When I type esports on my phone, it auto corrects to exports, maybe my phone is trying to say that the word is fucking ridiculous and should be exported to the sun.
That’s because it was the competitive Smash community that started it with their #freeleffen campaign. In fact, it was created by a member from r/smashbros a day after that Smash player went up on Youtube and read out loud that his I-129 petition for a P-1 work visa was denied by the USCIS. I even read that petition and found that it’s flawed and nonfactual in many areas. I would never sign this because it’s flawed and that this is all centered around one guy (Also because I find the idea of video games becoming sports just to have its players recognized to be athletes just to get work visas is ridiculous). The petition will most likely fail.
I get it in terms of space control. You control certain spaces on the board with your pieces to limit your opponent’s movement much like you try to control the space in front of you and above you with moves to keep your opponent in a certain place in the neutral part of a good fighting game.
But I think beyond that, there really aren’t any other similarities.
Even though I can’t stand some smashers and their holier than thou approach to fighting games they’ve never played, and that the game most of the time is an absolute bore, an entertaining character is an entertaining character.