Lets Talk About Shaming in the eSports World.

For as long as I have been playing video games, there has always been the constant debate on whether or not video games should be considered a sport on a professional level. The argument throughout the years have been constant, players want to be recognized by the mass media, that video games are not just another outlet for entertainment, but a very competitive and skill based format. The problem with this idea is that throughout the recent years there has been large amounts of criticism and backlash over the ideas that video games should be labeled as sports on the competitive level. 

One of the more recent news that brought in a lot of discussion was the debate, should certain games like League of Legends or CS:GO Global Offensive, be considered to be part in the 2014 Olympic Games or possibly any form of eSport coverage be a part of any Olympic Game. While this idea seemed progressive at the time, as the term sport can be broken down to many different types of activities, many different generations both young and old, had mixed feelings. These mixed feelings eventually led to harsh criticism that such eSports player were never "true" athletes and had no place in any Olympic Games. 

The discussion was only further increased when in 2016 a new petition was formed and created by several different eSports teams to be sent to the White House.The petition asked the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to recognize competitors as athletes in order for them to be eligible for P-1 visas, allowing them to compete for money at major tournaments. The petition surpassed the 100,000 signature threshold in under one month, which allowed an official comment from the White House. With the petition in place, it is only a matter of time before we start to finally gauge if eSports will finally be considered a "sport" to the community or will it still remain in the grey area that it once was in the past.