E-sports

I have barely any interest in e-sports. I’m not really interested in discussing whether they - or chess, or similar - should count as sports. For the record, I don’t count them as such and I don’t approach them the same way as a viewer but I’m not gonna hate on them. Really, professional video game players are roughly equivalent to high level athletes, but with much lower profiles. I certainly remember comparable behavioural complaints in the FGC to recent NBA scandals, for example. No heroes no idols, etc. I’ve only really engaged with e-sports in two forms. Quite a while ago, maybe eight to ten years or so, I got casually interested in DOTA 2, both playing (very, very badly) and watching (very, very ignorantly). Both before and after this period, I watched a lot of FGC tournaments, across most of the big games. This included Street Fighter IV and V, Guilty Gear Xrd, Under-Night, a little bit of Tekken and Mortal Kombat, a nice big range. I haven’t watched much in the last few years, although I did check out some Samurai Shodown the other day. Yes, yes, fighting games aren’t e-sports, whatever. The points will stand. I could tell you a lot more about most fighting games than I can about any MOBA, but I’m not really proficient in either genre. The execution and knowledge requirements kick my ass, 10-0.

 

Fighting games and MOBAs were the most friendly e-sports genres to me. Both genres appeal more easily to casuals with the emphasis on characters (and mains). The ban and pick phases of DOTA are an excellent way to start matches, leading in with the hype of a draft. Characters add so much, uh, character to FGC tournaments. There’s the meaning of specific characters to certain players or viewers, the tactical matchup with counterpicks, the hype of players overcoming the meta with disfavoured selections. There’s a clear layer of strategy, with picks and counter-picks, the kind of broader approach that I would assume is not so easily conveyed in shooters. Maybe that’s less the case with the popularity of hero shooters like Overwatch. Having not watched other e-sports at all, I’m really writing from a place of ignorance here. Don’t you love writers admitting their perspective is worthless? Really makes your time spent reading it feel appreciated, doesn’t it? Anyway, commentators generally offered narratives for each match that were easily followed for a casual viewer like me. For DOTA, I had no way of knowing whether their perspectives were correct, although it was occasionally a different story with fighting games. But I could follow along in roughly the same way I can with sports I’m unfamiliar with, like rugby or soccer.

 

In contrast, I never really got into any shooters as e-sports. The moment to moment "click on enemy until they die" gameplay is just visually underwhelming compared to fighting games. Again, the rise of ability focussed shooters may undermine this point. Yet even then, I’m not really interested in the visual experience of competitive shooters. The way other people play shooters often looks insane to me, the constant twitching as players adjust their aim. It just seems entirely removed from how I play. Maybe that’s my fault for not having enough spatial awareness when I play FPS games. It doesn't even have to be a competitive level - your basic no-scoping etc. CoD player just acts completely differently from me. It’s part of why I've always held up games like Resident Evil 4 as the pinnacle of third-person shooter combat: playing well feels relatively close to playing the way a pre-release showcase of the game would look. We're all familiar with the slow camera pans of E3 presentations. I'm not asking for games to play like that, I’d just like them to be recognisable at high level. I'm terrible at fighting games, but I can at least see how to act and play in a similar fashion to everyone else. Just because I can't do it, doesn't mean I don't understand what they're doing.

 

These feelings all cluster around the real point, a point I’ve slowly been approaching (sorry): that the fundamentally artificial nature of video games makes them largely unviable as sports. I'm not really talking in a competitive sense here. If it wasn't clear, I've long since given up watching the few e-sports I used to take an interest in, and I'm watching real sports far less than ever. In fact, I recently stopped watching the NBA out of nowhere - shortly before the playoffs - because I just didn’t have the time in my life for it anymore. But for casual participation, a video game will never satisfy the cravings that I use real sports to fulfil. Sports, to me, are physical and immediate in a way that video games aren’t. Not in the mum sort of sense, that "get outside and run around in the sun" kind of thing, or the "digital relationships aren't as fulfilling as real team relationships", but on a more fundamental level. Controllers are a boundary, one I can’t overcome as easily as the best, and that’s responsible for my distaste for e-sports.

 

Using a controller severs my brain from my actions so thoroughly that I can't even begin to approach them in the same way. Once you play any game long enough, you start to instinctively press buttons to perform actions, no longer having to think about which button it is. If you switch games too much though, you’ll find yourself slipping up, or taking longer to execute. And it’s so easy to hit the wrong button, even when I’m in rhythm. You might not be able to relate, but I’m clearly not good enough at hitting button sequences for skilful play in any high-speed genre. I’ve very rarely used my legs instead of my arms in real life, but it’s happened a lot in Guilty Gear. I know the rebuttal is that I need to spend more time in training mode, and to develop that with more matches, but even if I wanted to I’m not sure I’d ever develop the awareness necessary to make rapid inputs. Obviously, most of this is my own shortcomings, and yet I still think that the similarity of actions plays a part. One button press is much the same as another, while every movement used in sports is a result of full body coordination. When I’m rusty in tennis, I fire a few forehands into the net before figuring out my adjustments. When I’m rusty in a fighting game, I can’t string any moves together (and when I’m in top form I can do like, three). Inputs are so artificial that the powers of repetition and instinct and proprioception are made weak.

 

And there’s more artificiality too. That video games aren’t real isn’t exactly an insightful comment (or helping me avoid the old mother allegations), but it’s crucial. In a fighting game I have to try to remember what range each move is, how risky it is for the scenario. In hockey I just reach out as far as I need to intercept wayward passes. Knowledge of how each move works, of the effect each button press can have, is core to success in e-sports (and when gaming more broadly). But in the real world all of that can be adjusted on the fly. This artificiality extends beyond the controller, permeating all aspects of games. Everything is the product of code. It doesn’t help that any aspect can be adjusted in a patch. Sports might change rules, but the basic skills that I’ve spent hours training will always be part of my game. These aren't insightful observations at all, but they’re fundamental reasons that games can't compare with sports for me. Maybe virtual reality and motion controls bring them somewhat closer, but to think that they can close the gap entirely would mean lying to yourself. Competitive video games can be fun, they can be challenging, they can be rewarding; but they will always be games and toys to me, little time wasters, ways to kill an afternoon. Sports are tremendously involved, at times requiring every bit of focus and experience and preparation I can bring to bear. To me, they represent a higher philosophical calling (yes, you are very welcome to make fun of me for thinking that). The hilarity of video game physics can never compete with the beauty of interacting with physics in real life. It’s not just my lack of talent when it comes to e-sports – I’m not very good at the sports I love and play either! You can learn a game inside and out, understand exactly how to perform a complex, skill-based action like cooking and bouncing a grenade to use it to maximum effect, but it will just never satisfy me the same way learning how to deal with the spin and weight of a tennis ball has. Improving at sports means developing my body, mastering my feel and proprioception and balance and emotional control and harnessing my instincts. Some of these same skills can help you improve at competitive games, but you'll never be using the full array of your physical prowess with the same singular focus.