Esports

英国大使馆文化教育处

Millions of people in the UK play games for fun. Some of them have become professional gamers， playing games as their full-time job. It's not easy being a professional gamer， though. They practise for ten or more hours a day， five or six days a week. They do exercises like trying to type something fast and they also study videos of other players and plan ways to beat them.

As well as playing games， many people like watching them too. You can watch games on video sites like Twitch and YouTube and in the UK there's a TV channel showing esports 24 hours a day. Sometimes online viewers can interact with the game.

But are esports really sports？ Are players athletes？ Some say no. Esports players don't need to run， jump， throw or do big physical actions. At the moment， the UK government classifies esports as kinds of games， not as sports.

But others say esports are sports. Players do need some physical skills， especially hand-eye coordination， reflexes， accuracy and timing. The governments of China do classify esports as sports， and they will be an official medal sport in the Asian Games starting from 2022. Next step： the Olympics？

For many esports fans and players， though， the most important thing is that esports are growing in popularity and importance. If esports are not as important as sports at the moment， they definitely will be in the near future.

Activity 1 Vocabulary.

Match the vocabulary with the correct definition and write a-g next to the numbers 1-7.

1.a gamer                            a. on the internet

2.a viewer                           b. the activity of playing computer games

3.   a skill                           c. a person who plays computer games

4.    gaming                         d. doing an activity as a job， not just as a hobby

5.    online                          e. somebody who watches a video

6.    professional                  f. about the body or using the body

7.    physical                        g. an ability to do something

Activity 2 Are the sentences true or false？

1. Esports players can win big money prizes.

2. Gaming is a popular activity in the UK.

3. Professional gamers don’t practise.

4. Esports are boring to watch.

5. All governments around the world consider esports  as sports.

6. Esports players need to have some physical skills.

Write about it！

What games do you play？ Do you think esports are games or sports？ Write your ideas below.