I'll probably post a few particular statements. I've mentioned before that I do love e-sports and the competitive scene in video games because they offer more than just a place for really good players but also other job offerings such as coaches, analysts, team managers, and other important aspects of competitive organizations. Being an amateur Dota and League of Legends competitor back in the day helped me be more in-touch with my self and my life, and training myself to be good at said games because the job required to was something that i truly enjoyed. Also, it was great just ripping dicks off while climbing the ranks so that i made sure that the orgs that I've worked with knew that they had the right man for the team, and for the right job.
However, as far as comparing Pro players to actual sports athletes, i do have a few gripes to say as well as the comparisons of video games and actual sports. I have at least one thing to say about each side of the barrel so bare with me kiddies.
- Pro players are not like actual sports athletes. Actual sports athletes are physically built from the ground up to be the sportsmen and sportswomen that they are. To be blunt about it, anyone of any physical build and orientation can become a professional player (to League, to Starcraft 2, to Overwatch, to mother fuggin Splatoon, to Poke-fricking-mon) if they are simply good enough for the game, but not everyone can be a mixed martial artist, a basketball player, a soccer player, a football quarterback, etc etc yadda yadda yadda. In many cases, you just have to be born with the physical attributes to be a decent athlete, and be further refined through rigorous training that would take YEARS. In Video Games, well its more on your actual skill in playing said video game after playing it for months or to a year, some gamers who I knew took only weeks to be viable for competitive play. You don't have to be born with the best or at least most desirable physical attributes to be a pro-competitive player, other than simply having 2 hands that are working so that you can use that Mouse and Keyboard or that controller or even that arcade stick. Being a pro gamer though has two things in common with actual athletes though -> Discipline and Dedication. I can be mistaken though but that's how i'd see it.
- Video games, especially competitive multiplayer ones, are subject to very drastic and sometimes even rapid changes that traditional sports don't have UNLESS I AM MISTAKEN THAT NERFS AND BUFFS EXIST IN TRADITIONAL SPORTS (dear Arceus). Does the metagame of boxing or MMA or basketball or soccer, or even professional paintball change every 3-months or so because of a patch that affects the characters thus affecting the competitive strats in a particular game? Does the NBA association actually nerf and buff players themselves because of complaints about imbalances and underpoweredness? OMG KOBE OP, BETTER NERF JORDAN.
Also, its just difficult to keep up with the level of professionalism the Korean E-sports competitive scene has compared to other regions. I've already accepted that the Philippines is NOTHING to South Korea. North America (shots fired) can only dream to be just as good as South Korea. European teams and players have proven that they are great, but for some reason, as I've heard from some EU pros that EU orgs don't pay their players enough of the $$$skrillas$$$, (although EU > NA inb4permabannedinPC). Don't even ask me about China with their 1 Million USD contracts for just a player.