With the world currently in the midst of a global pandemic and with social distancing measures in place, the majority of sports have been put on hold. However, one sport that is still able to be played is esports, which is basically competitive video gaming.
Though esports may not be the same as going to a football or baseball game, they provide an opportunity for people to satisfy their competitive nature during this time. They can stream events or play in games themselves. In fact, many athletes that would have been in season right now are taking up gaming.
Several NBA players, including Brooklyn Nets forward, Kevin Durant, and Miami Heat forward, Derrick Jones Jr., have been playing in the NBA 2K Player’s Tournament which ESPN is broadcasting.
“I’m very excited,” Jones said while talking to the media on a Zoom call. “Just being able to compete right now at this time and point with everything going on. We can’t go out of the house that much, so you have to be isolated away from everything [and] everybody. So, it’s just good being able to go back and just have fun again.”
NASCAR drivers are competing in the eNASCAR Pro Invitational iRacing Series. The first race was held March 22 on a simulated Homestead-Miami Speedway. It was aired on FS1 and was viewed by 903,000 people. Since then, NASCAR has been continuing to follow its original schedule through the iRacing Series. Every race through at least May 3 is being held on a virtual speedway.
On March 29, Fox Sports broadcasted a Madden esports tournament. Several former and current NFL players competed in the tournament.
There are others, not just professional athletes, that are also starting to play esports. Michael Chapman, senior journalism major, has really gotten into esports since all of the other sporting events got canceled or postponed. Sports are important to him, and he is using esports to fill a void left by the absence of the sports that he loves.
“I think I need sports in my life because it gives me some sense of certainty in a postmodern culture where everything is ambiguous,” Chapman said. “With sports, there’s a winner and a loser. During the coronavirus situation, I feel like I’ve needed that more just because of how [uncertain] everything is right now, so watching and playing video games has been sort of an escape into something more certain.”
