Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesFanTrev
I'm not a professional athlete, but I played football, rugby, baseball, and swam competitively as a kid. What I took from those activities was a sense of team work, discipline, fair play and dedication. I imagine that there is some of the same principles that could be derived from people competting in competitive gaming. I guess what I dislike most that it's possible to be a part of a team that never actually meets or competes in person and misses out on the social education that I experienced on actual sports teams. The long bus rides, the dirt being mashed into open cuts, sweat stinging your eyes as you go to war against your opponent. Supporting each other on the equally long bus ride home when you come up short. To me, specifically, thats probably the biggest part of my issue.
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I'm not a professional athlete or gamer, but I played basketball growing up, and have participated in a number of League of Legends tournaments. I found the sense of team work, discipline, fair play and dedication to be the same in both, and this is where I feel there is the most overlap between traditional sports and e-sports. Sure I never had long bus rides or open cuts from gaming, but myself and my team still practiced for 10+ hours a week, studying from those better than us, trying to improve as much as we could, and analyzing our opponents to try to find their playstyle and weaknesses. Like in any sport, we lost most tournaments, but I was lucky enough to make it to the finals for one and get to play on a stage with live commentary, and barely squeezed out a victory. The adrenaline high from that was as strong as I had from any basketball tournament.
There is a reason that those of us who have done both call it a sport. We acknowledge that it's less physically demanding, which is why that little 'e' is there, but everything else is the same. Though even that is starting to change. The top players have health and fitness coaches, just like any athlete. Taking care of your body is essential to being able to compete at the peak level. Heck, there's even sports injuries. Some pro gamers have had to retire or get surgery for carpal tunnel.