While it’s something that was relatively unheard of a few years back, as of today E-Sports is one of the most rapidly growing things out there. It’s something that’s enjoyed by millions around the world as they watch some highly skilled professional gamers go against each other for a shot at winning some incredible prizes. In this article we’ll be taking a closer look at what E-Sports truly is.

E-Sports, also referred to as competitive gaming, is essentially a form of actual sports with the catch being that there’s a lot less physical activity involved but this is made up for by the high levels of mental activity and focus required to participate in this sport. It basically consists of individual players or teams of players going up against one another in the game that’s being played. Some of the most popular e-sports of today are League of Legends, DotA 2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive and of course Starcraft.

Despite its popularity, there are many people out there who consider the legitimacy of E-Sports and whether or not it can be considered an actual thing. E-Sports is most certainly real and some examples of its legitimacy include the fact that players who participate in E-Sports in the United States are given P1 visas which is basically the visa type applicable to people who are entering the country to perform in competitions as athletes.

Alongside this there’s also the fact that the top E-Sports competitors have incredibly high wages for example there’s Gu “Imp” Seung-Bin, a League of Legends pro who plays the AD Carry position for LGD Gaming, who makes millions of dollars yearly through various means like tournament winnings, sponsorships, streaming revenues and the salary from his organization. There’s also Jaedong, professional Starcraft player whose earnings from events alone is upwards of 6,000,000 USD.

Speaking of tournament winnings, there have been multiple E-Sport events in which the prize pool has been absolutely massive. For example there was The International 2015 for DotA 2 this year. The International 2015, also referred to as TI 5, had the biggest prize pool to date in E-Sports history. The total pool was upwards of 18,000,000 USD which is an absolutely massive amount that’s even bigger than some of the prize pools of traditional sporting events.

Perhaps the biggest charm about E-Sports is the fact that if a player truly wants to get into it and has the skills for it, he will be able to do so which can’t always be said for traditional sports. Most of the modern day games that fall into this category consist of ranked ladders. To climb these ranked ladders, players can play ranked matches which are highly competitive and consist of players going at it with all they got in order to achieve victory. As long as someone is highly skilled at the game he’s playing, he will be able to climb this ladder and eventually reach the top spots. Once said player is at the top of the rankings he’ll be noticed by organizations and then eventually picked up for one of them if he truly wants to participate.

There are many players who have been picked in the aforementioned way and have then gone down successful paths for example Korea’s Lee “Faker” Sanghyeok, who’s often referred to as the best League of Legends player in the world. Faker was just a usual player who was consistently at the top of the Korean ranked ladder. He was then scouted by SK Telecom, a Korean organization that has been in E-Sports for many years. In his very first year of competitive play which was 2013, Faker was able to win the League of Legends world championship and demonstrate his skills to the world. Speaking of this championship, it was watched by over 32 million people with over 8 million concurrent viewers at some point.

All said and done, it’s fair to say that E-Sports is without a doubt one of the up and coming things of this generation and as of right now, it’s rapid growth shows no signs of stopping.