Institutionalisation in E-Sports

Abstract

Following its economic impact and rising popularity, ‘e-sports’ has become a theme within the academic debate on sports. The current discussion revolves around the definitions of sports provided by the philosophy and sociology of sports and how in turn, this can be adapted to e-sports. The premise of this article is the analysis of ‘institutionalisation’, which is claimed to be an element of modern sport. The governance and production aspects of e-sports will be the main focus where the nature of video games with their fractured production process, the lack of a monopolistic international organisation and its relative novelty will be emphasised. Furthermore, the shaky ground on which the term ‘institutionalisation’ stands will be touched on. It will conclude that the current debate on the recognition of e-sports as a sport may experience certain pitfalls if it does not solve the fundamental problems regarding institutionalisation and ignores the production process of video games and e-sports.

Keywords:

• E-sports
• institutionalisation
• video games
• governance
• stability

Notes

1. The term ‘modern sport’ shall be utilised for the remainder of the article covering sports that were ‘formalised, quantified and regularised’ during the Industrial Revolution and beyond (Szymanski 2003, 1138).

2. Following Meier’s (1988) attack on the stability element of sport, Suits recanted from his assertion as to its necessity, stating that

since I am entirely willing to accept Meier’s contention that sports, in order to be such, need not have a wide following nor have achieved a certain level of institutional stability (I also repudiate these as necessary criteria for all sport, but did not say so in my address—too bad for me). (Suits 1989, 8)

3. Only Witkowski’s (2012) grouping of the most prominent elements contain a warning as to the contested nature of the question at hand but the work is limited to the discussion of physicality (355).

4. The qualification of competitive activities as sports is a debated issue. The arguments put forward in this debate also apply to e-sports. Nevertheless for the purposes of this article they will not be elaborated.

5. A type of play, where the player starts a video game from the beginning and attempts to finish it in the shortest time possible.

6. Today, the process also takes place on the Twin Galaxies Website (2017), where players publish their scores in various categories, consoles and games (Twin Galaxies).

7. While the source may be changed by ‘modding’, the scope and limits of modding are still determined by the publisher even if it may provide for the tools for modding (Scacchi 2010). In addition to this, the use of certain releases and the prohibition of mods in tournaments are common.

8. A notable exception to the associations is the International Tennis Federation which is a limited company. However, The Board of Directors is still made up of member associations with certain qualifications. (Articles of Association and Bye-laws of ITF Limited (2016)).

9. The legal designation of the legal person, in concrete whether it is a joint venture or a single entity, in respect to US legal system has been the root of ongoing debate in legal circles. From the viewpoint of sports economics, leagues are joint ventures (Blair 2012, 47; Ross and Szymanski 2002, 630). Grossman (2014) reaches different conclusions by taking a legal point of view.

10. A comparison between South Korea and a state where there are no national e-sports leagues due to a lack of infrastructure or more importantly following would shed a light on the matter at hand.