Competitive gaming has existed quite a while 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 it has begun to be classified as a sport by many gamers. Even sports news coverage, for example ESPN, have bought into this new fad called E-sports (esports) and now covers MLG games on their website as well as sometimes mentions it on Sportscenter. But is this attention justified? Are Electronic sports 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 to ensure that any gamers who think this is the sole reason for this article can be settled right off. I am not saying that I could beat a Halo 3 player such as Tsquared. He is much better than me. A lack of innate skill gap implies that, with dedication, almost any gamer can become a professional at the game they want to compete in. This is not true for everyone 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 however much he played, I could have always been better. Nevertheless, on the other hand, 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 even 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 which 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 child but regardless of how much I played, there is a 99.999% chance I would never make it in to the NHL. I think the exact same can be said for thousands, maybe even millions of athletes in major sports. Although not gaming. You have a really good chance of having the ability to compete within the field of gaming simply by training and staying dedicated to it.

Perhaps I could never beat TSquared but because gaming doesn't involve physicality, the real difference between us could be only dedication. He is a whole lot more dedicated than I am, and it has been for a very long time. The professional gaming plays computer games as his life. I chose another career path. Just like I wouldn't be as good a forensic investigator as a person that has 2 decades experience, I would not be as good a gamer as TSquared if I competed against him right now.

There is absolutely no scouting combine
In many major sports leagues like the NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB, you will find minor leagues or college level play. This is how players make it up to the majors, they play through college and after that get drafted to a team or play within the minors, prove themselves, and also are called up. In E-sports, there is 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 tv to hear an announcer say something along the lines of 'You're within the Majors, you should be able to make that play' or something similar. There is no prestige being an MLG player, it's meaningless. Anybody can become one at anytime. Fundamentally, you might get badly beaten for anybody who is no good, but it's because you're competing at a level you should not 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 the AHL for hockey might suck in the NHL or MLB, it is a completely different level of play.

E-sports don't have levels of play like this (sure there is the CAL and CPL but it does not work the same way). Either you are competing or you are 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 lot of gaming leagues around. There's the MLG, CAL, CPL, GGL, Gamebattles (actually a branch of MLG), Starleagues, and lots of others, some more legitimate or popular than others. Sure you can find different sports leagues, but I do not think anybody will probably 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 just privately operated and run which leads to so many different 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 Esports is nothing like a sport. There's no regular season, you'll find only events and ladders. Even the leagues that pretend to have seasons are just running ladders for a specific time-frame and call it a season. Ladders do not work like seasons because you can join or leave a ladder anytime. If you go 0-5 gambling on esports (you can look here) Gamebattles, delete your team and remake it and also you erase your bad start. Teams do not have the same number of games played. You can challenge other teams at your whim so you not have to play a team that you know could beat you unless you reach the Playoffs. Real sports are not like this. There are not just a handful of tournament-style events through the season.