Continued secondary research - What is Esports?

'What is Esports?' this is a crucial question in relation to my EPQ project as it builds a foundation question for the beginning of my script and my research

So as every bit of secondary research starts i began with a google search 'What is Esports?'

The first link was an article written by The British Esports association (Linked here is an about page for them) titled 'What are Esports? An overview for non-fans' this article covers everything needed for the first part of this secondary research, The BEA (The British Esports Association) refer to Esports as competitive video games. They also state that it tends to differ from normally playing video games as it is usually competitively played PvP (player vs player) and usually has a spectator aspects like traditional sports. The article also mentions that 'Esports tournaments usually consist of amateur or professional gamers competing against one another for a cash prize'

The article features some great examples of video games that are played professionally such as 'League of Legends pits five players against another five in a virtual battle arena to destroy each other’s base. Whereas in shooters, like Call of Duty, Overwatch and Counter-Strike, players are pit against each other in various modes to complete an objective'

These will serve as great examples that i will use later on in my video essay, for convenience i will also splice in Footage from those games

The BEA also make a great point when it comes to how to think of Esports referring to it as 'competitive video gaming where skill and professionalism is celebrated,' they also mention the skills of the professionals stating that they know the games inside out even comparing them to professional footballers in the quote 'The pro gamers who play at this level know the games inside out, much like a professional footballer or athlete would in their respective fields.'

When mentioning sport, the article highlights the mixed-sex nature of Esports and how 'Esports is technically mixed, with male, female and gender non-conforming players taking part,' it also highlights the the recent rise of female players alongside the popularity of initiatives that the BEA created such as 'Women in Esports' (I will return to this kind of topic later on)

(I did this research 1/10/21 - 7/10/21)

Source evaluation: This article is written by the BEA, who are a non-profit national body that was established in 2016 to promote Esports in the UK in the hopes of raising awareness, improve standards and inspire future talent

They have a lot of information and are very open about all their partners, what they do and who is behind the association. As they are non-for-profit and hope to raise awareness posting misinformation seems counter productive