“That’s going to be game! SK Telecom T1 are your new 2013 world champions!” yelled Kobe over the mic while casting. Not many people understand the growth of esports. Esports are electronic sports. League of Legends, an esport, had the second most watched TV viewership in 2013 beating popular traditional sports. The reason for this was the venue was the sold out Staples Center in 2013, then a massive sold-out stadium a year later in Seoul, Korea. The increase in viewership is causing this industry to grow rapidly, making it a multi-billion dollar industry. Many critics and sports enthusiasts are wondering how this esports industry has risen quickly. According to these people, the industry has risen rapidly due to it being a valid career, having an increase in viewership, and having similar aspects to traditional sports.

Esports can be a valid career for some. According to esportsobserver, the total earned money in 2013 was about forty-eight million US dollars. The total amount of tournaments were almost 2800 in 2015 having at least a seventeen million dollar prize pool. This shows a portion of the industry’s value. The reason why it is considered a valid career is because of how much money this industry makes. The esports industry makes enough to support teams in a region, pay players, and even have those players earn extra money by winning tournaments. To become a professional esports player or have a career in the industry, the steps are similar to any other career. Experts and articles from New York Times and CNN state that esports have the same steps as regular sports or careers. Everyone starts in highschool, then goes to college and later moves onto the professional level. Similar to traditional sports, gamers must be on a team each of their years to keep moving on and improving. Sooner or later, they would get drafted into professional play. This demonstrates and shows how similar esports are to traditional sports. In fact, the only difference is that high-school esports are not recorded or streamed, while athletic sports are. This also shows how one can become a make gaming or playing esports their career. Many traditional athletes may argue that esports should not be a career, however, it has every aspect of regular sports except for the fact that it is not athletic. In all, the esports industry has risen so high that it has created a valid career that has created an audience.

Esports has had a huge increase in viewership. According to ESPN, in 2014, esports had 89 million viewers who watched 3.7 billion hours of esports. League of Legends, an esport, had twenty-seven million viewers which was second in all of 2013 beating big final events and sports, such as the Stanley Cup and NBA Finals, and coming under the one hundred million viewers of the Super Bowl. This increase started because the venue for the World Finals 2013 was Staples Center, then a year later the 40,000 sold-out occupancy stadium in Seoul, Korea. This year, in 2016, the venue is the sold-out Staples Center again. This shows how much esports has grown through viewership. Although the venues for the final event of the season are somewhat similar, it is the online viewership that keeps a steady increase and shows consistent growth. Viewership is one of the main and biggest reasons that keeps this industry alive. If no one watches esports, then the industry would not have enough money and fans to support the particular games CS:GO, another esport, also broke their own personal record of viewership according to the experts as businesswire from Google news. These records include having over 45 million hours watched as well as broke the concurrent viewership at 1.6 million. For the industry this can raise up its popularity and viewership a few percent. However, for the esport, CS:GO, this could boost their popularity by lots making them more popular than other esports. Although CS:GO is one of the newer esports that doesn’t receive much attention from gamers, the record they broke was huge for their own game and can help grow this game to be bigger and bigger. Many critics may argue that the esports viewership is still somewhat low, however, if the esports industry can afford multiple venues of such a size and have a consistent growth, then the esports industry is growing.  In conclusion, the esports viewership has significantly increased and more people are starting to watch it because it is similar to traditional sports. 

Esports have very similar aspects of traditional sports. The students and experts and Illnois state that the most popular esport, League of Legends, is very simliar to the NBA. The aspects of the game are very similar. This can easily be seen that both the NBA and LoL have teams of five players, different positions on the team, as well as analysts and coaches to keep the players in touch with game as well as keep their mentality state high. League of Legends has different regions while the NBA is only an American association. However, for America, League of Legends has ten teams while the NBA has about thirty teams. There are other positions within League of Legends that the NBA has such as broadcasters, hosts, analyst desks, referees, and coaches. In fact, the NBA is so similar to esports, such as League of Legends that retired NBA pros, such as Shaq or Rick Fox invest into LoL teams. In addition, esports has mental aspects that traditional sports have according to debate. For example, every traditional sport requires the mental aspects which include recreating and improving teamwork, cooperation, communication, strategic decisions, and critical thinking. This shows how players can focus their play on being a teammate and not a greedy player. Skills similar to these can even help gamers in their own life. Multiple athletes argue that esports should not be considered a sport, however, despite the athleticism in traditional sports, esports and traditional sports have the similar prospects. In summary, traditional sports have similar to same aspects of esports.

After SKT T1 won 2013 world championships, Samsung White went on to take the 2014 trophy, and SKT T1 took the 2015 trophy again. Esports is an industry for gamers that is growing rapidly and is taking over traditional sports. This multi-billion industry is growing so fast that the industry has enough money to pay for big venues to let the industry grow more and more. In all, esports are rising faster and more rapidly because it is a valid career, it has had a huge increase in viewership, and has similar aspects to traditional sports.