Competitive gaming has been around a long time on the PC with professional Starcraft leagues or tournaments for games like Quake and Counter-Strike. The Xbox 360 has made competitive gaming a lot more popular within the last few years with the pro-gaming console league Major League Gaming, or MLG for short, and has begun to be classified as a sport by many gamers. Even sports news coverage, such as ESPN, have bought into this new fad called Electronic sports (electronic sports) and now covers MLG games on their own website and even sometimes mentions it on Sportscenter. But is this attention justified? Are Esports really sports? The answer is no and here are reasons why this really is so.

Lack of wide innate skill gap
I thought I would begin with with this reason so that any gamers who think this really is the sole reason for this article can be settled right off. I'm not stating that I could beat a Halo 3 player such as Tsquared. He is much better than me. A lack of innate skill gap means that, with dedication, almost any gamer can become a pro at the game they want to compete in. This isn't true for everybody and here is definitely an example. When I used to play SOCOM II, a friend of mine had over 2,000 hours logged onto the game online. I had less than 50 hours, but I was far and away a much better player than him. I believe that irrespective of how much he played, I might have always been better. Yet, at the same time, there are various players for example myself that are just naturally good at online games. I have a 2.5 K/D ratio on Halo 3, but I rarely play the game and do not take it seriously. I don't even like it. I have a feeling, however, that if I played 8 hours a day or maybe more with the intent to take it very seriously, I could probably compete at the MLG level. I have a feeling a majority of the players on Halo 3 that are dedicated to it, could compete at the MLG level.

This isn't so with sports like hockey, basketball, baseball, even golf or tennis. I used to play hockey as a kid but regardless of how much I played, there is a 99.999% chance I would never make it into the NHL. I think the exact same can be said for thousands, maybe even millions of athletes in major sports. But not gaming. You've got a really good chance of having the capability to compete in the field of gaming simply by training and staying dedicated to it.

Perhaps I could never beat TSquared but because gaming won't involve physicality, the real difference between us will be only dedication. He is a lot more dedicated than I am, and it has been for an extremely long time. The professional gaming plays online games as his life. I chose an alternative career path. The same as I wouldn't be as good a forensic investigator as a person that has 20 years experience, I wouldn't be as good a gamer as TSquared if I competed against him right now.

There is no scouting combine
In the majority of major sports leagues like the NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB, you'll find minor leagues or college level play. This really is how players make it up to the majors, they play through college and after that get drafted to a team or play in the minors, prove themselves, and are called up. In E-sports, there's no minors. You should not have to prove yourself to compete, you just pay to enter an event. I cannot tell you the range of times I have watched a sports game on television to hear an announcer say something along the lines of 'You're in the Majors, you should be able to make that play' or something similar. There's no prestige becoming an MLG player, it's meaningless. Anyone can become one at anytime. In essence, you could get badly beaten if you're no good, but it is because you are competing at a level you shouldn't be. There's a reason when major league players in MLB are sent down to the minors on a rehab assignment or something that they dominate or that a player who might dominate at triple A or perhaps the AHL for hockey might suck within the NHL or MLB, it's a completely different degree of play.

esports gambling (similar web site) do not have levels of play like this (sure there is the CAL and CPL but it doesn't work the same). Either you are competing or you're not. I think to be considered a sport, MLG should remedy this by incorporating a minor league where players are farmed from to competing within the majors. This will be the only way to get into the majors is to be invited, not simply sign up and paying a fee.

A lack of unity or organization
There are a number of gaming leagues available. There is the MLG, CAL, CPL, GGL, Gamebattles (actually a branch of MLG), Starleagues, and several others, some more legitimate or popular than others. Sure you'll find different sports leagues, but I do not think anybody is going to state that in America there's a football league more legitimate or popular than the NFL or possibly a hockey league more legitimate and popular than the NHL. Why doesn't gaming have one legitimate league? Why is it so fragmented? If it was a true sport, it should have a unity of organization. Instead, leagues will be only privately operated and run which leads to a range of ones. Are players in MLG better than a player in CPL? You never know, they are different leagues with different games. I can confidently say players in the NHL are better than players in a European League.

This brings me to another point, the organization of E-sports is nothing like a sport. There isn't any regular season, there are only events and ladders. Even the leagues that pretend to have seasons will be just running ladders for a certain time-frame and call it a season. Ladders don't work like seasons because you can join or leave a ladder at any time. If you go 0-5 on Gamebattles, delete your team and remake it and also you erase your bad start. Teams don't have the same range of games played. You may challenge other teams at your whim so you never have to play a team that you know could beat you unless you reach the Playoffs. Real sports aren't like this. There aren't just a handful of tournament-style events through the season.