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[KPJZKC]

"It's not a sport, it's a game!" was my favourite part

 

[tranciful]

Yeah, one of them is a worthwhile event that he will remember for a long time. The other is a bunch of kids wasting time rationalizing their sitting in front of a monitor deluding themselves that they will one day be a professional video game palyer.

You're literally delusional. And not in the newer definition of the term literally. There are already people make a living playing video games professionally!

For those not already making a living playing professionally, their aspirations of becoming professional LoL players are not unlike, gasp, those aspiring to be professional football players. Most people don't make it. It's not sound career advice. But those with enough talent and dedication can make it happen.

You are so salty it is just sad.

 

[Mael]

you can see that the International Olympic Committee defines "sport" something like shooting, golf or archery that can require even less physical effort and accuracy that some videogames.

Videogames are simply too young as a competitive discipline to be included among the other "official" sports, but some of them will probably be in the future.

Don't hold your breath.
If chess isn't in the Olympics, games have literally less than a snowball chance in hell.
Structurally and due to the nature of games and how they're sold, there's really no reason to recognise a "game" whose rule change every year or so.
It's like wondering why board games aren't seen as sports or something.
And again the mere fact that companies trying to ride of the wave of competition used the word "esport" for the whole thing doomed any attempt to legitimize the activity as a real sport from the beginning.

It's never happening guys.

Actually that is exactly what it is. It's just not enough physical activity for some of you people to include it in your definition of a sport.

Moving pieces on a board also involve physical activity, that doesn't mean that chess is a sport or something

 

[Nymphae]

My hands are physically active when masturbating with my stick. That doesn't make it a sport.

According to the definitions I've seen thrown around here, as long as you're competing with another person, masturbating could be considered a sport, provided you're exerting yourself enough physically

 

[Rygar 8 Bit]

Remember last week when you had that awesome kill streak in BF4? You really got a ton of tickets and assisted your team. Good memory, right?

Now compare that memory to the first time you competed and overcame something in a traditional sport. Maybe the first time you ran a 5k in a race, maybe when your team won a basketball game that you weren't supposed to win, or the time you finally hit par playing a round of golf.

Do you see how these are two different things? Video games are entertainment and fun to play and you can do them for hours on end. They are awesome experiences and a way to waste time.

Sports on the other hand, when played hard, require physical exertion that I believe leaves an indelible mark on you. I will never forget my first triathalon. My six year old son just earned his green belt in karate. He can tell me about each belt he won. I asked him what it felt like to win at Pokemon last week. He doesn't recall the details of the game in the slightest.

how could i forget jumping out of my damage air plane over the sands el alamein and taking down a enemy b52 with a well placed bazooka round?

 

[bro1]

I'm sure at one point people ridiculed those who considered kicking around an inflated ball something worthwhile and something that could be a successful career.

And yet look, it developed and football is now a billion dollar sport.

we've been kicking around a ball forever. There is cultural signifigance in that. Sports will stand the test of time. Winning a match of Starcraft will be forgotten soon enough.

 

[2MF]

Some people here should actually try going to a chess or video game tournament. You might be surprised at the stamina you need to play decently in a tournament multiple days long where you're playing several hours per day.

 

[Final Boss]

It's not a sport and they're not pro athletes


It's actually sad if anything how bad these pro gamers try to push this pro athlete agenda

 

[Paches]

Structurally and due to the nature of games and how they're sold, there's really no reason to recognise a "game" whose rule change every year or so.

It's never happening guys.

But the NFL has rule changes every year. It is why they have a competition committee sit down and evaluate everything based on what has happened the previous year.

 

[bro1]

You're literally delusional. And not in the newer definition of the term literally. There are already people make a living playing video games professionally!

For those not already making a living playing professionally, their aspirations of becoming professional LoL players are not unlike, gasp, those aspiring to be professional football players. Most people don't make it. It's not sound career advice. But those with enough talent and dedication can make it happen.

You are so salty it is just sad.

No, I'm someone who understands what is of value and what is a hobby. Keep on dreaming that playing video games are a sport and are important.

 

[ryutaro's mama]

This is what i'm wondering. Like even if one day when hell freezes over and eSports is covered on ESPN do you guys think people will stop fucking laughing as they're covering it? I would fucking laugh myself.

ESPN doesn't even regularly talk NHL, much less eSports.

ESPN isn't in any rush to have LoL footage on their networks...hell, I would go even further to say that the main people that want to have eSports legitimized don't even watch ESPN.

 

[GalacticSushiman]

A sport needs physical activity? Oh really, how do you explain this then:

"Chess is a recognized sport of the International Olympic Committee and international chess competition is sanctioned by the World Chess Federation (FIDE), which adopted the now-standard Staunton chess set in 1924 for use in all official games. There are also many chess variants, with different rules, different pieces, and different boards."

I really don't see how SC2 differs from chess, apart from it being real time (and thus much sportier )

 

[BraXzy]

we've been kicking around a ball forever. There is cultural signifigance in that. Sports will stand the test of time. Winning a match of Starcraft will be forgotten soon enough.

So cultural significance and time spent existing defines what can be a sport?

 

[Dirtyshubb]

The same thing can be said for playing cards with friends. But playing poker is not a sport, it's a game. Playing golf is a sport as it requires physical exertion. I think a lot of you guys need to step a way from the monitor and actually go play a sport. Experience what it's like to physically accomplish somehting and not worry about unlocking your next achievment for most kills in a round.

And here comes the 'gamers are nerds' comments, assuming that just because someone is arguing for proffessional games playing to be considered a real sport it must mean they have never done anythig physical and cant possibly know what its like to 'physically acomplish something'.

 

[Pastry]

I love video games, I really do. But I will never equate videogames to a sport, it is absurd to even put the two in the same sentence. Saying high level Madden players are athletes just like the football players they're controlling... that's some laughable Inception stuff.

 

[tranciful]

The same thing can be said for playing cards with friends. But playing poker is not a sport, it's a game. Playing golf is a sport as it requires physical exertion. I think a lot of you guys need to step a way from the monitor and actually go play a sport. Experience what it's like to physically accomplish somehting and not worry about unlocking your next achievment for most kills in a round.

I'm not the one arguing that golf is a sport and video games aren't a sport because you can play golf to help your business networking. That's YOUR awful argument.

Again, I grew up playing sports and esports competitively. Both. I enjoy and respect both. Doesn't sound like you've experienced both, so please stop talking about something you're unqualified to discuss. You keep phrasing esports as if they're singleplayer games. You do realize that competitive multiplayer games have leagues, teams, practice, scrims, tournmanets, finals, etc, right? Esports have never been about unlocking the next achievement or beating pokemon -- they're about out-competing the other team... just like sports.

And with that, I'm done. You're incapable of rational thought.

No, I'm someone who understands what is of value and what is a hobby. Keep on dreaming that playing video games are a sport and are important.

It's like you got picked on by your nerdy boss or something. You are so bitter.

 

[voodoopanda]

Does anyone actually think competitive gaming is absolutely a "sport" and that the players are absolutely "athletes"? I feel like very few people think that, its all just marketing talk.

Instead people think competitive gaming is a legit form of competition and worth doing/watching, and that's getting twisted into a semantics argument about the word "sport."

Like I think competitive gaming is awesome and I enjoy watching it and think the top players are exceptionally skilled at it. But I don't care at all about it being called a "sport."

 

[Pastry]

Does anyone actually think competitive gaming is absolutely a "sport" and that the players are absolutely "athletes"? I feel like very few people think that, its all just marketing talk.

Instead people think competitive gaming is a legit form of competition and worth doing/watching, and that's getting twisted into a semantics argument about the word "sport."

Like I think competitive gaming is awesome and I enjoy watching it and think the top players are exceptionally skilled at it. But I don't care at all about it being called a "sport."

That's exactly what is being argued here though, people are insisting that it is a "sport".

 

[JesseEwiak]

I hope all of you who want eSports to be seen as real sports will join me with my petition to have competitive speed typing added to the Olympics.

 

[Nymphae]

Moving pieces on a board also involve physical activity, that doesn't mean that chess is a sport or something

Funny you should try telling that to the International Olympic Committee, I'm sure they'll see it your way.

 

[bro1]

I'm not the one arguing that golf is a sport and video games aren't a sport because you can play golf to help your business networking. That's YOUR awful argument.

Again, I grew up playing sports and esports competitively. Both. I enjoy and respect both. Doesn't sound like you've experienced both, so please stop talking about something you're unqualified to discuss. You keep phrasing esports as if they're singleplayer games. You do realize that competitive multiplayer games have leagues, teams, practice, scrims, tournmanets, finals, etc, right? Esports have never been about unlocking the next achievement or getting the most kills -- they're about out-competing the other team... just like sports.

And with that, I'm done. You're incapable of rational thought.

I played many years of CS. I was never good enough to play the game good enough to play in more than causal matches.

As for the golf comment, you missed my point entirely. Also, I'm glad you are done with me. For a second there I was starting to get worried that I had been outsmarted.

 

[Village]

The death of G4 pretty much proves that nobody cares about watching gaming shit on TV.

What does poor management have to do with what we are talking about?

 

[JesseEwiak]

Funny you should try telling that to the International Olympic Committee, I'm sure they'll see it your way.

Chess has thousands of years of history that basically grandfathers it. If it was invented today, it'd never be recognized as a sport. Heck, it was probably only one originally recognized cause somebody on the IOC really likes chess

 

[lazorexplosion]

Somehow I suspect people denigrating the physical difficulty of pro gaming have absolutely no actual experience trying to play even near that level.

Playing like this, getting your hands and brain to coordinate at this level of speed and accuracy for hour long stretches is physically difficult, and anyone who says otherwise hasn't tried it. These pros do 10 hour days of practicing to get this level of manual dexterity. And on top of that, while you're doing that, it's also extremely mentally demanding.

 

[Mael]

But the NFL has rule changes every year. It is why they have a competition committee sit down and evaluate everything based on what has happened the previous year.

NFL is barely more than entertainment already but I won't open that can of worm.
The whole important part is that you don't need to throw all your equipment and rebuy and relearn everything in order to play like transition from Starcraft to one of its extension did.
Take football (and I mean what you call soccer) for example, you only a patch of grass field and something vaguely looking like a ball to play.
Even in the poorest countries out there you will find kids playing that.
Evidently not all sports are equals, some require a trained horse and everything and can be so very expensive.
Then you have the problem of values that a sport usually carry, and well gaming doesn't really exudes values (apart maybe from consumerism...) so don't expect schools to push that at all.
You'll have a harder time convincing school boards than a gaming forum that's for sure.

"Chess is a recognized sport of the International Olympic Committee and international chess competition is sanctioned by the World Chess Federation (FIDE), which adopted the now-standard Staunton chess set in 1924 for use in all official games. There are also many chess variants, with different rules, different pieces, and different boards."

Source?

 

[Cheech]

What does poor management have to do with what we are talking about?

It is related to the delusion that people want to watch other people play videogames on TV.

G4 bombed because the market for that isn't large enough to be financially sustainable. If people have time to kill in front of the TV and like gaming, they are going to play games themselves.

 

[ryutaro's mama]

What does poor management have to do with what we are talking about?

If watching gaming on TV was such a huge draw, G4's poor management would be irrelevant. Another, more competent company would have swooped in to fill the void.

That didn't happen.

 

[Nymphae]

Chess has thousands of years of history that basically grandfathers it. If it was invented today, it'd never be recognized as a sport. Heck, it was probably only one originally recognized cause somebody on the IOC really likes chess

Videogames just haven't been around long enough, eventually it'll happen too.

 

[JesseEwiak]

You JUST said it wasn't a sport in your last post. But keep making excuses.

Funnily enough, I can disagree with the IOC. Chess isn't a sport. Neither is clicking a mouse button a hundred times a minute.

 

[Majine]

Funnily enough, I can disagree with the IOC. Chess isn't a sport. Neither is clicking a mouse button a hundred times a minute.

Is racing a sport?

 

[bro1]

Is racing a sport?

Forza or GT6?

 

[GalacticSushiman]

Source?

Here

Click on "international federation" and then browse to RECOGNISED SPORTS.

You are welcome

 

[JesseEwiak]

Is racing a sport?

Yup. Plenty of people in this thread have explained why driving around in a deathbox at 175mph while having multiple G Forces pressed upon you is different from playing a game of DOTA.

 

[voodoopanda]

That's exactly what is being argued here though, people are insisting that it is a "sport".

I know that there's a semantic argument going on in this thread about what the true definition of sport is between people who say sports requires physical exertion and those who don't, I've just never seen anyone in the competitive scene actually care. Do Starcraft players call themselves athletes? Do Street Fighter players claim what they're doing is a sport? I've never heard players say anything like that.

 

[Majine]

Forza or GT6?

Auto racing. Formula 1.

Yup. Plenty of people in this thread have explained why driving around in a deathbox at 175mph while having multiple G Forces pressed upon you is different from playing a game of DOTA.

So sports is defined by putting yourself in danger?

 

[inm8num2]

Nuke the thread.

 

[Zen_Arcade]

All sports are games but all games aren't sports. Video games aren't sports.

 

[cRIPticon]

Its a fine line.

I laugh at the idea of eSports simply because it isn't sport. I will continue to say that forever. It is a hobby that can be done in their spare time and even some lucky son of a bitch can be good enough with enough practice to make money out of it. But its like saying an author is a sportsman as they also sit down at a computer, work hard at perfecting something and then releasing it to make money.

Hell... why not say developers are eSportsmen... they sit down, plan, practice their craft, work at it for hours and hours and eventually finish their task. They are in a competitive market as well, racing against other developers. Is this, then, sport?

If it wants to be called eSports, fine, then let it. But it won't be taken seriously in a sports market... ever.

Forever is a very long time. I would adjust your thinking if I were you. Just a suggestion.

Funnily enough, I can disagree with the IOC. Chess isn't a sport. Neither is clicking a mouse button a hundred times a minute.

You can disagree all you like. Your prerogative. Does not make you right.

 

[Mzo]

Understandable.

Playing video games is nowhere near as cool as getting really excited over throwing a ball around. That's serious fucking business.

 

[rCIZZLE]

It is related to the delusion that people want to watch other people play videogames on TV.

G4 bombed because the market for that isn't large enough to be financially sustainable. If people have time to kill in front of the TV and like gaming, they are going to play games themselves.

Millions of people watch video games online so the demand is there. Organized streaming like twitch is a new concept too so you should expect the number of viewers to increase. Right now on a weekday morning there are 80k+ watching random LoL streams. People just have no reason to watch gaming on TV when they can just watch exactly what they want to see online.

 

[Mael]

Funny you should try telling that to the International Olympic Committee, I'm sure they'll see it your way.

Here

Click on "international federation" and then browse to RECOGNISED SPORTS.

You are welcome

I guess this bodes well for videogames being recognized as sports.
I still stand by my analysis that the nature of the products and the values it pushes are barriers that will make it near impossible to be recognized as such.

 

[Khaz]

Auto racing. Formula 1.



So sports is defined by putting yourself in danger?

http://jalopnik.com/5971586/do-you-have-to-be-physically-fit-to-drive-a-race-car

 

[ExFalsoQuodlibet]

Moving pieces on a board also involve physical activity, that doesn't mean that chess is a sport or something

Shooting literally requires only the movement of the finger on the trigger, but is considered a sport and it's included in the official olympics.

Also: racing? It's not a sport?

 

[bro1]

Shooting literally requires only the movement of the finger on the trigger, but is considered a sport and it's included in the official olympics.

Also: racing? It's not a sport?

I'm not going to argue whether shooting is a sport or not however I am going to go out on a limb here and say that you've never shot a real gun.

Go ahead and try shooting a pistol or a rifle from a standing position. Not arguing whether it's a sport or not, just pointing out that it requires a lot more than just using your finger. it's not fucking call of duty.

 

[ryutaro's mama]

Millions of people watch video games online so the demand is there. Organized streaming like twitch is a new concept too so you should expect the number of viewers to increase. Right now on a weekday morning there are 80k+ watching random LoL streams. People just have no reason to watch gaming on TV when they can just watch exactly what they want to see online.

And that is why it will remain niche.

 

[Zen_Arcade]

Shooting literally requires only the movement of the finger on the trigger, but is considered a sport and it's included in the official olympics.

Also: racing? It's not a sport?

The Olympics aren't the best judge of what dictates a sport anymore. They tried to take out wrestling for the 2020 games. So in their mind shooting is more of a sport then wrestling.

 

[Orayn]

I'm not going to argue whether shooting is a sport or not however I am going to go out on a limb here and say that you've never shot a real gun.

Go ahead and try shooting a pistol or a rifle from a standing position. Not arguing whether it's a sport or not, just pointing out that it requires a lot more than just using your finger. it's not fucking call of duty.

You see the picture I posted earlier in the thread? In Olympic target shooting, you're using a lightweight .22 caliber rifle SUPPORTED BY A POLE.

 

[lazorexplosion]

I know that there's a semantic argument going on in this thread about what the true definition of sport is between people who say sports requires physical exertion and those who don't, I've just never seen anyone in the competitive scene actually care. Do Starcraft players call themselves athletes? Do Street Fighter players claim what they're doing is a sport? I've never heard players say anything like that.

Nor does anyone in the competitive sports world care how athletic their sport compared to others or whether their sport better meets the definition of sport than some other sport. They just play and no one gives a shit that sport encompasses athleticism than ranges from triathlons to shooting. The only people who care are people butthurt by esports.

 

[Majine]

All I'm hearing in this thread is alot of grumpy old people proudly proclaiming that it can't be a sport, because that's just how it is.

I think the biggest hurdle that Esports will have to tackle on its way to acceptance is the fact that there is a company behind each game, that they are essentially products. There are football organizations, but there is no company that "owns" the very concept of football.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

Strangely, I prefer most competitive games (poker, chess, games) over sports. So the rebranding for "esports" seems better to me.