If you want to play football in a club in Germany, you usually don't have to look far.
The offer is huge.
In handball, basketball and many other sports it is usually at least present.
But if you have a passion for esports and don't just want to live it online, you will get a problem.
There is no room for League of Legends or Counter Strike players in German sports clubs.
This is a consequence of the fact that the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) still does not recognize esports as a sport.
To support this stance, the DOSB even commissioned a special legal opinion last year.
For sports clubs, this means that under these conditions they run the risk of losing their non-profit status if they offer esports and want to purchase appropriate equipment.
Helge Kühl, the chairman of TSV Neudorf-Bornstein in Schleswig-Holstein, has nevertheless launched an esports department.
Because more and more young people in town approached him, they wanted to organize themselves in the association.
Meanwhile, TSV has its own premises and several teams in Fifa, League of Legends and Rocket League - until then, however, some resistance had to be overcome.
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The LEC Spring Finals in Rotterdam 2019
Photo: Riot Games
While German sport is still struggling for funding, the international scene has long been thinking on a larger scale.
Commercial esports competitions take place in huge arenas.
We listen to what it sounds like when esports takes place on stage in front of more than ten thousand spectators when we visit a League of Legends live event in Rotterdam.
Curious?
Scroll to the podcast player at the beginning of the article and listen to the first episode of our new SPIEGEL miniseries "Game Changer".
Icon: The mirror