E-Sport is already a word . Yes , in my opinion it is a sport . Obviously you don't get ripped ( lmao ) by playing 6 hours per day but you get tired physically and psychologically . Just like in a "real" sport like Football and stuff .
I used to be a KickBoxer . Pretty succesfull in Italy in my category . After an injury that kept me on a wheelchair for several months i got more into competitive gaming . Well , to be honest , i started with competitive way earlier . I played Counter Strike 1.6 for years in various inhouse pro leagues , esl ( when you had to be good to play in ESL . Now ESL is a joke ) and other stuff . Pro gaming wasn't a thing back then . Well , it was but not like now . After my injury i got back to playing Dota and since i had nothing better to do during my day i started to play more and more getting allways better . Then closed inhouse leagues and stuff and after 6 months of tryharding i got into semi-professional gaming . And i can tell you , it's way different from playing casually like the most of you do ( source : your posts ) . I played with people that now is going to The International 3 . I'm not going with them because i'm not that good . Simply but sad . Well , i have loads of excuses =D . Mainly because i live with my girlfriend in a foreign country ( I'm italian living in Germany ) and i have a job and stuff . Can't play 6-8 hours per day like the other guys do . Back to The International 3 . It's a tournament with 16 best teams in the world playing for 2.300.000 USD . And the prize pool is going up . The International is something like a World Cup . So why don't call a Professional Dota 2 an E-Sport ? You have everything to make it sound legit . And i picked the biggest tournament in the whole esports . In China professional Dota 2 is pretty serious . They have a gaming house where every player lives . They have a coach , managers and stuff . Schedules for physical training , gaming training and other stuff .
Why don't call it a legit sport then ? I mean you have every element you need .
So yes , professional gaming is a sport in my opinion .
Sorry for the wall post but i wanted to drop down something from my experience since everything i saw in this thread sounded like stuff from casual players that don't know anything about the competitive scene .
I don't want to flame , it's just true lol .
P.S.
Professional Players average age is around 20 . So yeah , calling them kids isn't appropriate .
To me sport is doing physical exercise which involves others, teams etc.