It’s simple to understand. An elite group of participants spend hours practicing and preparing for their contests. It culminates in an intense matchup between the best of the best, all of whom have gone through the rigors of training.

This is the basic makeup of the most watched events in the world—sports. Although this definition of sports may seem simple, it is rapidly expanding to include E-Sports, or competitive video games.

To people who grew up watching traditional sporting events on TV, the prospect of E-Sports may seem ridiculous. However, contests with a mouse and keyboard are gaining popularity. E-Sports should be treated with the same respect as any other competitive sport because they require the same training and preparation and are starting to attract the large audiences.

The game League of Legends exemplifies this phenomenon. This online strategy game has become both immensely popular and competitive. “LoL” has developed an enormous fan base, boasting games that live-stream online with between 200,000 and 300,000 viewers 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Viewership in these live-streams is surpassing the crowds at MLS soccer, which averaged under 200,000 viewers per game in 2014.

LoL even regularly sells out tickets to live matches, with hundreds of people attending. Its online stream of the World Championship attracted 8.5 million live viewers, more than live-streams of the royal wedding or 2012 Olympics.

Professional play isn’t the only thing that legitimizes E-Sports. On a small scale, video games have proven to be equally exciting as a sports game, even here at Whitman. Last Friday the Whitman Video Games Club hosted a tournament for Super Smash Bros., a Nintendo fighting game which also boasts a large professional circuit. More than 40 students attended the tournament to participate, and about 10 more attended as spectators.

Such high attendance is rare at some Whitman sports games, and the atmosphere was intense. The normal sitting, chatting and eating that is typical for a low attendance sporting event was replaced with cheering chanting, and exchanging high fives from everyone in the room. The finals match of the Super Smash Bros. tournament got so intense that the room collectively yelled, gasped, and burst into applause at some moments.

Some argue that E-Sports shouldn’t be considered the same as traditional sports, since traditional sports require hours of training and practice. However so many hours of practice are crucial to E-Sports success as well.

Jason Zimmerman, the top Super Smash Bros. player in the world, has spent hundreds if not thousands of hours practicing his game, painstakingly recording data and statistics which he keeps track of on his blog.

E-Sports require skills and practice. They are competitive and draw huge crowds. They excite people the same way they energize fans at a football game. They have every hallmark of a sport and should start to be treated as such.