My best friend always calls me a Nerd but I could never compare to the guys who do this all day long. It is now called a real sport. The main figures who excel at this get six figure salaries, money from sponsors, prize money and from fans. I call it a fad but many call it a sport now.  It does require agility, concentration   and strategy. There is a league and prize money too.  I guess put that all together and you do have the definition of a sport meanwhile it is a bunch of nerds exercising their thumbs playing video games as experts. I can exercise more than just my thumbs.

The new generation calls it E Sports and its popularity is exploding as America gets lazier and sits in front of video monitors more each day. They have organized E Sports events complete with spectators both live and on line that is drawing a lot of attention and now revenue to the sport. On an average day,  the   experts would spend about 14 hours playing their video game of choice killing monsters, hoarding gold and taking over castles all part of the fantasy game called League of Legends. Yes, the definition   of   anti-social shut ins  are Nerds.  I do spend most of my time reading and writing and well you do complete that indoors too but I don’t think I am anti-social. These Nerds do not have much in common with anyone unless you are into playing the game too.

It is hard to get tickets to see them play at competitions since the seats sell out quickly. Dustin Beck works for Riot Games the company that created the video game League of Legends and over-sees the world championship games. The ticket websites crash within the hour that tickets go on sale. The mania is like a revolution in popularity over E sports as in Electronic Sports. They also called E-Mail a fad too. The marketers are trying to make it into a truly sustainable sport. They created a League and have commentators and announcers at the competitions like involved in any other sport. They have a consistent schedule with a regular season.

The on line pod casts are drawing 4 times the viewer’s more than the average game at the NHL. The goal is to make   Gaming  the next major sport. There is even a network called Major League Gaming that keeps track of competitions of all kinds of video games being played competitively in cyberspace. You would think you were watching Sports Center about Football with how seriously these guys are taking the art of capturing things with your thumbs. Kids now leave college to train to be   professional cyber athlete. Most parents just cry until the money from competitions start pouring in.

Many gamers go to Korea where all these games originated from. There multiple TV channels have been dedicated to E-Sports that you can only find broadcast on line in America. Gamers are heroes in Korea .  The American government is starting to take the sport seriously by doing something new. This past summer America was granting  athletic  Visas to professional gamers. It is the very same kind of Visas that bring Dominican baseball players to America to earn big bucks or European soccer players here to America. The players consider this a legitimate sport that instead of using some kind of ball to play with, these athletes use a computer. Really. They said it. I didn’t.

The gamers are so popular that websites pay them to play on line. Fans tune in within minutes to learn a new technique or special shortcut to a new level of the game. Gaming events are done all the time at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Crowds assemble larger than basketball games there. 20 Million   people  are watching on line as the events are being held at the center. There are very few women involved in this sport and no one knows why. It is not physically a burden to anyone and girls have thumbs too. You will even find one woman to every 15 men as spectators in the audience.

Look Nerds don’t need women or a ball or very much to take pride in what they do. Nerds unite and play those video games with pride and unity and solidarity. Go Nerds!