Throughout history, people have enjoyed playing sports. Whether it's throwing a soccer ball, running track, or kicking a soccer ball; sport has been a popular activity all over the world. The determination and skill needed to play sport at the highest level has made it a challenging but fun activity. However, in recent years, the sport has slowly moved away from its traditional roots of physical skill and towards competitions of mental skill. With the exponential growth of technology around the world, it is not uncommon for the average family to own a computer, a PS4, an Xbox One, or even a Nintendo 3DS. Indeed, the introduction of new technological entertainment has served as a gateway to the new generation of athlete culture; video games. As a result of the growth of video games, Esports (short for "Electronic Sports") is slowly integrating itself into the culture of athletes around the world through its spectacular foundations, overwhelming popularity, vast prize pools and recognition by official authorities . The birth of Esports may contribute much of its discovery to its original 19th century roots (Bellis). To understand the next generation of athlete culture, Esports, individuals need to understand the beginnings of the new activity. During the 19th century video games were often overlooked due to their bizarre nature, however, the introduction of new technology that allowed people to manipulate and control objects was appealing to some (Bellis). One of the very first video games to be developed was a simple computer graphics application used to resemble the virtual Tic-Tac-Toe (Bellis). Although the game was simple in nature and basic in control, ... middle of paper ... as a whole, official organizations recognized the potential of making eSports a legitimate sport. Works Cited Bellis, Mary. "History of computers and video games". about.com. ndWeb. February 18, 2014. google.com Dave, Paresh. “Star of online game League of Legends obtains US visa as professional athlete.” latimes.com. 7 August 2013. Web. 18 February 2014. google.com Fever, Alan. “Preparing Keyboard Samples.” New York Times. 28 September 2013. Web. 18 February 2014. google.comMarquet-Rousse, Jeniffer. “Online Games: An Integral Part of South Korean Culture.” inaglobal.fr. June 6, 2013. Web. March 2, 2014. google.com Taylor, T. L. Raising the Stakes: e-sports and the professionalization of computer games. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2012. AZW Kindle file. Young, Timothy (March 27, 2012). "Esports, the future of competition" [video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp-oABtCRG8