I accept either side of the argument but for a reporter who actually went to an E-sports event to be countered by two women who just dismiss out of hand is bad.
I've been to one of these in Korea. In the soccer stadium! I know girls who have crushes on guys on certain teams. It was just insane.
To me there needs to be a significant physical and skill component to sport, and the ability to carry out the skill while under physiological stress.
To me that is where this falls down.
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Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
How come anyone who has the opinion that disagrees with it being a sport is willfully ignorant?
That's not what I said. If you have a rationale for not calling it a sport, and you're at least educated on a cursory level about what eSports are and why they're popular, and you use that evidence to support your belief, that's fine. Your beliefs don't affect my beliefs. I enjoy watching the best players of some of my favorite games come together and compete. To me that's a sport. You can use whatever word you want to.
I take issue with people who just assume things based on their pre-existing beliefs without even considering basic facts (i.e. willful ignorance). At the risk of painting with a broad brush, in my experience this tends to encapsulate a lot of Gen-X'ers and sports dads fearful of people conflating what in their minds is childish nonsense with their totally legitimate sportsball events.
Just because it is like a real sport, doesn't mean it is a real sport.
As said earlier I rank it along with poker, bridge, etc.
Now, if you have these players having to ride bikes to power their computers I might change my mind.
Now it's semantics on what is a sport and are only sports allowed in the Olympics. And depending on what your definition is you include and exclude things like target shooting and ballroom dancing.
Esports vs target shooting both take a similar hand eye and body control without needing typical athletic skills associated with Olympic sports.
Now it's semantics on what is a sport and are only sports allowed in the Olympics. And depending on what your definition is you include and exclude things like target shooting and ballroom dancing.
Esports vs target shooting both take a similar hand eye and body control without needing typical athletic skills associated with Olympic sports.
The only target shooting that is a sport is Biathlon.
I think they should be Run Downs or Jungle Lanes for the other shooting events.
I admit to struggling with sports such as sailing, but heck the line between ballroom and ice dancing is pretty thin.
I can't find the link but there are a number of sports/activities that are trying to get into the Olympics.
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Captain James P. DeCOSTE, CD, 18 Sep 1993
There are too many events in the Olympics as it is.
I can't see E-Sports being allowed in the Olympics if there's a branded/profit making game the players will be playing. The IOC isn't going to give Blizzard a license to print money (more of one...) by having Overwatch or Starcraft be the games players compete in. Unless of course Blizzard pays IOC for their game to be played.
There are many games of skill that shouldn't be in the olympics. Snooker, darts and e-sports are a few of them.
What's not to love. Playing a competitive game at the highest level takes an extreme amount of dedication, practice and smarts. South Korea was a pioneer in the early esport days with StarCraft and MOBA's and now esport communities and are growing on a global scale with twitch and other streaming platforms.
I get every bit as excited watching my favorite player or team winning on the big stage. IEM Katowice was an amazing tournament to watch.
Duuuuh not a real sport.. not athletes.. go outside blah blah blah
Nobody says e-sport and thinks somebody is lacing up a pair of skates or throwing a ball. If the concern is semantics, I think "E-Sports" are going to be just fine.
That's like saying a tshirt isn't a shirt....
adding a single letter to the beginning doesn't negate everything after it.
But I think you're focusing on the wrong argument here. Lots of people just don't find it interesting. The legitimacy of these games as actual sports isn't even in question. No one in the esports industry even thinks they are real athletes and should be included in any discussion or competition that involves actual sports.
I won't be surprised if competitive gaming becomes more mainstream, a lot of people seem to enjoy watching it.
adding a single letter to the beginning doesn't negate everything after it.
But I think you're focusing on the wrong argument here. Lots of people just don't find it interesting. The legitimacy of these games as actual sports isn't even in question. No one in the esports industry even thinks they are real athletes and should be included in any discussion or competition that involves actual sports.
I won't be surprised if competitive gaming becomes more mainstream, a lot of people seem to enjoy watching it.
I really only watch League of Legends once in awhile. When Riot Games first created their E-Sports league for their game I wouldn't miss a stream the first few years (NA / EU regions). But I have lost a lot of interest in the last couple of years. I'll still watch most of the games during World's though.
That's pretty much it though. If I don't play a game that is into E-Sports (Starcraft, Overwatch etc) I don't bother watching it either.
E-Sports is getting huge though. LoL teams are now getting sponsored by NBA/soccer teams/players.
I like watching the speedrun records. Not sure if it's technically esports. Some of the stuff they can do is amazing.
Yeah, this is the only thing I watch that's comparable. Part of that is nostalgia, though. I'll watch runs of games I played when I was a kid, but I don't have much interest in watching something I've never played.
And yeah, I have no idea why they call it "e-sports". I'm sure someone decided that was much more marketable and less geeky than something like competitive gaming. But it's cringe-worthy. I don't have any issue with it as a form of entertainment and can see why people like it, but come on, it's not a sport. Stop deluding yourself.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
Toughest thing about eSports is that there is a new game vying to be the next big thing. Not only on the company side but also the players who might be a fan of the game and try to create their own grass roots movement which has more often than not ended without much fanfare.
Even for existing games their history as a entertainment industry when it comes to these competitions is still super short for majority of even the bigger titles. It'll have to take commitment for another 5 years at least to see any long standing realities of how much the general public outside adolescents and young adults should or would care.
All I'm trying to say is give this a couple years as it continues to grow and I bet you'll find yourself not only understanding the games more, but actively watching. I think the Overwatch League having teams located in cities like a traditional sports league will make that more apparent. That gives you more of a rooting interest in someone you don't otherwise care about.
Out of curiosity I checked the Twitch listings for Canada, and the top 10 games as of 12:35 PM today have 514,825 people currently watching. Not bad for a random Monday lunch hour.
Yea, I think you just found the reason why Canada productivity ratings are so poor.