Nearly every mainstream article about eSports is either a clickbait piece about how much money the pros make playing video games or a debate about whether they should be treated the same way as physical sports. In my eyes, the debate is nonsensical, as there is no binary switch that determines if an activity is exactly like physical sports or nothing like them. eSports aren’t as physically rigorous as football or baseball, but many many teams are adopting mental health trainers/professionals for their players So while the argument over whether eSports should be defined as a “real sport” is pointless, it is still worthwhile to point out how eSports are like other sports—for better or worse.

Like every spectator activity, money lies at the heart of things. Money provides the venues, the players, the organizations, the personalities, the gear, and every other aspect of eSports. Tournament prize pools are the most visible example of the money being pumped into eSports and how they have grown in a short time. The 2017 ELEAGUE major for the game Counter-Strike Global Offensive featured a $1 million prize pool. The League of Legends World Championship gave out over $5 million in 2016. However, Valve’s annual tournament for their pet game Dota 2 called “The International” dwarfs every other eSport tournament in the world. This year, the total prize pool for The International was $24.6 million. Team Liquid won the tournament and took home a whopping $10.8 million. In the last six years, eSports have grown from a fledgling hobby into a multimillion-dollar industry.

Where there’s money to be made, there’s branding to be touted. Popular football players are paid to wear certain cleats or appear in commercials, professional gamers are often under contract with their team’s organization to use certain brands of computer monitor or keyboard. Well-known players appear in commercials, like Swedish Counter-Strike pro Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer’s Yoggi Yalla! Cup commercial. Twitch streams, venue walls, and player jerseys are plastered with advertisements. Some teams even honor their sponsors in their name, like League of Legends team Samsung Galaxy. Widespread marketing opportunities are part of the reason eSports are successful.

Like professional sports, part of the allure of eSports is that anyone can play the same game. Someone can watch a professional football game, then go in their backyard and play the same game. With eSports, anyone can play the same game as their favorite pros just by having access to a computer. In this way, eSports and the games they showcase have a symbiotic relationship: someone seeing a tournament might think the game looks fun and buy it, and someone enjoying the game might add a viewer to the tournament Twitch stream. Players watch tournaments for the excitement and display of skill, but also to learn a thing or two, which brings me to my next point...

On the surface, different eSports have various degrees of accessibility as a viewer. An insane play in Counter-Strike looks like this, while an equally impressive play in Dota 2 looks like this. To me, one of these was a bit easier to understand (but maybe that’s because I’m a Counter-Strike player). "Happy" (the player from the Counter-Strike clip) hit some impressive shots and won the round alone. That’s easy to understand, even for someone who has never played Counter-Strike. However, Counter-Strike is just as complex as any MOBA. There are complex metagames based on the in-game economy, live bomb scenarios, site takes, information gathering, etc. Analyst desks spend hours nitpicking each player's choices in the last match. I could write an essay on all that and more, but just take my word for it. Counter-Strike is easy and fun to watch for even the most clueless gamer but still remains entertaining and educational for the experienced player who prefers to appreciate clever plays and learn strategies straight from the pros.

This is a direct correlation to physical sports. For example, I know little about football. But if I watch a game, I get the gist of what’s going on. That team wants to go that way, and the other team doesn’t want them to. I know that when a player runs a long way with the ball, that’s impressive. In this way, a complete newbie like myself can still enjoy football. But my roommate, who knows the intricacies of the game’s rules and structure, enjoys analyzing tactical plays and arguing about the merits of individual players. The best eSports and physical sports cater to everyone from complete beginners to seasoned experts.

While it’s pointless to treat eSports the same way we treat physical sports, finding similarities between the two shows that eSports can stand on their own as spectator activities. So if you play video games and need to pad your resume, put down your Counter-Strike matches as “acquiring useful skills to be applied in real-world industry scenarios.