, not only in viewership but in prize money as well. However, this has gone mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world and when noticed it is often laughed at. It is an understatement when I say that the gaming community still has to overcome its “fair share” of stigma, but that is why I’m writing this. I am going to break down the statistics and demographics of the gaming community, then compare and contrast sports with eSports to show the similarities between the two and maybe earn some well-deserved recognition.

For starters, the gaming community’s viewership has skyrocketed this past decade to the point where annual tournaments beat out classic sports events. Last year, the MLB World Series average viewership was at 14.7 million and the NBA Finals between the "Warriors vs Cavaliers" averaged 13.8 million viewers. This is expected for games that have been around for more than 10 or 20 years. However, the International "Dota 2" tournament was viewed by more than 20 million people while the "League of Legends" World Championship had an average of 36 million viewers. Now you may be thinking about individual games, and how game 6 of the NBA finals had a higher viewer count than the 13.8 million average over the six games. You would be correct in assuming that. The peak viewership of game 6 in the 2015 NBA Finals was 23.5 million, but League of Legends Finals also beat that out with 27 million viewers. A survey done in 2014 showed that 205 million people played or viewed eSports that year. This is astounding, even for the gaming community, which is why companies have started to notice and are taking action.

Big names such as Logitech, Red Bull, Coke, and Nissan have started sponsoring video game teams and players to help them to travel to tournaments. As some of you may know, athletes have to get visas or green cards to be able to enter the US to compete and so do video game players. Just this year, Leffen, a "Super Smash Bros Melee" player from Sweden who is sponsored by Red Bull, was barred from coming to the US to compete. As a result, Red Bull made a video and petition allowing fellow players to voice their opinions on the matter. He was finally granted a temporary visa after the petition gained traction and will now be allowed to compete in US majors. The fact that such a big company would go as far as this for a game that was made 15 years ago shows that they see a potential of earning through advertisement. They understand that there is money in this industry, and how it is beneficial for sponsors to make their moves while many still believe that eSports are just a laughing matter. The amount of money that companies can make out of this through advertisement is a major driving force, but not as much as the payout for professional players. Team Solo Mid, an eSports team that participates in many different games, is now starting to pay their "Counter Strike: Global Offensive" players 3,000$ a month for being on their team. And if you think that is ridiculous, a SBBM player named Mango from Cloud9 makes around 10,000$ a month while League of Legends player Bjergsen from Team Solo Mid makes around 20,000$ to 50,000$ a month. Now if you think that’s ridiculous or absurd, I would say so is paying LeBron 22 million dollars a year. Even the lowest salaries in the MLB dwarf that of most eSports players, ranging from about half a million dollars a year. The reason these players are paid so much, whether in sports or eSports, is because of how many fans watch and support via merchandise. Depending on the popularity of the games, it is only a matter of time before the average player salary starts to resemble that of the top paid eSports players.

Now if you think that it is ridiculous that a bunch of lonely, sexist, pimpled-faced, basement-dwelling nerds is getting paid that much for playing some stupid video game, you’d be wrong in assuming that this is the sole demographic. Contrary to popular belief, more than half of the American fans are employed full-time, and 44 percent are married. Another thing that also surprises many people is that 32 percent of the gaming community is female. It is a very diverse community. Obviously, there are issues regarding Gamergate that need to be talked about, but I’ll save that for another article. “But why do that when you can be more productive?” Well as you can see, a lot of eSports players and fans are. It’s just a hobby and for those who pursue it, it can become a career.

Now before I dissect the similarities between the two, I wanted to say that I understand why people like to watch sports. I have a lot of friends that like to follow sports and I played on basketball and soccer teams. I get why they like them, so believe me when I say I’m not trying to take a jab at your community. All I’m doing is showing you how similar sports fans and players are to the eSports community. Okay? Okay. First, I’ll compare the players and athletes, then I’ll get into the fans. As far as being part of the competitive scene, eSports is just as accessible as sports, if not more. The reason I say this is because to participate in either sports or video games you need the equipment. For the eSports, one must buy a console and the game along with internet access. All sports, while some require special padding, require a ball and special shoes. Money needs to be spent at some point to be able to participate; and while computers and consoles cost more than balls and shoes, games like League of Legends are free to play. The reason I say that eSports can be more accessible is because of the level of possible participation.

While sports corporations like the NBA only draft 60 players a year, eSports is open to everyone at any time. To play a sport professionally, one must start at a young age and even then the likelihood of a high school basketball player making it into the NBA, according to a 2015 LiveStrong poll, is at around 0.03 percent. If you don’t make it to that, there is an even smaller chance that they’ll consider you afterward. Unlike sports, however, eSports players always have the opportunity to go up against the best in the world regardless of being a professional. In games like "League of Legends," there are different divisions that a player can rank up to. From Bronze to Master/Challenger, players can access higher level gameplay depending on how many games they win in a row. Once you make it into a new class, you can be pitted against the number one seed of that division in random matches. While sports teams throw out their aged players like used dish towels at the end of their prime, eSports are open to all ages and genders. Now you may be thinking that this will change if eSports begins to draw as much money as the NBA, but game developers and tournament organizers want as much participation as possible. I’ve had the fortune/misfortune to fight one of the top 100 "Super Smash Bros Melee" players in the world, and it was my first game in the bracket. Needless to say, I was sent to loser’s bracket where I ended my tournament with a clean 0-2 record, but I was glad because I learned how to improve my play style from fighting some of the best in the game. In eSports, it is not uncommon to face off with professionals. The reason why the winners of the 2015 Dota 2 world championship won over $6 million is because of how many people entered. How many of you who play sports can casually say that you can practice with Leo Messi or Stephen Curry?

This brings me to the incentive portion of athletes and gamers. Athletes have so much determination and willpower to work out so much and even though it always starts off with wanting to make it, once they do they’re in a great position. Some athletes have multimillion dollar contracts with the prize money for their perspective world championships usually not coming close to their salary. Obviously, these athletes work hard to keep their position, but eSports players don’t have that comfortable job position yet. Most of the gamers I mentioned earlier, like Bjergsen and Mango, make most of their money off of tournament placings and donations from their streams. While they do have sponsors, Twitch.tv provides many gamers with income needed to pay the bills. Twitch.tv, for those of you who don’t know, is a video game streaming service where gamers trade content and game knowledge for donations. Here fans can talk to their favorite players and ask them questions, uniting the professional community with the casual gamers. On the other side of the fan service spectrum, we have Ron Artest who thinks it’s ok to go up to an NBA fan and punch him. All jokes aside, the fans are instrumental to both communities.

There are three things that sports and eSports fans have in common, some of which I believe to be arguments commonly used against the gaming community. The first argument is that video gamers are notorious shit talkers, especially towards women. Although this is very true in eSports, sports fans can’t claim that they are innocent either. Just like in the Ron Artest incident, people like provoking each other in a competitive setting. As far as the misogyny and sexism, that is something that both communities must actively work on. The second argument used against the eSports community is that video games lead people to violence. This is not about the desensitization phenomenon that many anti video gamers have clung to, but about competitive rage. However, just like in sports, this does not happen very often and when it does it is condemned by the rest of the community. Sure it is easy to point out the father who killed his 17-month-old daughter for accidentally unplugging his Xbox and claim that this is enough evidence to prove a point about video games; but I would also like to mention the LA riots when the Lakers won and lost, the murder of a 21-year-old after a Chiefs-Broncos game, and the riots after a Peru-Argentina game that led to over 300 deaths and 500 injuries in 1964. It’s important to note that some people are naturally more aggressive than others and that it does not mean that the game does that to us all. Finally, my last argument isn’t actually used against the video game community. In fact, I would say this is something that many people outside of the gaming community don’t know about us which is strange seeing as it is the biggest thing we have in common. The feeling of “nerding out” is just as dumb and beautiful for sports fans as it is for eSports fans. When you understand the game well enough, you know what’s impressive and what is not. When I see a successful hail mary pass into the touchdown zone or see Ronaldo make a goal outside of the goal box, or when I hear about Curry making 77 out of 100 three-pointers in a row, I know it is impressive. Even though we may argue over which one is more skillful, millions of fans think that similar feats exist in gaming. When a League player gets an Ace, or when a Call of Duty player lands a 360 no-scope, or when Westballz breaks an opponent's shield by multi shining them, I nerd out because I know it’s hard to do. That’s is why I like eSports because I understand that repeatedly inputting a move that requires 1/60th of a second to do or killing all the enemies on the opposite team by yourself is a difficult task. Am I saying you should be interested in eSports? No. Am I saying you should find it impressive? No. All that I want, and what the gaming community wants, is for the stigma against us to be lifted. You personally may not harbor any of these feelings, but know that the majority of the world does. Even though the community doesn’t rival that of all sports yet, it doesn’t feel great when people like Colin Cowherd from ESPN say: “Here’s what’s going to get me off the air. If I am ever forced to cover guys playing video games, I will retire and move to a rural fishing village and sell bait.… Somebody lock the basement door at mom’s house and don’t let ’em out. I will quit this network if I am ever asked to cover that. I tolerated Donkey Kong. I’ll tell you what that was the equivalent of… of me putting a gun in my mouth and having to listen to that.” Call me sensitive, but this isn’t the worst of it by any means. In the end, is it so wrong to want to defend your passion against the notion that it creates killers and lazy people? I don’t think so, and after this, I hope you don’t either.