In july of 2014, an outstanding 11,000 people stuffed themselves into a basketball arena in seattle. They were not there to see a basketball game, but to watch gamers compete for 11 million in prize money. This is the ever growing world of competitive gaming or Esports (Electronic Sports) . 70 million people have watched Esports over the past year. Gaming takes in immense amount of practice, focus, and dedication which is why gaming should be considered an official sport.

Video game competitions have almost always been a part of the gaming culture. They surged with popularity at the end of the 2000’s, but they were only accepted as a sport by the fans. In a 2013 episode of “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel” where they brought up the topic of esports he laughed at the idea of gaming ever being a sport. Amazon bought twith.tv a major game streaming site showing that there is intrest in the idea. ESPN broadcasts the finals of Blizzard's Heroes of Dorm tournament showing that there is an audience that will watch this competitive event. Later the ESPN president stated that "it's not a sport - it's a competition. Chess is a competition. Checkers is a competition. Mostly I'm interested in doing real sports." This helped fuel the debate on whether or not gaming is a sport.
                        

Gamers should receive the title of athlete. Gamers put in an insane amount of effort to gain the skill required to play the games they play. Most gamers give up hours of their everyday lives to practice for upcoming competitions, and events. The better, and bigger they get they often get sponsored by large companies. They are forced to make fast, and spontaneous decisions that affect the entire team. Gamers while playing clear over 300 movements a minute by practicing there reflexes in order to help with fast decisions.
                          

You almost can't walk through the hallway without seeing a video game tee-shirt or hearing about a new update or dlc for a game. It's common knowledge that gaming is a huge part of today's pop culture. Which is why it's very simple to make gaming a spectator sport. Millions of people are attracted to esport events. Rob Pardo the creator of "world of Warcraft" agrees by saying "Video games are well positioned to be a spectator sport". The X games also seems to believe so by bringing back MLG (Major League Gaming) as one of the games in 2014.
                        

Some gamers gain massive fan bases similar to those of athletes for major sports. Just using "call of duty" players based on subscriber amount you can view their large fan bases. Ali-A has reached over 6 million subscribers. OpTicBigTymer has almost 4.5 thousand subscribers. Drift0r has about 8.6 thousand subscribers, and finally MLGcod has Approximately 4.8 thousand subscribers. That's almost 7.8 million people subscribed to just 4 gamers of one title. These numbers are constantly growing , and changing.
                       

Individual gamers aren't the only part of esport that gather fans. Individual games gather giant crowds as well just because they are fans of the game. In 2014 over 70 million people watched esports. At most esports matches around 40,000 people watch in person where a countless amount of people live stream it online. Around 32 million people watched the "League of Legends" finals. Esports has become so popular ESPN broadcast the International 4 pre-show for the finals of a major competition.
                        

Many people believe that video games will always only be a hobby, or a way to pass the time, and that it doesn't have what it takes to be a sport. Yet with new strange things being considered sports such as tandem bicycle sprints, pistol dueling, and live pigeon shooting why not gaming? Gaming is very intense and takes more out of a person then any simple hobby. It was a beautiful day outside clear skies, and 75 degree weather. Yet the Evil Geniuses weren't outside enjoying the day they were in the lair practicing with the shutters shut tight. They would play till they couldn't anymore. Consuming mainly bagels and sports drinks. They were so focused they barely noticed the maids vacuuming around them. When they finally went to bed they were ready to do it all over again the next day.
                        

Things are always changing. So why not change video games status from hobby to being an official Olympic sport. It takes talent, time, hard work, and determination to become a great MLG player. Gaming has evolved, and changed from a child's thing, to a past time for teens and young adults,  to a massive competitive medium in pop culture. It's time for that final push to make it officially what it deserves to be an official Olympic sport.