Gabriel Lane

Professor Carla Prince

Government
December 2, 2015
The Rise of eSports and Internet Addiction
Video Games are nothing new, but competitive gaming known as eSports, has grown like crazy
worldwide over the last few years. Players can now compete in tournaments for millions of dollars just
for being good at playing a video game. Although in some places like South Korea, this growth is now
causing internet addiction in teens all over the country. Governments are now intervening to try and stop
this addiction, but with the constant growth of popularity of eSports they are not stopping anything.
Esport stands for Electronic sport, which is when a professional team competes in a video game
for money and prizes. Esports are becoming more and more popular with games like League of Legends,
CounterStrike: Global Offensive and Call of Duty offering up millions of dollars in cash and prizes. There
are more League of Legends players worldwide than there are people in France, and with 67 million
monthly users its the worlds biggest eSport. It is also the most watched eSport with over 32 million
people that watched the season 3 League of Legends world championship 1. That is more viewers than
some of the biggest sport events in the past few years, passing the final round of the Masters at 25
million, the NBA Finals at 15.5 million and the MLB World Series at 13.8 million 2. Other games are also
trying to improve their eSports audience as well. Esports have even been added into the X-Games
offering gold medals to the best in eSports. In October of this year the video game company Activison
Blizzard inc. announced they had hired former ESPN and NFL network Chief Executive, Steve Bornstein
1 VICE eSports 2015 VICE Media LLC, Accessed December 2, 2015,
http://www.vice.com/video/esports-part-one CE Media LL
2 Resistance is futile: eSports is massive ... and growing 2015 ESPN Internet Ventures, Accessed
December 2, 2015, http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/13059210/esports-massive-industry-growing

to head their new eSports division3. Colleges are also getting into it, in 2014 Robert Morris University
became the first university to offer scholarships for eSports and add them into their varsity athletic
lineup4. 2015 is set to be the biggest year or eSports to date, and with the pattern it has had eSports is not
slowing down anytime soon.
For a long time, the general opinion of eSport athletes were that they were just nerds or they did
not have a life. They did not get the respect of other athletes because they were not considered real
athletes. In 2013, though the U.S government said they recognize professional eSports players as
professional athletes, also granting Visas to foreign players, and under that identifier making it much
easier for international teams to play in the U.S. But what differentiates eSports and real sports? The
definition of a sport is an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive
nature5. Esports require just as much if not more skill than traditional sports and are often much more
complicated. Esport teams and organizations also have tons of sponsors just like professional sports
teams, with sponsors like Red Bull and Intel. The argument could be made that eSports are not on the
same level as traditional sports like Basketball because it does not require near the same amount of
physical ability. In basketball, two teams of five play for four quarters, switching playing offense and
defense, running plays and trying to score the ball in the opposite teams hoop. The teams switch sides
after two quarters and whoever has the most points when the time runs out, wins. In the video game
CounterStrike: Global Offensive, a First Person Shooter (or FPS) there are two teams of five who play on
two in-game teams, the Terrorists and Counter Terrorists. At the beginning of a match, it will be decided
which team will play as Terrorists and and which will play as Counter Terrorists. The Terrorists goal is to
either A) Plant a bomb and guard it from the Counter Terrorists until it explodes, or B) Kill all the
3 Activison Blizzard inc. 2015, Los Angeles Times, Accessed December 2, 2015,
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-activision-blizzard-steve-bornstein-esports20151022-story.html
4 RMU Collegiate eSports 2015 Robert Morris University, accessed December 2, 2015,
http://www.rmueagles.com/article.php?articleID=907
5 Sport Definition 2015 Dictionary.com, LLC, Accessed December 2, 2015,
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sport

Counter Terrorists. The Counter Terrorist goal is to either A) Defend bomb sites from the Terrorists, or B)
Kill all the Terrorists. Whenever one of these things happen that team wins the round, there are 30 rounds
total, at round 15 the teams switch sides (from T to CT and vice versa) and the team who wins 16 rounds
wins the game. There is also an in-game economy, teams start out with pistols and $800. For every kill
they get and round they win or lose, they get a set amount of in game money, then at the beginning of
each round, each player buys weapons, grenades and armor. So the argument could also be made that
eSports are much more complicated and require more complex strategies and critical thinking.
Because of how complicated and mental eSports are, players spend up to 18 hours a day in front
of their screen playing and practicing these games6. In South Korea, eSports are just as big if not bigger
than most traditional sports. With countless gaming cafes scattered all over South Koreas major cities, a
vast majority of teenagers play these video games. Because of this gaming culture there, over 2 million
South Koreans suffer from internet addiction. Dr. Lee Jae Won said that in South Korea over 90% of
internet addicts are addicted to online games and a quarter of them will end up in a internet addiction
rehab facility7. In 2005 a man even died after playing a game called Starcraft for 50 hours straight at an
internet cafe8. In 2011 this addiction caused the South Korean government to pass the Cinderella Act
restricting people under the age of 16 to access games past midnight. South Korea is not the only place
with this problem though, China has around 40 million people that can be considered internet addicts.
Chinas response has been to open military style boot camps for youth that are suffering from internet
addiction9.

6 VICE eSports
7 VICE eSports

8 Man Dies After Playing Starcraft 2015 BBC, Accessed December 2, 2015,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4137782.stm
9 Chinas solution for internet addicted teens 2015 PressTV, Accessed December 2, 2015,
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/11/30/439743/solution-youth-internet-addiction-China-

South Korea is definitely the eSport capital of the world, but along with that title comes the
millions of internet addicted teenagers. The U.S is just beginning our eSports growth and have a long time
before we are caught up with South Korea. 2015 was the biggest year for eSports and even though the
U.S is still playing catch up, we are growing more and more everyday. This means that it is only a matter
of time before our government gets involved just like the South Korea and Chinese government did. In
my opinion we are living through the rise of eSports right now and we will just have to see where it goes
from here.