E-Sports - Persuasive Essay

They are in the last moments of their game. They are about to face off and the victor will take home $50,000. The whole weekend has come down to one point, who will win? A 16 year old Korean boy sits at one end, hoping to win the money and buy his mom the car that he promised her, while on the other end sits a 21 year old Swedish man who has trained a long time for this moment. After a few tense moments, the victor is clear. Lee “Leenock” Dong Nyung has won Starcraft 2, Major League Gaming(MLG), Providence. A 16 year old boy reached his dream of winning a competition set on a global scale and broad-casted to thousands of people worldwide. He will take home the money and the pride that comes in beating many of the world’s best at the game. This is something that can only happen in video games.

E-sports is simply professional video gaming. Starcraft 2 is one of the games that is played by progamers. They play competitive video games against each other and compete for cash prizes or computer parts at events around the world. These events are widely watched and enjoyed by people, just like football and tennis are. The players also usually belong to teams, which give them a place to stay and provide food for them, while maintaining a healthy practice environment.Professional gaming has been looked down upon for a long time due to many false prejudices. People have said that progamers are unhealthy, violent and that video games are boring to watch. None of these beliefs are correct.

Progamers practice the games that they play for up to 14 hours a day so that they can improve and become better at their game. How can the possibly stay healthy if they practice so much? This is one of the reasons that it is so looked down upon. The typical stereotype of a programer is someone who is usually overweight. But this is not the case in real professional gaming. The teams that programers belong to usually have training regimes that the players have to follow if they want to remain on the team. It is also not possible to work at the high mental and even physical level required to play at the top of the game. All the top players are healthy and physically fit because of this.

Another reason that pro-gaming is looked down upon is because of the behavioral aspects of it. Many parents suggest that their kids become increasingly violent because they play video games.  Even though it is true that many e-sports games involve armies fighting or creatures killing each other, studies at Harvard and other respected research have shown no conclusive evidence of this link. The violence is also usually not very graphic or even ‘cartoony’ in a way. But it also comes down to parents and parental guidance. Games are given a rating so that parents understand what types of things happen in them if they know nothing else about them.

The main reason that e-sports is so controversial is because people believe that there is no spectator aspect to it and therefore no reason to watch it. But my only question to these people is, have you ever tried? Have you ever tried watching someone professionally play a video game? There are thousands of people who watch the games that don’t even own them. I have personally watched many e-sports events and watch Starcraft games almost daily if I feel like it. Of course I play it as well so I understand more than some other people and can learn from watching them, but I can see why people would watch it. The adrenaline rushes that come when something amazing or never before seen happens, are just like the ones that I get when watching soccer or another sport and a goal is scored. You get to know all the personalities even through cultural divides when you watch them play and hear them in interviews. 1.7 million different people watched a Swedish e-sports tournament over a weekend in December 2011, which proves that it was no small event.

I believe that e-sports should be given a chance and that any preconceived beliefs about it should be cast aside so that it has a chance to grow and spread joy. I'm sure that many people would actually enjoy it if they tried watching it. There is no reason for e-sports to be completely discarded without even getting a look at it in the first place.

My Reflection on "Why Don't We Complain" and "On Compassion"

The essays "Why Don't We Complain" by William F. Buckley Jr. and "On Compassion" by Barbara Lazear Ascher put forth two different ideas in two very different ways. Buckley talks about the fact that people don't dare to complain about even the smallest things due to pressures from many different sources. At first he describes somewhat trivial things such as feeling too hot and not daring to ask for the temperature to be turned down but then goes on to describe how this can effect huge life decisions if it becomes a habit. He suggests that if people aren't brave enough to stand up for trivial matters, they won't be able to stand up for their political ideas either. The way that this is presented is very personal as each example is taking from his own life. This allows the reader to connect to what is happening through him and through other similar experiences that they might have had. My experiences at restaurants where I am not always brave enough to send back my food through fear of being rude came to my mind while reading this essay. There is not a clear mood created by the author for the piece but it is clear that he wants to encourage people to speak their mind more than they usually do.


The other piece written by Ascher approached it's subject in a completely different way. It talked about the idea of why people give money to homeless people and pondered whether it was through true compassion or fear or just a need to get rid of the person. But rather than try directly persuade the reader down a certain path, it asked the reader rhetorical questions to make them think about the subject instead. It also created a clear mood of sympathy and sometimes fear or tension which helped to liven up the reading. Like Buckley's piece, Ascher used her personal experiences to tell the story which made it more relatable as many of the experiences were things that I and i'm sure many others have gone through as well. She also related her ideas to well known ideas such as the Greek Tragedy, which she said related to the homeless people in that it inspired empathy in the audience. These examples helped to make her point strongly and left the reader thinking about why it is that we show compassion to the homeless. Both pieces were very strong in what they wanted to accomplish. "Why Don't We Complain" was able to convince me to try and speak up my mind more and "On Compassion" left me thinking about what it truly means to be compassionate. It was interesting to see these two extremely different styles to writing an essay and it helped me to figure out how to make my own essays more interesting.

My Reflection on Holiday Gatherings

In my honest opinion, I do not see any point to holiday family gatherings, or any family gatherings whatsoever. At least in my case, I gather with a bunch of people, half of which are from extended families that I don't even know, and the adults sit around drinking and dining on some strange Finnish local food. What the hell is bread cake anyway? I tasted it and all I got was a mouthful of moist bread covered in cream. It almost made me puke. I have no chance with interacting with the adults as all they talk about is business while I sit idly by watching them fill their mouths with one 'delicacy' after another. They then ask me questions about how I'm doing back in Malaysia, to which I answer in the same fashion every time. "Yes, I'm doing fine." "Yes, school went well." I'm not one to brag so I don't go on about every grade I got in every class even though they look at me with needy eyes, expecting me to keep talking. My parents are always talking with other adults and my brother is usually off racing somewhere, he is profesional sprinter after all, so I have no close friends to talk to.

The kids are another matter completely. Some of them are infants who are lying in their mother's arms, annoying me with their high pitched squealing, and the slightly older ones are playing childish games amongst themselves which I can't be bothered with. I guess I'm just at that age where I think of myself as being 'too cool' to bother with such pests, no matter how cute they are, and even though none of my friends would see me do so. Even though I do like to think of myself being more mature then a lot of people my age, I still seem to have the same concerns as them. Then we get to the teenagers. You would think I could interact with the people my age right? No. I can't. They've all built up close connections already since they live so nearby, and exist in their closed off little groups which I have no part in. It doesn't help that I have never lived in Finland and don't understand all the same culture that they do. I don't even know half the rules to ice hockey which they all seem obsessed about. They sit there playing first-person-shooter  games like Call of Duty which I have sort of grown bored of anyway, talking amongst themselves about things I barely understand.

This is my life of family gatherings in Finland. The parents always seem to be so interested in the kid that lives in Malaysia yet I am too indifferent to answer at great length. Of course not everyone is so boring or conformist as them and so I hang out with those people. This again completely takes away the point of a whole family gathering when I only hang out with a select few that share my interests. I do not like family gatherings.

Third Person Experience - The Boy Who Climbed

There was a boy who loved to climb. Specifically, he loved to climb doorways. He would always spread out his arms and legs and place them on specific places of the door frame to give him the best possibility of reaching the top. Finishing a climb was like winning an Olympic gold medal. He always heard the crowd chanting his name, “Jussi! Jussi! Jussi!” He would then jump down and land on his feet, maintaining his balance. Whenever he felt like it he would go through this same procedure again and again. On a day when he had reached the summit already a few times before, he was celebrating the end of the school year and the fact that he would be going to Finland for the Summer in a few days time. He decided to climb just one more time before going off to bed. His hands were sweaty and the smooth wooden frame was before him. He first extended his right arm and placed it strategically on the right side of the frame. He then took his left hand and placed it on the left side of the frame. He lifted his body up with his arms and placed his feet in their places as well. He was already a good 40 centimeters off the ground with this first effort. Preparing himself for his next move, he began to feel that something was amiss. He wasn't sure what it was though so he decided to go on anyway. He pushed up more with his arms to get higher up the door frame. His legs shot forward unexpectedly. They had slipped on the smooth wooden surface and went straight forward while his whole body turned almost parallel to the ground. No matter how much strength was in his arms, he couldn't hold himself up. His whole body plummeted to the ground.

His upper back collided first. It felt like someone had taken him and crumpled him until there was no air left, just like people do with toothpaste. He was gasping to try and fill his empty lungs. Suddenly, it dawned on him that he couldn't move. Could he have broken his spine? Was it possible that his meager fall was enough to crack bone? He couldn't believe it. There wasn't even enough air in his lungs to make a noise. Luckily, his mom was in the room. She skillfully lifted him up, making sure to keep his back and spine straight all the way. Her skills as a former nurse had come in useful to quickly assess the situation. She carefully laid him down on the bed and his breathing soon started to calm down. He was still to afraid to try move any part of his body. If anything had broken, he didn't want to know. He didn't know whether he would still be able to fly to Finland in this condition. It had been a trip he was looking forward to the whole year. He always wanted to go back. It was his home country after all. He lay there for a long time thinking about everything that would happen if he couldn't walk anymore. No more football, no more badminton, no more sports of any kind. He would have to sit in a chair for the rest of his life. He then started thinking if he would get one of those cool electric wheel chairs. Eventually he worked up the courage to attempt a move. He told his toes to wiggle, and wiggle they did! He was okay. Nothing too serious could have happened. It had given him a huge scare though and his family decided to go to the hospital to check that there weren't any fractures anyway.

After this event, it took a little while, but the boy did eventually work up the courage to attempt a door climb after a while. He climbed multiple times still after that, although more careful than before. Actually, something tells me that he is going to go climb a door right now...

Reflection on Using the Third Person
It was interesting to write in the third person about a personal story as it allowed me to give more details since I didn't feel so ashamed of it. It also allowed me to see myself from a different perspective and to see how it may have been like for my mom. It made the story more interesting to write as it was like writing a story about someone else and not me.