Founder and CEO of the British Esports Association Chester King recently spoke about esports and its impact in the UK and beyond, and he thinks it can have far more of an impact than it does now, but effort is needed to push it forward.
"I was introduced at an event once after someone did a great speech about traditional sports as someone who was going to talk about 'the dark side of esports'," he said. "That's not the intro we want. Others describe us as 'the biggest niche in the world'. No, we're not that at all. We are esports."
"Those in the industry hate being classified and put in a box. esports is so fragmented, individual titles have so many levels, it's such a massive industry."
King also talked about how esports is not defined as a sport in the UK and by the UK government, but he argues that it isn't even necessary to get this recognition. "In the UK, esports cannot be classified as a sport because of a rule from the 1930s, the same one that stops bridge and chess being classified as a sport," he said. "A lot of money has been wasted in the past trying to classify bridge as a sport. Most people in the eSports industry are happy with how things are, because why would we want to be put in a box?"
"Esports isn't a rival to physical activity and sports," he said. "It's a rival to watching TV. It's better than playing chess. These are the things we need to promote. We've got a group of academics working with the ESL, trying to prove these life skills and cyber skills. A survey on the top young surgeons showed the better surgeons were people who are traditionally gamers because they can control things a lot better. The government places eSports under culture, which is fine but we should also have an impact under health and education as well. We need to drive that."
How much of a positive impact do you think esports can have for health and education?