Robert Morris University in Illinois has recently added a new sport. Like other sports, athletes will be offered scholarships, uniforms, post-game meals and a facility where they can practice. They also will be expected to attend team meetings and play at a competitive level.
The difference is that this sport is not played on a field or in a gym, but rather on a computer. It is League of Legends.
League of Legends is a MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) video game developed by a company called Riot Games. Players get to become 100 different characters called champions. The goal of the game is to fight the opponents and destroy the enemy base.
But however active the characters on screen may be, League of Legends should not be considered a sport.
Whereas actual athletes have to go through intensive physical training to gain and maintain their skills, League players only have to sit in front of a computer clicking buttons. And although League may contain important aspects of sports like teamwork and leadership, it misses the athletic aspects of a sport. Most sports like football, soccer, and baseball require the athlete to not only have mental fitness, but also to be physically fit and to have endurance.
On the contrary, almost anyone can get good at League and go into the competitive scene simply with enough time spent clicking away at a computer. In order to achieve proficiency in League, a player just needs to have fast reflexes and a sense of strategy in the game — not physical prowess. The rest of their skill comes from the quality of their gaming devices, like their keyboard and mouse.
Furthermore, League should not be characterized as a sport because of its earnings. Usually, players in basketball and baseball will make around $400,000 to $600,000 a year when they start off and around $1 million or higher a year when they get settled into their league. That kind of money can support the player for a very long time.
However, when a player starts in League, there is no guarantee that the player will start earning money right away, or ever even earn money. A League player can make between $100,000 to $500,000 depending on sponsors, advertisements, stream subscribers and prize money from tournaments, but so far, only 28 of the best League players have made this kind of money.
But like other college level sports, the League team will participate in competitions. Since League is the number one watched e-sport, the school will be able to generate some revenue from the games.
Sports are pursuits students can excel at, get scholarships for and (in very rare cases) become good enough to earn a lot of money for something they work hard and have a great talent at. League is an electronic sport, but is an activity that is solely meant to entertain people. League players sit in front of a computer practicing strategies and their button pressing skills. It requires little physical effort compared to other sports and should not be considered one either.
One college has added League of Legends to their sports program, but qualifying the video game as a legitimate sport is more than a little misguided. Let’s hope it’s not the start of a trend.