As someone who has been in around esports since 2012, I’ve been able to take on a number of roles and learn from a variety of different experiences across multiple titles. In my mind, there is no doubt that esports could be considered and I believe that you can apply Coakley’s definition to esports and it will fit, with a bit of a stretch.
The first element that Coakley uses to define a sport is arguably the hardest one to pass over to esports, and that’s the physical aspect. However, in my mind esports has mental aspects which most sports do not which can be as, if not more, draining that most traditional sports. Being able to play a prolonged Best of Five series for Counter Strike Global Offensive (CSGO) on stage in front of 15,000+ people whilst still being able to precisely place your crosshair and for your reaction speed to remain as quick as it can be is a mentally draining feat. Once you add in the emotional factors as well, which can wildly swing throughout a series, it becomes a very demanding match.
The second element, which is the most obvious, is the competitive side. It is undoubtedly true that esports are competitive. By nature, multiplayer games are competitive; there is a clear win condition and an objective.
Thridly, Coakley suggests that the activity has to be institutionalised. Now, this is a strange one with regards to esport due to varying titles and how each region developed. Some titles do a great job at having a regulating body such as League of Legends. Each region for their top tier leagues is run, managed, or influenced heavily by Riot Games, the company that created the game. EU and NA LCS (League Championship Series) is run by Riot themselves, LCK (League Champions of Korea) is run by Kespa who is the overarching body for all esports in South Korea and finally the LPL (League of Legends Pro League) is the Chinese league which is run by Tencent, the owner of Riot Games.
However, for a title such as CSGO, Valve, the company that make the game, have very little involvement on the professional level. Each major tournament is run by a different company. Over the past three months, each major tournament has been run and managed by a different body; ESL Pro League finals were run by ESEA, ECS Season 3 finals were run by FaceIt, ESL One Cologne is ESL’s biggest tournament each year and finally the “Major” was run by PGL. Although CSGO is a wild west for tournament organisers, there has a formation of a group known as WESA (World Esports Association) which aims to act as a body as well as a players union to facilitate fair competition.
Finally, the fourth element of Coakley’s is internal and external rewards. Again this is clear throughout esports via prize money, sponsorships and in intrinsic aim to just keep improving and be the best in the world. For League of Legends, a team known as SKTT1 has dominated the competition for almost three years now and there is always the ambition of other teams to knock them from their throne. Whereas with CSGO, the winners tend to change every tournament meaning that it’s somewhat open between the top six teams as to who can take home the titles, suggesting that the need to improve and adapt is ever apparent.
Overall, there are clear similarities between Coakley’s definitions of a traditional sport and the new phenomenon of esports. For me, and a lot of other people, however, being classified as a sport or not does not really mean too much for the whole industry. We already have huge sponsors and broadcasters supporting tournaments and other outlets of esports, suggesting that getting the accreditation of an official sport is more rubber stamp than anything else.
Ben "Hoss" Hosford 