What You Didn’t Know About This Sport

eSports: Only For The Elite.

What+You+Didnt+Know+About+This+Sport

Jake Anderson, Editor

A developing world of gamers competing for ridiculous amounts of cash, with only the best coming out on top. Teams from all around the globe coming together for several tournaments in order to see who wins, which could be up to two million dollars. This is what defines eSports. 

Some may think that eSports is irrelevant and nobody should worry about it, but now it’s on track to match popular sports like football in the sense of popularity and amount of rewards. 

The players train their whole lives for this moment. To be successful you need incredible hand-eye coordination, dedication, and the willingness to do whatever it takes to become a pro. At least, that’s what Salvatore Canigila believes.

“I’ve been playing video games since I was 10,” said Canigila.

Some may think that this is plaguing his mind, but many gamers are just as obsessed as him and still prosper in life.

Some players balance sports, work, and school with their games. Canigila once was what is called an amateur, which is essentially a tier down from professional. He has even reached 56th on a global ladder going against professional players in the very popular game: Fortnite.

Canigila claims that, “It takes a lot of work to become professional, put in the time and effort and in no time you will be incredible at games”.

To some, it may seem like gamers don’t talk to one another whatsoever, but communication is a key element of the game. Callouts, they are called, which is essentially identifying a position where you might want to go to or an enemy player was at.

Canigila even states that, “An adrenaline rush goes throughout your body when you play, especially when you’re forced to clutch.”

A clutch is when you win the round, despite most or all of your team being eliminated. Fortnite, a game with over 150 million users, is a game in which you might have to clutch in. Although the game isn’t entirely designed for eSports, it is still enjoyed in the same sense.

Many don’t believe Canigila when he says that you can make thousands of dollars as a kid in these games but it’s true. When asked what he says to haters of eSports, Canigila said that, “These people don’t understand the struggle people go through to earn this money, in a dream job, they really need to understand the bigger picture, which is that eSports is the new thing.”