The Similarities Between Boxing And E-Sport Athletes

Las Vegas, Nevada. Thousands of fans filling MGM Grand, anxiously waiting for the bout to begin. MGM Grand has hosted the largest sporting competitions in the world. In this event, new to MGM Grand, spectators watch these individuals showcase their world-class reflexes, quick-thinking and their strategic minds. These competitors are E-Sport athletes, the new brand of sporting entertainment. E-Sport Athletes are now the Mike Tyson’s and Muhammad Ali’s for the Millenial and Generation X populace. E-Sport athletes are professional video game players who compete in tournaments world wide. At first glance, there is no possible similarities between boxers and e-sport athletes, but looking into both subjects further, e-sport athletes and boxers have

Boxers take over a hundred hits per fight and tens of hits to the head in a fight. All of these blows to the head will put a major toll on the fighters cranial health. In movies, boxers are often portrayed as people losing their minds which is very common in people with the brain disease Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy/CTE. CTE occurs after many concussions or blows to the head throughout a number of years. People are also more likely to develop CTE if they get a concussion during a sport/activity and then keep playing and repeatedly get hit in the head. In boxing, if you receive a concussion in the first round, and then proceed to fight for 15 rounds, there is a very large chance at developing CTE and in some cases, boxers could die right on the spot if their brain starts to bleed. If the boxer’s body survives his or her career, their mental health may not be the same, CTE can make people go crazy, in some cases, people with CTE have killed themselves and/or others. Muhammad Ali developed Parkinson's before he even retired because of the the blows he received to his head. While E-Sport athletes have a low chance of being diagnosed with CTE, the disease Gray Matter Atrophy is causing some E-Sport athletes to retire. Since, e-sport athletes stare at screens all day, they have an increase chance at brain damage, compared to the normal adult. The amount of time e-sport athletes spend looking

Millions upon millions of people watch boxing matches between two of the fiercest fighters on the planet. In August of 2017, Floyd Mayweather fought Conor McGregor. There was a reported 4.6 million pay-per-view sales, which means that 4.6 million people paid one hundred dollars to watch the fight on TV. According to Forbes.com, that number was blown out of proportion by the amount of pirated viewers which was an estimated one-hundred-thirty-two million pirated viewers. Similar to e-sport athletes, boxers gain millions upon millions of social media followers on instagram and twitter. Just like boxers, all the big fights draw upon massive numbers. Millions of people, from San Francisco to Stockholm, watch these people play video games in different tournaments. Lots of these e-sport athletes are very famous. On social media, it is common for e-sport athletes to have millions of followers/subscribers and get millions of views on youtube. In the new Call of Duty game, one of the most famous video game franchises, they put in a section for players to just watch e-sport athletes play the game. There was a section inside of a game to watch people play the game that you could be playing. In one tournament final, forty-six million unique viewers watched the final live; just under half of the Super Bowls total viewership. E-Sports is rising in popularity throughout the world. In the near