Saxony-Anhalt promotes e-sports as a special form of activity. Concerns arise from medicine.
Halle (dpa / sa) – With the “E-Sport Hub”, Saxony-Anhalt is promoting a hub for competitive gaming on the computer. The hub is intended to open up the economic factor e-sports for companies in the state and to advance the external image. “We still have a lot of educational work to do here in Saxony-Anhalt,” said Sandra Kilian, project employee at the e-sports hub in Saxony-Anhalt. “We bring the topic of e-sports into the economy, in clubs and associations. For example, there is support for clubs that want to open their own e-sports branches.”
It’s about questions like: Which models? How do I build my team? “We advise on this. In schools, for example, we offer class online tournaments so that students can see how something works.” According to Kilian, there are also children and young people who play constantly and dream of becoming e-athletes. The job description has to be talked about. There are workshops for that.
In addition, e-sports are also an economic aspect. Companies ask themselves what can be done with e-sports, how do we reach the target groups? “Turning your company’s employees into brand ambassadors is also a model,” said Kilian. In Saxony-Anhalt there are around 500 active e-athletes who are organized in five clubs.
“E-sports can start from ten to twelve years of age, but that’s a very personal opinion of me,” said the vice-president for popular sports at the E-Sportbund (Berlin), Martin Müller. “You have to take the dangers of e-sports seriously, but you mustn’t demonize it and go ahead with the big index finger. It’s about teaching young people that they are not just playing pointless, but that they really do e-sports. “
“For me, esports is not a sport in the original sense. Real sport is about competing with one another and possibly emerging as a winner, and esports, especially ‘Counter Strike’, is about killing”, said the doctor and head of the addiction department at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Rainer Thomasius. “If computer games are used too early and too much, it affects language skills, among other things. In addition, there are perception and concentration problems with excessive use. “
According to Thomasius, a survey of 10 to 17-year-olds in September 2019 showed that ten percent use Internet games riskily and 2.7 percent use the Internet pathologically. So 535,000 children and adolescents between 10 and 17 with risky use and 144,500 with pathological use in Germany. “It is economic interests to promote e-sports in this way. Game providers specifically employ psychologists and media educators with the aim of keeping the players in the game as long as possible so that they are receptive to advertising messages, for example,” said Thomasius.
“I find computer games in e-sports very interesting, but that was already the case as a little boy. That appealed to me more than football,” said commentator and active player Marius Lauer. “The professionals I know all have a strict schedule that is predetermined.” Team-building measures as well as physical measures, i.e. also real sport, are included in this schedule. “I also train certain muscle groups. We meet with others, exchange ideas and of course we also want to be on stage. To play once on stage in a tournament, once to be the center of attention and to show your performance, that’s for the E. – Athletes priceless, “said Lauer.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210317-99-854127 / 3
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