'eSports is a lot more culturally accepted than it used to be' – UK CoD pro Swanny

swanny esports mainstream 1

Has eSports turned a corner in terms of being more accepted by the mainstream media and non-gamers in the UK?
23-year-old British Call of Duty pro Callum “Swanny” Swan – who plays for Millenium – certainly seems to think so.
Unfortunately Swanny did not make it to Los Angeles to take part in the CoD XP World League tournament taking place this weekend.
In an interview with the Huffington Post, Swanny said: “At the time [of my first CoD XP event] there was something of a stigma behind gaming and behind spending prolonged hours in your bedroom playing video games.
“However, because of eSports and events such as this and the work that Activision are doing with the Call of Duty World League eSports, gaming in general has lost that stigma. I guess it’s no longer a scapegoat for the media or for parents.
 

“The UK is actually reaching the level where it’s starting to receive positive mainstream media coverage, it’s not being scapegoated – it’s actually now legitimised in a way.”

 

“I’ve been so immersed in this industry for so long now that I’ve seen the change in society as a whole and how it’s being perceived in society, I think culturally it’s a lot more accepted now than it used to be.”
Swanny also compared the US with the UK, and stated that the US has been more open to playing video games both as a hobby and as a sport for some time.
“However now the UK is actually reaching the level where it’s starting to receive positive mainstream media coverage, it’s not being scapegoated – it’s actually now legitimised in a way,” Swanny added.
“I think we’ve transcended the definition of a niche definitely. People for the last few years didn’t actually acknowledge that eSports was an emerging industry, at the time they just regarded it as a niche fad, but now people are recognising that this is here to stay.”
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