A player carrying a controller across a football field represents esports being an opportunity for those not wanting to play more traditional sports. Esports have grown massively at the collegiate and professional level in recent years, offering players the chance to use their skills for more than entertainment. “(Esports are) a path to college and a path to get a scholarship, to play in college at over 800 different universities and colleges around North America now,” Joey Gawrysiak, Director of Esports at Shenandoah University and Co-Founder of Esports Development and Growth Enterprise said. “(Esports players) can get into broadcasting, content creation and streaming to understand that side of the industry, (which) is going to increase their job opportunities, whether it’s in esports or not.” Illustration by Antonio Starks
Nowadays, there seems to be an app or website for almost anything that was formerly done in real life, from talking and texting to sketching to photographing. But at a time when it feels as though “real life” is increasingly digital, why should sports be any different?
An infographic displays how esports may continue to grow in popularity and monetarily from now until 2025. While the esports industry has grown in recent years, the exponential global growth it’s experiencing proves that the sport has become more legitimate. “(Esports are) fun, and (they’re) easy to do because (they’re) everywhere. I mean, everybody’s got (their phones) sitting right next to them at all times where they can just get on and play,” Joey Gawrysiak, Director of Esports at Shenandoah University and Co-Founder of Esports Development and Growth Enterprise, said. “When you’re forecasting 10 or 15 years down the road, all you have to do is look at what kids are doing, and what kids are doing today is on technology.” Graphic by Wyatt Meyer
Across the world, more and more people are becoming involved in esports, which are essentially competitive video games played against other gamers.
While it’s hard to quantify how many people play esports because there are so many different types, the industry as a whole has grown tremendously.
According to games marketing website Newzoo’s report on March 9, 2021, the global esports audience is projected to grow from 465 million people in 2021 to include almost 600 million people by 2024, with the industry projected to be worth more than $1.6 billion by that time.
Although it’s generally accepted that esports are fun, the criticism of them has long been that they don’t offer transferable skills that more traditional sports provide, but that’s not entirely true. While other sports incorporate more physical challenges than esports, playing online still has its benefits.
“The skills that you get by playing soccer, Rocket League, any video game or any sport are things like communication, teamwork, adaptability, reliability,” Joey Gawrysiak, Director of Esports at Shenandoah University and Co-Founder of Esports Development and Growth Enterprise said. “You can get (those soft skills) by playing and competing in video games, but also you can learn a lot through esports and gaming that relate to traditional areas of business, media, production or coaching.”
In fact, esports are often more accessible than sports like football or basketball because of their digital platform.
“We can use esports and gaming as (a) kind of vehicle or mechanism to teach things that we’ve been teaching for a long time, but we’re just doing it through a lens that makes more sense to this current generation of people,” Gawrysiak said.
While esports might seem to be an abstract concept far away from Athens, the reality is that students can play them as a sport right here at Clarke Central High School, although no one played on last year’s team.
“Compared to football, basketball and baseball, (esports are) really small. I think more people (participating) would just make the games more popular and get more people invested,” recreational esports player Alexander Fishburn, a
CCHS freshman, said.
A map displays all of the high schools in the Athens area that offer esports as an official GHSA sport. While esports have not become available at every high school, according to Joey Gawrysiak, Director of Esports at Shenandoah University and Co-Founder of Esports Development and Growth Enterprise, this is partially due to their lack of knowledge regarding esports. “It’s important to increase eSports offerings in schools because number one, schools want to do it, they just don’t know how,” Gawrysiak said. “What we want to do is make sure they’re doing it right and setting it up in a way that benefits all students.” Map by Wyatt Meyer
With esports more legitimate than they’ve ever been before, grab a computer, create an account and start playing. There’s never been a better time than now.
