eSports: Is It a Viable Alternative to Football?

The pandemic has brought the world’s association football life to an almost complete halt. The only association football league that is currently holding matches - it hasn’t even banned the spectators from them (but the fans are staying away in increasing numbers because they worry about the virus) - is the Belarus Premier League, one that hasn’t seen much international following until it literally became the only option. Officials and clubs around the world are looking at solutions to the ongoing football crisis - they, as well as their fans, want to see the matches played out, even with delays. In the meantime, football fans are left with a painful hole in their souls: the lack of matches to follow, the lack of players to root for.

eSports has been called by many a viable alternative to traditional sports. Competitive gaming has seen incredible growth in the last few years - it has been called “the spectator sport of the 21st century”, relying on the channels beloved by the digital youth of our times: the internet. But as an alternative to traditional sports - well, let’s just say it works with some sports and doesn’t work with others.

A different skillset

In some simulated sports, the skills needed to win are similar to the real thing. Let’s take motorsports as an example: aside from the forces acting on the drivers’ body, sports simulators (or video games) rely on reflexes, for example, much like their real-life counterparts. This is why, for example, Charles Leclerc competed with competitive gamers (and Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois) in the latest edition of the F1 Esports Virtual Grand Prix series, and this is how William Byron could win two consecutive eNASCAR iRacing invitational events.

Transitioning from the turf to cyberspace is not that easy for football players, though. Football simulators like EA Sports’ FIFA series, for example, don’t rely on ball handling, stamina, and endurance - they rely on the dexterity of the players almost exclusively. Unless a footballer is a fan of virtual football in “civilian” life, they won’t stand a chance. Thus, they can’t take over the control of a player or a team in the virtual world - thus, football fans are unlikely to take interest in their performance on the virtual playfield.

A lesser alternative

While virtual football is, indeed, a viable competition, and it does have the support of FIFA (that gave more than its name to the eSports tournament built around football), it is merely a lesser alternative for real football, one that will never satisfy true football fans. This is probably why sports channels don’t even insist on broadcasting the matches of the FIFA eWorld Cup, leaving it to be followed by its dedicated fans on its traditional channels: YouTube and Twitch.