Is gaming a professional sport?

[Davey_Pitch]

If a sport is measured on it's physical exertion then volleyball, tennis, javelin, shot put, long jump, croquet, bowling, darts, snooker, golf, dodgeball shouldn't be called sports.

I've only just spotted this - are you seriously suggesting that tennis shouldn't be called a sport?! If that's what you're suggesting then I am going to dismiss everything you've posted as simply trolling.

 

[Xiler]

I wouldn't say they required you to go above and beyond what an average person is capable of in order to compete professionally. Except shot put long-jump and javelin but they aren't directly competitive, more like try to beat a leaderboard. Although tbf would consider them sports now rethinking it as they are competitive and have the potential to give advantages to those who are in better shape whether it's needed in the first place or not. Can't just throw a massive net over anything that's competitive when it comes to sports, as thats when things like gaming fall through the cracks, next we'll have competitive cooking as a sport lmao.

So yeah, defining factor as to whether something is a sport or not IMO is whether physical gains can give you advantages whether it's required intially or not.

You don't think that hand eye co-ordination and reaction time is physically demanding to improve and use? Sure its focused in a small area for gaming but its still the same skill that is required for many sports.

 

[Omaeka]

I've only just spotted this - are you seriously suggesting that tennis shouldn't be called a sport?! If that's what you're suggesting then I am going to dismiss everything you've posted as simply trolling.

No. Have posted reasoning and actual conclusion, if you aren't going to bother reading them then continue on with your day lol. Tennis is high skill and has potential to push the ceiling on personal ability with physical conditioning but as a standard doesn't require above standard fitness to play. So yes it is a sport, was just pointing out that those sports are very low down for athleticism.

Of course with most sports these days the professional competitors are starting to slowly become freakishly athletic and maybe in a few years even the low tier sports will require very high athleticism to play if the professional rules evolve. Had come into the thread with very strict demands on what makes something a sport but have since rethought it.

You don't think that hand eye co-ordination and reaction time is physically demanding to improve and use? Sure its focused in a small area for gaming but its still the same skill that is required for many sports.

Not at all, I'll say that avoiding or dealing with RSI is something that gaming has but there isn't anything physically demanding about any of it, I've spent hours at a time on a fight stick round a mates in the past and there wasn't anything physically demanding about it and that's about as demanding as it gets outside of motion gaming and dance etc.

 

[linktoinsanity]

Most professional gamers are losers

Feel like you have something in common with them then?

I don't believe that Gaming is a sport myself, but nor do I see Darts, Snooker, Pool, Chess or Drawing as sports.

However it is competitive and takes a lot of skill and practice to be as good in gaming as a lot of professional gamers are.

It should be taken as seriously as a form of competition as darts, and personally I'd rather watch Gaming coverage on television than darts or snooker.

 

[Omaeka]

Feel like you have something in common with them then?

I don't believe that Gaming is a sport myself, but nor do I see Darts, Snooker, Pool, Chess or Drawing as sports.

However it is competitive and takes a lot of skill and practice to be as good in gaming as a lot of professional gamers are.

It should be taken as seriously as a form of competition as darts, and personally I'd rather watch Gaming coverage on television than darts or snooker.

Some games require freakish level of skill to be professional at. Starcraft/DOTA/Street Fighter/Quake etc. require way more skill and practice than darts or snooker. That is something it should be recognized for, not a sport though, you are completely correct.

 

[maxilive]

It has some traits of being a sport in terms of the dedication and competitive nature especially if you look at how much LoL has exploded with teams, sponsorship and full on training houses. On the other hand it doesn't compare to physical sports as there is no physique training behind it.

I'm not sure if Chess is classed as a sport? It is probably more comparable to that.

I still think it has many traits of a sport though with the training needed to be at the top of your game, mindset, teamwork, understand, skill, performing under pressure and pure dedication. On top of that you have the ever growing spectator side of it which is getting to some rather large numbers! I mean the Staples centre in America will be hosting the LoL finals which makes for a rather big event! With the prize money to equal that of a large sporting event.

 

[Xiler]

No. Have posted reasoning and actual conclusion, if you aren't going to bother reading them then continue on with your day lol. Tennis is high skill and has potential to push the ceiling on personal ability with physical conditioning but as a standard doesn't require above standard fitness to play. So yes it is a sport, was just pointing out that those sports are very low down for athleticism.

Of course with most sports these days the professional competitors are starting to slowly become freakishly athletic and maybe in a few years even the low tier sports will require very high athleticism to play if the professional rules evolve. Had come into the thread with very strict demands on what makes something a sport but have since rethought it.



Not at all, I'll say that avoiding or dealing with RSI is something that gaming has but there isn't anything physically demanding about any of it, I've spent hours at a time on a fight stick round a mates in the past and there wasn't anything physically demanding about it and that's about as demanding as it gets outside of motion gaming and dance etc.

Wow on both points. Im out.... you sir seem super human from all your comments.

 

[Omaeka]

Lol! Yes, gaming is so physically demanding it makes me tired. Just how bad of a shape are you in to come to that conclusion? I would consider myself to be below natural physical shape but above societies average. I have smoked since 13 yet can play tennis without any real issues, I'm far from superhuman as football & mauy thai used to wreck me and I was in better shape last year than I am now yet could still play tennis no problem.

If gaming & tennis in your eyes are physical demanding then that is your issue. I'm pretty sure that in todays society the average person is a slob yet they wouldn't have issues with either of those two. I'm pretty shocked at your conclusion.

 

[Crpwned]

While I wouldn't put it up there with the likes of football, rugby and other sports that require a highly physical input, I would definitely rank it along side sports such as snooker, darts, golf etc. Just in the amount of skill, dedication and training that has to be put in to be considered a professional gamer.

Also the viewership for esports these days is steadily increasing with tournaments being held weekly and some attracting huge crowds and viewing figures. Just a small quote from a Forbes article here -

Last October’s League of Legends World Championship event at UCLA in Los Angeles featured over 8,000 live fans and over 8.2 million unique viewers via livestreaming and TV (in countries outside of the US where eSports is already like any “real sport”). At peak, over 1.1 million people were watching LoL pro gamers play online (a stat that beats the viewership of an average MLB game).

Taken from - http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngau...ports-pros-could-have-the-power-of-nba-stars/

I wouldn't at all be surprised if we started seeing channels on your Sky package being dedicated to esports (I believe this is already the case in Korea where it's a national past time to many?)



Edit: To the above poster, are you really saying that Tennis isn't a physically demanding game? Let me just get this straight in my head here..

 

[Davey_Pitch]

No. Have posted reasoning and actual conclusion, if you aren't going to bother reading them then continue on with your day lol. Tennis is high skill and has potential to push the ceiling on personal ability with physical conditioning but as a standard doesn't require above standard fitness to play. So yes it is a sport, was just pointing out that those sports are very low down for athleticism.

I think you're missing a distinction here. To play any sport at a basic level, you don't need to be fit at all. Like I said, I'm a fat git who isn't fit at all, but I could easily go to the park and play football, tennis or golf. At the very highest level (ie, professional level, which is the whole point of this thread), you often need exceptional levels of fitness. This goes extra for tennis. You saying that tennis is a sport that is very low down for athleticism shows just how little you actually know about the sport. It makes you look like you don't watch it. Go and watch the highlights of Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic from this past Wimbledon, and tell me they are not exceptionally athletic men. The same can be said for pretty much anyone inside the top 100 in the world. Go back a few years and look at the stats for John Isner vs Nicolas Mahut, and tell me it's not a physically demanding sport. Hell, what about the Australian Open 2012. Novak Djokovic beat Andy Murray in the semi finals, in a 5 set match that was a few minutes short of 5 hours long. He came back 2 days later, and beat Rafa Nadal in the final, in a match that was pretty much 6 hours long. 11 hours of tennis in 48 hours. That's not 11 hours of walking, or sitting around. That's 11 hours of constant side to side sprints, stretching your body to its limits.

And you're saying tennis is low down when it comes to athleticism. Unbelievable.

 

[~>Dg<~]

haha omeka you have no idea

i have done javelin and a lot of other sports at high standard. it requires a lot of training and saying it doesn't or isnt a sport is a joke.

as with gaming or anything being fitter will give you a extra advantage over someone who isn't if you both have same skill.

as for tennis true anyone can hit a ball on a tennis court but to what standard again ?

my uncles both played at wimbledon and my mum at junior Wimbledon and brighton. trained for many years .

do love this forums sometimes its comedy gold

gaming at the highest levels which 99 percent wont ever play at is very skilled and i would class as not a sport but very close. thing is unless you ever play at that kinda level most people will just use there own experience of playing some bf pub game and some half semi decent comp game.

 

[StriderX]

Its not a athletic sport, that's for sure.

However the US has Visa's for Athletes which the only reason for it really, simply legal nonsense, eventually they will have to add a specific law for this.

Maybe classify it as perceptual sport (which i totally just made up)?

 

[Omaeka]

Well no I wasn't taking professional level into account, I don't see why you would as it is standard for professional levels of almost anything that is physical to require far above average levels of fitness. I was looking at them as how accessible they are and/or out of reach from somebody of normal (above societies average) human levels. I have yet to say tennis isn't a sport or any of the others besides snooker, gold (retracted statement) and something else that I've forgotten, I ranked them in terms of how demanding they are, it doesn't take much at all to play a 30 minute game with your mate at very amateur levels of play.

Can't see anywhere me mentioning what the sports are like on a professional level? Only as to what they are in terms of accessibility. Maybe if I start to scrutinize professional levels of sports then you can rightly jump to the conlusions you lot are making but I haven't? I know for a fact that after 30 minutes at the pace of Djokovic I'd be dead in a coffin, that doesn't make the sport as a whole demanding. That makes the absolute top level of the sport demanding, which the top 100 would fall into.

Professional or not, gaming on the other hand doesn't take anything whatsoever physically to compete at and anyone thinking otherwise is in lala land.

 

[Davey_Pitch]

Well no I wasn't taking professional level into account, I don't see why you would as it is standard for professional levels of almost anything that is physical to require far above average levels of fitness. I was looking at them as how accessible they are and/or out of reach from somebody of normal (above societies average) human levels. I have yet to say tennis isn't a sport or any of the others besides snooker, gold (retracted statement) and something else that I've forgotten, I ranked them in terms of how demanding they are, it doesn't take much at all to play a 30 minute game with your mate at very amateur levels of play.

Can't see anywhere me mentioning what the sports are like on a professional level? Only as to what they are in terms of accessibility. Maybe if I start to scrutinize professional levels of sports then you can rightly jump to the conlusions you lot are making but I haven't? I know for a fact that after 30 minutes at the pace of Djokovic I'd be dead in a coffin, that doesn't make the sport as a whole demanding. That makes the absolute top level of the sport demanding, which the top 100 would fall into.

Professional or not, gaming on the other hand doesn't take anything whatsoever physically to compete at and anyone thinking otherwise is in lala land.

So what you're saying is, in a thread where the argument is whether high level gaming is a professional sport, you're comparing it to the most basic level of every other sport around. Ok, makes perfect sense.......

 

[~>Dg<~]

sorry that is wrong a fitter person will react quicker be better overall .

better health , being physically fit will help over someone over weight in gaming

as said both have same skill but put a unfit person against a physically fit person

the fitter person will win majority of the time.


even in snooker look at the top players they have mental coaches physical routines it does help. true player who plays casually against a similar person will often just come down to the skill of the person but...if the skills are matched then physical side will play a part.

 

[Omaeka]

So what you're saying is, in a thread where the argument is whether high level gaming is a professional sport, you're comparing it to the most basic level of every other sport around. Ok, makes perfect sense.......

Yes it does, as it's gaming and saying it's a sport is a joke, comparing it to professional levels of football/tennis etc is absolutely ridiculous. When my argument for it not being a sport is based on athleticism, wouldn't comparing to to basic levels of other sports be more overkill when you consider the highest level? Think about it.

I'm saying gaming doesn't require anything physical, playing other sports on the most basic of levels is far, far far more demanding, it has no legs to stand on.

sorry that is wrong a fitter person will react quicker be better overall .

better health , being physically fit will help over someone over weight in gaming

as said both have same skill but put a unfit person against a physically fit person

the fitter person will win majority of the time.


even in snooker look at the top players they have mental coaches physical routines it does help. true player who plays casually against a similar person will often just come down to the skill of the person but...if the skills are matched then physical side will play a part.

Yes, better health as in somebody who has balanced diet, good sleep routine etc but not physical fitness as in cardio/strength. Even below natural levels of fitness you're going to have zero issues with gaming, thus not a sport.

 

[The Running Man]

No its not a sport. You can have professional gaming sure but to me that doesn't make it a sport.

 

[~>Dg<~]

maybe you should try reading many articles published showing that physical fitness improves reaction times. so wrong again chap

so basically age affects reaction times
fitness does.

 

[Craig R]

Anything that is competitive is considered a sport these days, if monopoly was extremely popular/skillful you can bet your top dollar that there would be a 'sport' based around it. While I personally don't think video gaming quite counts as a sport, it certainly does in the eyes of the people who's opinions actually matter, hence the tons of sponsored gaming events big and small all around the globe.

I don't think that darts/snooker/golf are sports either tbh.

How can you not consider golf to be a sport?! Mental

 

[Omaeka]

maybe you should try reading many articles published showing that physical fitness improves reaction times. so wrong again chap

so basically age affects reaction times
fitness does.

Nobody is going to become more physically fit in order to gain an edge in gaming, maybe when control methods evolve to become more interactable but less ridiculous and in a few years when E-sports becomes much more popular people will start to, and when that happens it can be classed as a sport. As it is now then bloody hell no it isn't.

If I was a pro footballer or tennis player I'd be furious to hear gaming as it is classed as a sport.

How can you not consider golf to be a sport?! Mental

There is a reason that quoting posts from hundreds of posts ago is pointless.