The world of sports once featured a large chasm between its elite athletes and ordinary people. However, the constant and rapid advancement of digital trends has brought with it a revolutionized new era of gaming, spawning a new field known as eSports.
There have been constant debates over whether eSports should even be counted as a real sport. Since it’s essentially competitive video gaming, it may not require the physical strength or athletic prowess of traditional sports. However, the best players in eSports have certainly proven that it still takes just as much passion, training, and dedication to excel as in traditional sports. With that in mind, here’s a look at how the two stack up against each other in terms of pros and cons.
Blurring the Lines Between Traditional and Video Game Sports
The massive success and popularity of iGaming have shifted online casinos and sports betting mainstream. Growing trends and modern innovations like Bitcoin betting have made it cheaper, faster, and safer to bet on sports online.
Being able to use cryptocurrency to bet on sports usually comes with perks like welcome bonuses, but also provides anonymity and a more secure way to bet on sports. Given its digital underpinnings, it’s unsurprising that you can now bet on eSports too, and in many ways, eSports betting has become just as lucrative and appealing to punters as traditional sports betting.
Access to Professional Competition
One of the key perks of eSports stems from the fact that it is inherently more inclusive. Without having a combination of raw talent, existing physical fitness, passion, and a degree of luck or resources to be scouted or have the ability to join a professional sports academy, traditional sports can be difficult for ordinary people to break into.
However, eSports is something any person with access to a gaming console and their game of choice can join. Becoming good enough at it to compete professionally takes practice and determination, but ultimately relies on the players themselves. Very soon, dedicated gamers can find themselves competing in a number of esports tournaments for a share of impressive prize pools.
Physical and Mental Conditioning
Traditional sports have the edge when it comes to physical conditioning and training. Most traditional sports in the modern world require more physical fitness than ever before. Sports science has also evolved newer and better ways for athletes to train, eat right, and recover, providing more efficient physical conditioning.
eSports also requires a form of physical fitness and endurance. However, it mostly requires good mental conditioning and physical training that focuses on things like better hand-eye coordination. As a result, while eSports players can be just as good at what they do, traditional athletes are typically required to be in better physical conditions.
Financial Potential
The most elite athletes across major sports make obscene amounts of money and enjoy global fame that often eclipse movie stars. For example, Christiano Ronaldo currently has over 600 million followers on Instagram and a net worth that is rapidly approaching a billion dollars.
On the other hand, eSports is becoming more lucrative for professional players, so the gap is closing. While gaming is a more esoteric culture, the sheer number of gamers all over the world and the fact that it can be streamed online mean that professional gamers can become very famous and wealthy in their respective eSports, too.
Career Trajectory
Lastly, given the nature of eSports, professional players can enjoy far longer careers than traditional athletes. While physical athletes and their modern training regimes are extending careers, in most sports, between the ages of 30 and 40 is usually the time when most begin contemplating the end of their careers and possibly moving into related jobs like coaching.
For eSports players, since the physical demands and levels of fitness required aren’t as rigorous, this gives them an opportunity to compete professionally for far longer. In fact, whereas athletes’ performances often wane as they age, the older eSports players become, the better and more experienced they usually become.
Want to talk sports and/or games with the fastest-growing community in gaming? Join the conversation by joining us on Discord, and check out our Twitter and Facebook pages as well as our growing YouTube Channel!