Essentially, Electronic sports leagues appear to be trying to make gaming appear to be a sport without actually making it into one. Like the addition of coaches in MLG games like Gears of War and Halo. That seems like a completely ludicrous addition to professional gaming and one that does not even make it more like a sport. Why does a gamer need a coach?

To make gaming in to a sport, they should make organizational changes. Let's continue to use MLG as an example. A Halo 3 team in MLG should have to be sponsored by a corporation or person. A sponsor doesn't just pay for trips to Meadowlands and give you cool gaming rigs. That individual should own the team and they make the roster changes. If Ogre 1 and Ogre 2 don't like Walshy any more, too bad. They do not have a say, the sponsor does. Teams shouldn't be just a group of friends that got together one day and have played together since. They should be solid foundations that may exist years from fundamentally, with our without it's current player roster.

They should implement a regular season. In place of going to a handful of tournament events or competing in certain esports gambling online (visit the next post) ladder, the teams involved with the season are set at the beginning of the season. No more can teams join or leave once the season is underway. Thus, schedules are set for each team. If you are scheduled to play a team, you go to that location and play them. Real sports teams and players travel a great deal. It seems gamers sit at home training for the next event. You train throughout the off-season in a sport, and play through the season. Why would competitive play be held online whenever you have network issues, potential cheating, and lag? It will not make sense. So there's no reason they should not be traveling around the country to play their next scheduled opponent.

Each team could have the same range of games played. After the season is over, playoffs will be seeded and played within the tournament-style events like Meadowlands. That should be how playoffs are done. Right now it seems they have no relevance at all the other than winning you money and giving you points.

There must also be a scouting combine. You can't simply up and join an MLG competition one day. You will have to enter into a separate league and compete there until you are invited by a team owner to join an MLG team. That would give legitimacy to the league and additionally probably weed out a lot of want to-be's and posers while they aren't going to want to compete and travel a lot.

Another idea I had for American professional gaming would be to hold state tournaments which would recognize the most effective players that live in each state. These players would then meet the requirements to compete on the main MLG or professional circuit. I think something like this could be more feasible than a minor leagues for gaming. And c'mon, who will not like saying aspects such as I went to states in 2009.'

Physicality does not matter
A great deal of people say gaming isn't a sport because it isn't physical. I'm not saying this since it is debatable whether or not sports require physical activity. After all, NASCAR is recognized as a sport by some and the driver just sits there. Bowling is also considered a sport and which involves very little physicality. It's also debatable regardless of whether gaming has no physicality within the first place. Gaming requires reaction time and motor skills and additionally critical and analytical thinking, the same as real sports. I think the real reasons that folks say gaming is not a sport is really because of the ones outlined above. It just seems more like a hobby and doesn't conduct itself in a professional or sports-like manner.