Electronic Sports or inshort E-Sports are considered sports and with the breakthroughs in technology, future developments will allow esports to be even more aligned with society’s traditional view of sports.
E-sports exist in many forms with multitudes of games being played and the possibility for several leagues for every game, each with varying rules. These games are entirely separate and usually have separate tournaments. The common factor between all of them is that athletes play video games against each other in a competitive form. Esports naturally began when video games started incorporating network capabilities and the ability to play against others both in person and around the world. Groups of people known as clans began teaming up to compete in games online.
Online gaming is hugely popular with children and young people. Annual research conducted by OFCOM shows that gaming is still one of the top activities enjoyed by 5-16 year olds online, with many of them gaming via mobile devices and going online using their games console. How often are young people gaming? OFCOM reported on young people aged 5-15s use of online gaming within it's recent Media Use and Attitudes report. Their findings showed:
The estimated weekly hours spent gaming will increase with age, ranging from just over 6 hours for 3-4s to nearly 14 hours for 12-15s
Children aged 12-15 spend on average 1.5 hours more gaming each week in 2018 than they did in 2017
More boys play online games than girls in all age brackets, with the difference by gender increasing with age, e.g. girls aged 12-15 spend around 9 hours per week (9 hours 18 minutes) whilst boys of the same age spend nearly 17 hours (16 hours 42 minutes).
Gaming can have a strong social element; close to two in five online gamers aged 8-11s (38%) and three in five aged 12-15s (58%) say they use online chat features within the game to talk to others.
Children are more than twice as likely to chat through the game to people they already know outside the game (34% 8-11s, 53% 12-15s) than they are to chat to people they know only through playing the game (10% 8-11s, 25% 12-15s).
Boys aged 12-15 who play online games are also twice as likely as girls to say they chat to people they only know through a game (30% vs. 16%).
Since E-sports are considered as sports, it became part of activities in Schools just like the Engineering Days in Our lady of Fatima University (OLFU). Engineering Days is an event for the Engineering Department held by the OLFU Pampanga Campus and the Pampanga Campus invited the OLFU Quezon City Campus to join their Engineering Days. This Engineering Days happened April 26, 2021 and there are a lot of contests and tournaments on it where a students can join like Chess Tournaments, Dance Contest, Singing Contest, Quiz bee, Bridge Building Contest and Mobile Legends Tournament.
Mobile Legends tournament is one of the most awaited tournament in Engineering Days and a lot of students join in this tournament. What is Mobile Legends? According to rappler, Mobile Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) for iOS and Android devices developed and published by Shanghai Moonton Technology, a game development company based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The game was launched in 2016. Mobile Legends pits 2 teams of 5 against each other, with the main objective being to destroy the opponent’s base. The game has reportedly amassed over 500 million downloads and 75 million active players since it first launched. Much of its popularity is centered around Southeast Asia, where the game has established itself as a major esport. The Philippines, for example, has its own Mobile Legends esports league called MLBB Professional League. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB) or Mobile Legends is the first title to be announced as a medal game in the inaugural esports tournament of the 2019 Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games).
E-Sports is a good idea as a College activity knowing that we are in Online classes and Face to face classes is not allowed. Since E-Sports is a virtual sports, students can join and participate here even without having physical contact with other players or participants.
References:
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=art108
https://www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers/hot-topics/gaming
https://www.rappler.com/technology/features/mobile-legends-what-to-know-sea-games-2019
