Does eSports Need ESPN?

Even though it has been here for years, eSports is starting to get its recognition and is starting to come into the mainstream. With million dollar prizes that seem to grow and grow each year and tournaments getting almost as big coverage to match. It is even being covered on sports channels like ESPN. You can say thing are good, but they are not.
     Ever since eSports tournaments have been broadcast on channels like ESPN, there have been some form of backlash against it. There have been backlash again sports fans asking why are they watching people playing video games. Even one of the former commentator, Colin Cowherd, has gotten headlines for bashing the channel's decision to show tournaments.

"Here's what's going to get me off the air. If I am ever forced to cover guys playing video games, I will retire and move to a rural fishing village and sell bait. You want me out? Demand video game tournaments on ESPN because that's what appeared on ESPN2 yesterday."

     Sadly even the president of the channel, John Skipper, has some not really positive remakes about it. The president has publicly commented on eSports by saying that it is not a sport.
     It's one thing for fans to be against it and probably another when you some of the commentators have something negative to say about it, but it's the worst when you have the head of the network bashing it. I can talk about how, just like any sport, eSports can be just as demanding and its participants train just as much as athletes in sports, but that's another story. So, the question is that should these tournaments pack up their things and go somewhere else? Do they need to stop airing on ESPN?
      eSports have been getting quite the number of hits online on Twitch and other streaming sites. Just last year, Dota 2's international tournament pulled in almost 20 million viewers, along with League of Legends and its 32 viewers online. With these numbers, and them growing each year as last year Dota only had one million. It is obvious that these tournaments are not going to be losing any sleep if they don't air on TV. Also, considering the fact that people prefer to watch things online than on TV, It would be wise not to pass up a deal with Twitch, or any other streaming service to solely broadcast tournaments online.
      I do understand that these eSport tournaments need a network like ESPN to get spread awareness and get a bigger and broader audience, but the respect is clearly not there. It's one thing to bash, it's another to do so blatantly and try to make money off of it. It's hypocritical that the president sees eSports this way but doesn't see a problem collecting all of the money it makes for the company. Maybe eSports does need to stay after all. To make a point that Skipper and the channel's fans that criticized the airings are out of touch and eSports is here to stay and that it's not just a sport. It's something more.