Video game industry or interactive entertainment is proportionally growing more then anyone could ever imagine. Today all ages enjoy different kinds of video games. Gamers have grown up to have gamer kids and families are gaming together: over one-third of parents play games with their kids regularly. However, 89% of parents are more involved in their kids’ purchases and playing then last year. The average age of a gamer is 34, there are 26 % of gamers older then 50 years and 25 % under 18 years.

Electronic sports or E-sports is a term for organized video game events and competitions, something like casual regular sports. You can compete either online or in real life against live opponents. It is a part of video games culture and it was here for a while. There were some events which need to be remembered as beginning of E-sports: 1972 - "Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics", 1985 - Pac-Man and Donkey kong high scores in Guinness Book, 1988 - Netrek, Internet game for 16 players.

The most important part is when E-sports went online back in 1990 when many games benefited from increasing internet connectivity, especially PC games. 1993 Wired Magazine credited Netrek as "the first online sports game". That was first internet game to use metaservers to locate open game servers. It was a great start of internet expansion, new video games, E-sports culture and business. 

This period was also the peak of televised E-sports. The United States channel ESPN hosted Madden NFL competitions in a show called Madden Nation from 2005 to 2008. Twitch, an online streaming platform launched in 2011, streams popular E-sports competitions. In 2013, viewers of the platform watched 12 billion minutes of video on the service. During one day of The International Dota 2 event, Twitch recorded 4.5 million unique views, with each view watching for an average of 2 hours. Physical viewership of E-sports events has increased with the growth of online viewership. The Season 3 of League of Legends World Championship sold out whole Staples Center. The 2014 League of Legends World Championship in Seoul, South Korea had over 40,000 fans in attendance and musical opening and closing ceremonies in addition to the competition. 32 million watched it online. Just like regular sports!

Today, you have prize pools in E-sports way bigger then in some regular sports events. "Everyone's like watching good players perform well in any sport, that’s why basketball is famous, that's why football is famous" - said Scarra, professional League of Legend’s player. The U.S. made one step further. They now recognize E-sports players as professional athletes. Some may laugh hard but those involved with the scene understand their unique talent, their skill, passion and determination. Now foreign players from Asia, Europe can enter US to play in tournaments.

Can video games make it to Olympics? Games like StarCraft 2 and League of Legends have gathered so much popularity that they can't even compare to some sports that are right now considered as regular Olympic base sports. Some say that time will tell. International E-sports Federation (IESF) was founded five years ago in South Korea and the body has applied for a full membership of Sport Accord, the umbrella organization for all major federations including FIFA and FIBA. Joining Sport Accord is the first step for getting global recognition as a sport and after that earning the IOC's spot (Olympics committee). You can give your contribution by signing here http://torchforgaming.org/

There is one game that has been trying to get into the Olympics for some time. It is an interactive competition between great minds that is an exemplar of everything that human play should resemble. It is a beautiful game of strategy and perseverance. I am talking about chess. Add to chess dexterity, mental and physical endurance, 150ms reaction speed, and you have something like League or Starcraft.

The IOC considers chess a sport since 1999.

In E-sports almost anyone can participate, no matter their age, race or gender.