Sport, Ethics and Philosophy

ISSN: 1751-1321 (Print) 1751-133X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsep20

eSport Gaming: The Rise of a New Sports Practice

Mariona Rosell Llorens

To cite this article: Mariona Rosell Llorens (2017): eSport Gaming: The Rise of a New Sports
Practice, Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, DOI: 10.1080/17511321.2017.1318947

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Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 2017
https://doi.org/10.1080/17511321.2017.1318947

eSport Gaming: The Rise of a New Sports Practice

Mariona Rosell Llorens 
Law, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
Over recent years, the eSport phenomenon has grown in players eSport; gaming; sport
and audience. The broadcast of certain eSport events have become definition; sports practice;
worldwide mass events. Conceiving eSport gaming as an actual sports League of Legends
practice is not yet common, but it is current issue that deserves careful
attention. This article stands on the idea that eSport gaming could be
considered a sport and it examines some reasons on that regard. First
of all, the piece will elucidate what the practice of gaming involves
and if there are reasons to consider the claim that it can be an actual
sports practice. Secondly, it will address the distinctive features that
eSport gaming as a sport may have. Thirdly, it wants to explore and
explain an example of an eSport worldwide success which is the case
of League of Legends. And finally, it will introduce and briefly discuss
some sports issues this new sports practice would encounter in the
near future and which might derive into policy matters.

Introduction
It is widely recognised that, over recent years, the video game industry has developed into
a highly profitable business. Due to the spread of home internet connections and the use
of smartphones, society’s digitalisation—that is, the network society or the digital society
(Castells 2001; Miller 2011)—has had a huge impact in many economic sectors and one of
them has been video games. The development of such a business model, dependent upon
the opportunities that online gaming has provided, has facilitated the growth of what is
nowadays known as eSports. If eSports are understood as legitimate sports, then their growth
poses a significant challenge to the world of sport, both for the sports practice and for its
governance. This paper will explore both the plausibility of that understanding of eSport,
and some of the emergent challenges.
It is important to mention, first of all, that eSport business has experienced a remarkable
success. According to Newzoo consultants, eSports economy will generate around $465
million in 2017.1 This will be, indeed, a seriously hyped business in the forthcoming years
but, besides the large amount of money that such activity will generate, we are already
dealing with a practice that involves millions of people all over the world. According to
Forbes2 and the Foster Pepper PLLC report, Blum and Fisher (2014) the most popular game
currently, League of Legends, engaged 67 million players each month in 2014, with 27 million

CONTACT  Mariona Rosell Llorens  mariona.rosell@upf.edu

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2   M. ROSELL LLORENS

daily connections; Riot, the publisher of the game, took in 2013 $624 million in revenue.
Therefore, this is quite a relevant practice that deserves careful attention.
Given their economic importance, whereby eSports are currently embracing worldwide
popularity, a discussion of their status as sports may usefully be entered into, as a way of
understanding their nature and importance. My position is that there are good reasons to
consider eSport gaming as an actual sport; as a result the paper engages in an attempt to
clarify the status of sports practice and gaming and, thereafter, to determine which practices
may fall into the notion of eSports. It also wants to introduce issues related to the eSport
phenomenon which will very likely entail normative debates in the following years.
The article will develop as follows: first of all, in order to illustrate the case here explained,
I will introduce one of the most popular games that are currently played all over the world
the League of Legends (by Riot). The case of League of Legends illustrates the success of the
institutionalisation of such a practice as any competitive sports practice followed by millions
of people. Secondly, reasons for considering eSports as sports practices will be provided, to
do that I will analyse the practice of gaming according to the sport defining features pur-
ported by Bernard Suits and Allen Guttmann. Thirdly, I will look more deeply into the question
as to what type of sport eSport gaming would be, and I will offer a review of the types of
eSports that are currently in place. Finally, some sport-related issues linked to eSports’ devel-
opment will be identified and briefly introduced.

League of Legends’ Great Success

Before proceeding with my analysis, I will describe the nature of perhaps the most important
of contemporary eSport phenomena: League of Legends.3 This is a Multiplayer Online Battle
Arena game (MOBA) developed by Riot Games. It was released in October 2009 and it is one
of the most popular eSports nowadays. This video game fully engages in gaming as a sport
practice and it is a paradigmatic example of an eSport; it illustrates the wide following and
stability features (added to the physical skill) required for a game to be considered a sport
according to Suits definition. In this section I will summarily explain on what this game
consists and briefly explain how the professional sport practice is organised.
The game was originally developed on the basis of another game by Valve Games, DOTA2.
LoL was created as free-to-play game by a community of gamers who at their turn constituted
themselves as the Riot Games Company; they created the game and its own gaming platform.
This has contributed a lot in its success, that is despite some gaming skins and merchandise
are available for buying, anyone can play and improve their level free of charge.
LoL is a five player game whose aim consists in beating the opponent’s nexus, while using
a range of characters with different skills. These characters are named after Champions, and
the gamers are called Summoners. The game is discrete, this means it is always played in the
same map and it is time set—games do not last the same amount of minutes but they have
a beginning, and an ending which is when one of the nexus is destroyed. Players can choose
the champion they want to play with at the beginning, and the opponent can ban three of
the potential champions eligible to be chosen.
During the match each participant has a specific position and is meant to play a different
role in the game, these are: top, mid, support, jungle and ad-carry. Currently, in the profes-
sional regular leagues, the matches are divided into two or three round games (two in Europe
and three North America) and five rounds in the playoffs. At the amateur level; each game
 SPORT, ETHICS AND PHILOSOPHY   3

can be considered a match. Each game lasts an average of 35 min and the players cannot
leave it if it has not finished, otherwise they will get a warning and eventually a penalty. Each
gamer is issued a level of performance that can upgrade or downgrade because it is moni-
tored by the gaming platform.
Riot Games has been the keystone for the institutionalisation of LoL as a worldwide eSport.
Riot as organiser of LoL’s competitive events has built a very important competitive structure
in order to promote professional gaming at its best. The season is divided in two splits for
the regular leagues, one in spring and another in summer with playoffs in both, and then,
in autumn, the World Championship is held; in the mid-season there is an invitational tour-
nament. LoL eSport teams, if they want to take part in Riot’s competitions, they need to
agree on an exclusivity policy that states they will only take part in them except for the
Electronic Sport Leagues (ESL’s) events which are also allowed. Moreover, two teams with
the same, or partly the same, ownership cannot take part in Riot’s competitions, even if they
are not in the same division. Riot’s LoL competitions are organised in five divisions: Europe,
North America, Korea, China and South-East Asia.
The different leagues and championships organised or featured by Riot are the following:
(1) League of Legends Championship Series (LCS), these are the professional leagues for
each division: LCS Europe, LCS North America, LCK (Korea), LPL (China), LMS (Taiwan, Hong
Kong and Macau); (2) challenger leagues, in this case Europe Challenger and North America
Challenger; (3) national and regional leagues featured by Riot: LoL División de Honor (Spain),
ESL Meisterschaft (Germany), LoL Challenge France (France), and Copa Latinoamérica LAS
(South America); (5) global events: LoL World Championship, Mid-Season Invitational, and
the All Star Event; and (6) and the uLoL Campus Series, which is the LoL university league in
the United States.
LoL’s success can be explained, in part, through reference to the current forms of event
broadcasting and game streaming that some gamers provide. For these the platform Twitch.
tv has been crucial. Riot has been giving the rights to broadcast its events for free until very
recently; Twitch.tv broadcasted almost all its events and put them online also for free. Currently,
Riot is also streaming its events via YouTube. It is important to say that some traditional TV
broadcasters are becoming more and more interested in eSports, especially in LoL, and that
already in 2015 the BBC broadcasted the LoL World Championship quarter finals held in
Wembley with remarkable success4 and that ESPN is investing a lot in the coverage of eSports.5
The other thing that is important to mention is the relevance of the community of gamers.
Riot has been sustaining a close relationship with its gamers thanks to its own gaming plat-
form and a widely known forum called Reddit. Also, amateur and even professional gamers
stream their games via Twich.tv in which they comment the game and provide advice. This
is a very popular practice and some of them make a living of it. As a result, LoL is one of the
most important eSports to study and consider nowadays, both for Riot’s normative develop-
ment and for its social implications, but, above all, for its institutionalisation as a sport.

eSport Gaming as a Sport

The eSport sector claims that eSport gaming can be an actual sports practice. Indeed there
are good reasons to consider this claim. This section will be devoted to provide reasons to
consider such a claim. However, in order to examine whether eSport gaming can be consid-
ered a sport, first of all it is important to clarify what does the practice of gaming entail and
4   M. ROSELL LLORENS

how it is linked to eSports. After that, it will be possible to examine the eSport gaming under
the light of sport’s definitions.

The Notion of Gaming

To begin with, some clarifying distinctions have to be made in order to examine what does
the notion of gaming entail. On the one side, there is the question regarding the concept
of ‘eSport gaming’ vs. ‘videogame playing’, on the other side, it is also important to clarify
the boundaries of the eSport concept.
Briefly, the practice of gaming can be defined as an activity which consists in playing
video games at a competitive level thanks to an online infrastructure. However, this definition
remains unclear for the purpose of this paper because not all video game gaming can be
considered eSport. Therefore, the concept of ‘gaming’ needs to be clarified as having two
senses, only one of which is specific to eSports. In a very generic sense; ‘gaming’ is the activity
of playing video games. In a specific sense, though, ‘gaming’ is the practice of competing,
according to the rules of the game, in order to beat the opponent by taking part in a video
game requiring personal interaction. This will require a high degree of concentration, skill,
precision, body control and strategy. The specific sense of gaming may constitute the defi-
nition of what an eSport is. That is, only the specific sense of gaming equals eSport gaming
and may be considered as a sports practice.
As said, not all video games engage in eSport gaming sports practice. World of Warcraft
or Diablo (by Blizzard Games) for instance, are highly popular competitive and online video
games. However, they are not fundamentally constituted as competitive personal interaction,
but rather as a ‘profile upgrading’ exercise. That is to say that, within such games, there is no
final victory, merely an ongoing state of contesting with various opponents. Therefore, it
may be argued that these games never have an ending and thus the result-oriented com-
petition requirement for sport is not met.
In order to discern which video game gaming can be labelled as eSport, it is important
to examine where the defining feature of eSport gaming is to be found. The question is,
then; does the issue that makes them distinct rely on the actual game or is what the players
actually do? Considering the practice of two of the paradigmatic examples what is considered
to be eSport—the League of Legends and Counter Strike: Global Offensive, the answer to
this question will be: both.
The actual game, it being a competitive team vs. team video game, whose aim is to beat
the opponent, settled in discrete matches (i.e. defined time and play sets) and played either
online or in LAN competitions; is one of the necessary conditions for considering a video
game an eSport. The second necessary condition is that the players engage in a practice
requiring a lot of skill and ability to master the attacks or the weapons; they need a lot of
precision and concentration, body control, endurance, fast movements and team strategy.
Nevertheless, both conditions together can be necessary conditions for the existence of an
eSport, but not yet sufficient to be a sport.

eSport Gaming’s Sports Features

Having identified the specific sense of the practice of gaming, the one that derives into what
we know as eSports, it is important now to examine whether the sport’s features are met. I
 SPORT, ETHICS AND PHILOSOPHY   5

will mainly use Bernard Suits’ definition of sport, that is, the elements of sport, but I will also
analyse Allen Guttmann’s defining characters of modern sport.
Bernard Suits identifies the elements of sport as being the ones of the game (Suits 1988a,
43)—these are: to have a pre-lusory goal pursued by using lusory means, while having con-
stitutive rules and doing it with a lusory attitude―plus four additional elements. A sport
needs to be a game of skill which consists in a physical activity, and such game needs to
have a wide following and a certain degree of stability. Therefore, according to Suits’ defini-
tion we can say that a sport ‘is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles’
(game’s definition) provided that it entails a physical skill and it has achieved certain level
of institutionalisation.
About the first element; it being a game of skill, eSport gaming is clearly an example of
such. As it is widely known, not all sports are actual games, neither all games are sports, but
eSports clearly engage in the ‘game’ mode of sport. Suits, later on, accepted that non-game
athletic practices can also be considered sports (Suits 1988b); however, in this case, eSports
are a clear case of games (and game-sport) according to his definition. Plus, the skill of the
players is crucial in this practice because they have to defeat the opponent by mastering
the tools and the attacks all according to the rules of the game and of fair play. 6 Also, it is
relevant to say that rules are crucial to understand eSport’s practice and for that reason
referees are used to make sure all is performed correctly. In that sense the following defini-
tions apply: ‘in games, artificial barriers are erected just so they can be overcome by the use
of rule-governed skills’ (Suits 1988b, 5) and ‘In games, rules, are the crux of the matter. Just
these rules generate these skills’ (Suits 1988b, 6).
Concerning the physical activity element, it is crucial to highlight that eSport gaming
requires an important degree of physical engagement; gamers need to develop their motor
and body control skills, eye–hand coordination and position endurance in order to be precise
in their shots.7 In fact, the physical activity involved is very similar to the one of shooting (an
Olympic sport). Dennis Hemphill in his article ‘Cybersport’ (2005) already asserted that com-
puter games entail an embodied practice and he fully endorsed the idea that they can be
considered sport8 according to Bernard Suits’ definition (1988a). If the physical dimension
was not relevant, then no physical injuries would be in place, or more precisely, physical
injuries would not hamper the gamer’s performance. However, gamers can suffer from seri-
ous injuries (mainly in wrists and elbows) caused by the practice of gaming, these ending,
in some cases, in early retirements.9
Hemphill, though, notes that the problem for recognising cybersport as a sport resides
in other conceptual boundaries, these being the sports’ characteristics that are linked to its
institutionalisation as a sports practice (Hemphill 2005). That is, it is thought that eSport
gaming lacks the wide following and stability that Suits requires for the existence of a sport.
Jonasson and Thiborg (2010) developed their analysis in the same sense. They used the
definition elaborated by Allen Guttmann about modern sport (Guttmann 1978). According
to the simplest definition that Guttmann uses, ‘physical, competitive and organised play in
contrast to spontaneous play, non-competitive games and intellectual contests’ (Jonasson
and Thiborg 2010, 289) these authors agree that eSport can be identified as a sport. However,
when considering the seven characteristics of the modern sport purported by Guttmann,
these authors are not convinced by the argument that eSport can be an example of modern
sport. These characteristics are: secularisation, equality, specialization, bureaucratization,
rationalisation, quantification and obsession with/the quest for records. Secularisation and
6   M. ROSELL LLORENS

equality features are not under discussion; Jonasson and Thiborg agree that eSports can
comply with both of them, but they argue that the other four characteristics were not fulfilled
by eSports.
Therefore, now it is important to examine if the third and fourth elements of sport accord-
ing to Suits’ definition—a wide following and a stable practice—and the characters of bureau-
cratization, rationalisation, quantification and obsession with/the quest for records characters
of modern sport purported by Guttmann, are met. It should be noted that Jonasson and
Thiborg’s piece was written in 2010 and since then the development and following of eSports,
with the special success of League of Legends, has been remarkable. In that sense I think we
have very good reasons to agree that, currently, eSport complies with the seven features
purported by Guttmmann’s modern sport definition and with Bernard Suits’ definition.
First of all, eSports have reached an important degree of worldwide following and have
constructed an institutional infrastructure to rule the practice and organise the competitions.
On that regard, though, it is relevant to say that this does not mean that there is a single
model of development (this is a specific feature of the eSport to be explained in the next
section). In other words, concerning the bureaucratisation and rationalisation characters, the
ESL and Riot (publisher of the League of Legends) have constructed a solid network of regular
competitions and a set of norms that orders the professional practice. Riot, as the highest
authority body for the League of Legends, has developed the core regulation for the pro-
fessional practice of it and has effectively rationalised all the competitive structure. Also, an
international association, the World eSport Association, has recently been created. Secondly,
the quantification and the obsession with or the quest for records is an issue which has sub-
stantially grown too, nowadays not only specialised eSport communities within the Internet
follow the practice and publish the results and other related news, but also widely known
broadcasters, such as ESPN, MTV, Marca and the BBC,10 have already been involved in that.
Finally, specialisation is a requirement also fulfilled, nowadays professional gamers engage
in a single eSport and with a specific position in it, therefore, they are fully specialised and
professionally devoted to it, they are hired in teams and have strict training diets.
As a result, it is possible to say the first scenario that Jonasson and Thiborg were suggest-
ing in 2010; ‘eSport as a counterculture or alternative to modern sport’ has not been met,
rather we are entering into the second scenario that they foresaw ‘eSport accepted as part
of the hegemony of sport’ because in fact, all seven features of modern sport are met and
it is a practice growing in popularity. I would not say, though, that the limits of what falls
within eSport as sport are clear, these are still problematic indeed, yet it is important to note
that some of these commonly known eSports actually meet the characters of Guttmann’s
modern sport definition and, more importantly, Bernard Suits philosophical definition of
sport.

The eSport Gaming Sport

Having argued that eSport fulfils the Suits and Guttmann’s sports definitions, it can also be
legally recognised as such. According to the article 2.1.a of the European Sports Charter,
sport is defined as follows: ‘Sport’ means all forms of physical activity which, through casual or
organised participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being,
forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels.11 Therefore, eSport
gaming can eventually enter in the legal domain as a sport and for that reason it is crucial
 SPORT, ETHICS AND PHILOSOPHY   7

to explain some particularities that eSport gaming as a sport may have and the modalities
that such sport may have.

Specific Features
What is specific of eSports, differing from traditional sports, is that the match takes place in
a digital game-set and the players use computers to perform the practice. This entails eSport
gaming to have two specific features deriving from its digital aspect; the game ownership
(copyrighted material) and the fair play in the game.
The ‘e’ of electronic is the most important specific feature of this sports practice. It is, as
it were, the medium through which the sport is played, akin to water being the medium of
water polo, or astroturf the medium of modern field hockey. First of all, though, it is crucial
to note that the sports practice is not what the characters are doing in the game set, rather
what the gamers are doing is to make the characters perform. In that sense the electronic
medium is not to be treated as something particular or idiosyncratic that would exclude
them from being characterised as sports by default. Rather it should be treated as any specific
medium that a sport may have. I would be inclined to say that the digital environment makes
eSports distinct, but in the same way as other sports have specific and distinct features. The
media with which water sports are played (the muscular effort of the human body in water),
for example, is quite distinct to that of motor racing (the human body now encased in and
controlling a machine or a road surface). Concerning the use of the electronic devices that
are necessary to perform the practice, it is also similar to the use of motorbikes or cars in
motor racing sports—devices of high complexity that are keystone for such sports
practice.
However, it cannot be denied that in eSports the fact of not having the specific copy-
righted material (the very specific game) makes almost impossible for the sport to exist. That
is why the feature of game ownership is a particularity of eSport gaming. Despite the pub-
lisher might not have control of the competitions (currently Riot has control over them, but
Valve does not), it will always preserve control on the game code’s development and, there-
fore, it will always have influence in the practice. This is, an important and a specific feature
of eSport gaming, indeed, but it is also possible to distinguish the practice from the actual
games.
The appeal above to Suits and to the medium within which sports are played serve to
highlight the fact that the rules of sport (including the rules that determine the media with
which and through which athletes contest) are constitutive of the sport as a specific form
of competitive activity. The need to conform to those constitutive rules in order to be under-
stood to be playing the sport raises the issue of fairness and cheating (or the deliberate and
covert breaking of constitutive rules). So, an important feature of eSports, as for any sport,
is fair play; fair play is a cornerstone of gaming success. Added to that, cheating and inten-
tional faults are also understood quite differently in eSport gaming. First of all, it is relevant
to say that constructing the idea of fair play within each eSport might differ from the moral
definition purported by Loland (2002) because it is stated and defined by the publisher of
the game, nevertheless, though, the rules of fair play are utterly important for the
practice.
In amateur gaming anyone can engage in a match anytime/anywhere because it is based
online. This entails a major problem; anyone can log out of the game at any time. This is
8   M. ROSELL LLORENS

something that deeply jeopardises the team playing and it goes against fair play. In order
to minimise this risk, and since all performances can be accurately monitored due to the
digital environment, to unilaterally leave an unfinished game is subject to penalty. Bad behav-
iour is another issue against fair play and it is subject to penalty; verbal harassment towards
either team members or opponents in chats and in live competitions or unnecessary humil-
iating attacks no weaker opponents, are examples of that. In the online mode of gaming
this behaviour is monitored because all chats are recorded, in that case, it is the developer
of the game, or the owner of the gaming platform where the one who applies the sanction.
In professional competitions, not held online but in local area networks (LAN), referees are
used for that.
Cheating and intentional faults are other practices against fair play principles. Due to the
digital character of the sport, the rules of the game are programmed in the code; this entails
a question about whether cheating and intentional faults are possible or not. Cheating and
faults are limited by the actual code of the game, meaning that the players cannot perform
movements that are not allowed because they are simply not programmed. For that reason,
intentional faults are hard to find, however, some forms of cheating have already been in
place -some off-the-game and some in-the-game. For instance, off-the-game cheating may
occur in LAN competitions when gamers talk to each other when the game is paused due
to any problem with the gaming devices (it is forbidden by the rules). However, the most
common ways to cheat are DDOS attacks and scripts. These are in-the-game cheating. The
first ones are electronic attacks towards the server of the opponent in order to saturate it
with traffic and to generate lag in its connection, the second is a programme meant to
improve the performance of the users’ gaming platform and character (for instance, instead
of having one shot at one type, it shoots three at once). In these cases the highest penalty
applies, the ban of the gamer’s account.

eSports Modalities
It is possible to say that there are at least two types of eSports, these are the MOBA and the
first-person shooter ones. The most popular and widely played examples of these are, League
of Legends (by Riot Games) for the MOBAs and Counter Strike: Global Offence (by Valve
Games) for the first-person-shooters. These are easily identified with the competitive practice
involving high degree of skill that gaming as a sports practice requires; and, therefore, they
can be called eSports. They are team games which require a lot of concentration, precision,
team rapport and shooting skill, however, since the games are different, both for their rules
and their mission, the practices diverge slightly.
MOBAs are omniscient or third-person-view multiplayer team games that seek to beat
the nexus of the opponent by engaging in a team vs. team battle. To do that, the players use
a character that has its own specific skills. Gamers, then, need to master a lot of different
attacks and abilities in order to be able to compete with different characters. The team is
composed by five people; each plays in a different position and engages in a different role,
therefore, team strategy has to be another training issue at stake.
First-person shooters are subjective-view team games that aim to defeat the opponent
by shooting them down dead. There is a team vs. team battle, and gamers need to master
shooting with different weapons; in that case, the precision in shooting is the game’s cor-
nerstone. However, team strategy is also crucial. Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is
 SPORT, ETHICS AND PHILOSOPHY   9

the most popular game of this kind, but there are others like Call of Duty (by Activision, but
also by other developers).
As said before, for now, there are at least two types of eSports to be considered sport and,
following from that, it is possible to say that at least LoL and CS:GO are actual sports practices.
As a result, there is not yet a clear identification of all the eSports types and games in place,
something we should be aware of and careful about.

Sport-related Issues Raised by the eSport Practice

Having had a great success, and as any social mass-phenomenon, eSports raise sport-related
issues that deserve careful attention. Some of them may derive into legal and policy chal-
lenges in need of discussion and of legal ordering. In this section I will introduce and briefly
discuss four issues that are linked to the development of eSports. These are neither new nor
specific of the eSports, however, they will play an important role in the future development
of eSport gaming and in the sport academy discussions. In fact, they may have policy impli-
cations and are already being under the scrutiny of the actual developers, gaming teams,
the International eSport Federation (IeSF) and the recently created World eSports Association
(WESA).12
These sports issues are the following: (1) the status of the gamers as athletes; (2) the role
that an international federation may have in a sports practice which has two different organ-
isational models; (3) the lack of any little league gaming infrastructure (institutions for chil-
dren training and education); and (4) the gender breach in a sports practice where men and
women can compete in equal conditions.

Gamers as Athletes
The recognition of gamers as elite sportsmen and sportswomen is a matter that has deep
normative implications, especially for labour law and for public policy implementation.
Professional gamers are hired by clubs, they are under the supervision of their managers,
train regularly and are paid a salary for that. In other words, given that the activity is sport,
as argued above, they fit in the definition of a professional sportsman and
sportswomen.13
However, such recognition in most cases would depend on the acknowledgement of
eSport gaming as sport by the competent body in each state. In the United States a petition
was sent to the White House, to claim for gamers the status of athlete in order for them to
be able to have athlete’s visas; the answer avoided the question arguing that the competent
body is USCIS.14
This recognition has not arrived yet but if such was to happen, further and important
implications will be in place because the promotion of the sport is of public interest not only
according to a lot of domestic legislations, but also due the European Sports Charter for the
European countries.
If gamers may be considered elite sportsmen and sportswomen, public institutions might
be expected to take part in the provision of infrastructure and actual support for top level
gamers. That is, according to the article 8.1 of the European Sports Charter: methods of
providing appropriate direct or indirect support for sportsmen and women who reveal excep-
tional sporting qualities shall be devised in co-operation with sports organisations, in order to
10   M. ROSELL LLORENS

give them opportunities to develop fully their sporting and human capacities, in the full respect
of their individual personality and physical and moral integrity. Such provision can be subject
to the margin of appreciation of the member states and each of them may support the
activity depending on its possibilities and the popularity of the sport. However, together
with the article 6 of the Charter, this shows that public recognition of the sports practice by
public institutions is crucial for any sport’s development.

Institutionalisation of the Sport—International Federation

Linked to the previous issue, a question may be posed as to the institutionalisation of sport;
meaning, the creation of governing federations. In eSport, there are two international asso-
ciations that coexist on that regard; the IeSF and the WESA. The first one follows the feder-
ation model, the second one the employers’ association. There are no associations at national
level yet, except for South Korea, a country where eSports are very popular and where the
IeSF has its headquarters. National associations will need to be recognised by the state’s
competent bodies to become actual federations.
As a result, the IeSF and WESA can only be considered as private associations but yet they
might have important implications in eSports’ forthcoming, especially the WESA because it
is partnered by the ESL (the major event organiser) and important teams like Fnatic or Ninjas
in Pyjamas. The teams within WESA have to sign an exclusivity contract in which they agree
that they will only take part in ESL competitions.
To manage all eSport under the ruling of a single organisation is a subject of social and
political debate in the community. On the one hand, for the CS:GO model, the WESA results
problematic because this is an eSport that has developed in a very much dispersed way.
Many competitions and events are organised by different event organisers and it looks like
the community of gamers is supporting that. On the other hand, LoL competitions’ organ-
isation has been monopolised from the beginning by its own developer, Riot, and it is not
yet clear which is to be Riot’s participation within the WESA. WESA, at its turn, has an impor-
tant stake; the defence and corporate representation of professional gamers in any problems
that may occur with contracts, teams, broadcasters, etc. Therefore, an interesting debate on
the organisational model of eSports is yet to come.

The Lack of a Little League Gaming Infrastructure

This is one of the most important social questions that eSport will need to face in the near
future. Bearing in mind that, as in any sport, in order to become professional, gamers need
to train a lot of hours and that most of them are between 16 (minimum age requirement)
and 23 years old, is relevant to examine the situation of the child-training gaming infrastruc-
ture prior the professional stage.
The fact that there are not any institutions focused on the training of young boys and
girls into gaming is quite relevant because the non-institutionalised under-aged gaming
can be a potential problem for children’s education. Since there is no little league gaming
yet (institutions for children training) and that due nature of the sport it can be practised
anytime without supervision provided there is an internet connection, the abusive amount
hours of gaming in minors can cause serious problems in their school performance and
within their family. This is an issue that game developers may need to bear in mind for
 SPORT, ETHICS AND PHILOSOPHY   11

potential improvements like limiting the amount of hours that an under-aged boy or girl
can spend in their gaming platform.
Currently children and youngsters can game at their own will at home not having any
coaches or an educational environment, this means that no emotional management for
their success or failure is provided. It is indeed true that parents are the ones responsible for
placing limits, as in any other children’s activity, however, it is also true that educational
training is a good mechanism to teach forthcoming athletes how to compete, to manage
success and failure, and to learn the values of sport.

Gender Imbalance
This is an important and recurrent topic in sport that needs careful scrutiny. As it is widely
known, eSport is a type of sport in which no gender divisions are in place. There is currently
no evidence, of which I am aware, concerning the possibility that the physical skills required
for its practice are unevenly distributed between men and women. (A similar observation
may be made about such male dominated sports as darts or snooker.) As a result, there are
no reasons to consider that male and female performances are different in a way that this
might affect equality of opportunities within the competition.
What occurs though, is that despite the fact that teams can be in principle composed of
both men and women, there is an important gender imbalance in eSports. Professional teams
(with very minor exceptions) are composed of men; most women playing at professional level
end up taking part in teams composed only by women. It is thought that amateur gaming is
also mainly undertaken by men, although there is a reasonable amount of women gaming.
Nevertheless, the move to the professional level occurs much less in the case of women. Also,
the eSport sector (casters, team owners and coaches) is mainly composed of men.
eSports can be of help in gender studies and can shed light on the gender imbalance
debate, these are sports that have huge potential for gender equality. However, it looks as
if the traditional dynamics of male domination are inescapable. Important research questions
thus revolve around the causes of this. Would it be because the professional eSport industry
is hostile to women? Would it be because women are generally much less inclined to invest
that amount of time in training and improving appropriate skills? Would it be because of
any another reason, this is a subject that is worthy of research in order to understand the
nature of gender barriers in general. Additionally, it would also be worth considering if further
action needs to be taken to make professional eSports more open to women.

Concluding Remarks
This article wants to support the idea that we have good reasons to consider eSports as
actual sports. To do so a reflection on the gaming practice has been provided and an analysis
of the sport’s features met by eSports has been briefly elaborated according to Suits and
Guttmann’s definitions and the European Sports Charter. Put shortly, competitive gaming
disputed in discrete games, with the intention of beating an opponent, requires a lot of skill,
precision, concentration, body control, fast movements, endurance and team strategy; all
these are features that contribute to define eSport gaming. Such practice is found in eSports.
And provided these eSports have wide following and a certain institutional framework
around them, they should be acknowledged as a sport.
12   M. ROSELL LLORENS

However, it is also important to notice that not all video games can be considered eSport
deemed as an actual sport because they do not engage in the eSport gaming sports practice.
That is why it is relevant to consider which could be the necessary and sufficient conditions
to acknowledge a video game as an eSport. For now two necessary conditions can be iden-
tified, one is the type of game (competitive video game disputed in discrete matches), the
other is the practice of gaming requiring certain physical skill in it; together they can make
the sufficient conditions to identify an eSport. An already renowned MOBA eSport is League
of Legends; this is an paradigmatic example that deserves study and careful attention.
It is important to note that sport defining features are not static and, indeed, they are
quite difficult to philosophically identify (Pérez Triviño 2013), other conditions may eventually
be considered. Therefore, we should be open to think about new sports practices and, more
importantly, to accept the existence and development of new sports in the digital era. Some
people may be very reluctant to accept eSport gaming as an actual sports practice. However,
when examined carefully it has been argued that the practice fits with all of Suits’s features
of sport. A reasonable objection about the stability feature can be posed, but despite the
fact that the games may change, it looks like this practice, the eSport gaming, is here to stay.15

Notes
1. Newzoo, 16 February 2015, ‘The eSport economy will generate at least $465 million in 2017’
https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/esports-economy-will-generate-least-465-million-2017/
[retrieved on the 13 May 2016].
2. Forbes, 27 January 2014, ‘Riot’s “League of Legends” reveals astonishing 27 million daily players,
67 million monthly’: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2014/01/27/riots-league-of-
legends-reveals-astonishing-27-million-daily-players-67-million-monthly/#3ea719bf3511
[retrieved on the 13 May 2016].
3. You can visit the game’s website and download the gaming platform here (West Europe, English
version): http://euw.leagueoflegends.com/en
4. See BBC eSports: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/T2JxSg49XQqSzlNpvR23Y3/
meet-the-team [retrieved on the 25 May 2016].
5. See the interview of the Time Magazine to the ESPN.com editor in chief Chad Millman, 1 March
2016, here: http://time.com/4241977/espn-esports/ [retrieved on the 24 May 2016].
6. In eSports, since the nature of the game is digital, all performances can be accurately monitored.
However, in professional competitions, referees are also used. Despite cheating being limited by
the possibilities programmed in the videogame, it is possible to engage in bad behaviour such
as: attacking the opponents’ server if it is an online based match; verbal harassment towards
either team members or opponents in chats or live competitions; or, unnecessary humiliating
attacks to a weaker opponent. All these behaviours are punished; the highest penalty is the
gamer’s account ban and shut down.
7. On that matter, you can see: Hilvoorde and Pot (2016).
8. In that case, though, Hemphill was focused on videogames that consist in a simulated
sports practice like football, tennis or golf. He argued that those virtual versions were also
embodied practices which required motor skills. The current cases, though, are different. We
are experiencing a step forward in cybersport (eSport) because these are not virtual versions
of traditional sports rather new ones.
9. See, for instance the Engadget, 27 April 2015, ‘One of eSports’ biggest stars retires with repetitive
strain injury’: https://www.engadget.com/2015/04/27/hai-lam-league-of-legends-retirement/
[retrieved on the 10 September 2016].
10. See their eSports section websites: ESPN―http://www.espn.com/esports/ ; Marca―http://www.
marca.com/esports.html ; BBC―http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p034q0h1 [retrieved 12
September 2016].
 SPORT, ETHICS AND PHILOSOPHY   13

11. European Sports Charter is object of the EU Recommendation nº R(92) 13 REV, of the Committee
of Ministers to member states.
12. See the aims and objectives of the WESA in its webpage here: http://www.wesa.gg/.
13. See for instance the Spanish law definition of professional sportsman or sportswomen in the
Real Decreto 1006/1985, del reglamento de los deportistas de elite. Note that Spain is a country
with important LoL following, which has a national league, local teams and that produces
quite a lot of gamers.
14. See the petition and the response of the White House ‘We the people team’ here: https://
petitions.whitehouse.gov//petition/uscis-should-recognize-all-esports-legitimate-sports-so-
international-players-can-come-us-p1-visas [retrieved on the 8 July 2016].
15. In fact, as Jason Holt notes (Holt 2016) the threshold for eSport to be recognised as sport will
also depend on the division between the actual/virtual worlds currently in place; this division
is fading away in the social domain, the difficulty now resides in overcoming it within the
sports institutions.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding
This work was supported by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad [DER2013-48066-C2-1-R
Global Constitutionalism]; Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte [FPU Grant / AP2012 0283];
Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca [RGroup GRC en Filosofia del Dret / 2014 SGR626].

ORCID
Mariona Rosell Llorens   http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7134-907X

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