Is gaming a professional sport?
- Thread starter Hilly
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Soldato
Is chess a game or a sport, maybe speed chess because you must move the pieces fast 
If reaction times and any physical precision are involved it probably has to be called a sport. Who is the oldest competitive CS player
If reaction times and any physical precision are involved it probably has to be called a sport. Who is the oldest competitive CS player
Soldato
I think that the competitive gaming events are a real thing But I'm not sure about the use of the word professional. You can't earn money from it via sponsorship or fan ticket entry etc so you can't really call it professional in my opinion. Also, I hate the word e-sports. Gaming is not a sport!
Man of Honour
No, it's not ridiculous. It's high level competition, that's all. The question on the table was "is gaming a professional sport?" To answer it, you need to compare it to and base it on other professional sports. Comparing it to something else, something lower, is just wrong.
You can't use levels of physicality and athleticism required to say something is more or less of a sport than something else. The majority of sports require different types of fitness and athletic ability. Tennis players need a combination of short-sprint speed and long match endurance. F1 drivers need exceptional reactions and fitness. Marathon runners pretty much just require fitness. Golfers need explosive one shot power, and physical fitness to maintain posture. Footballers need high-impact physicality. Sports are different from one another, so if the question is "is gaming a professional sport?", you need to compare it to professional sports.
For the record though, I actually think gaming is not a professional sport. My reasoning is quite simple. When I go to the park and play football, the basic level of sport, I feel like I'm playing a sport. When I'm playing games on my couch, the basic level of gaming, I don't feel like I'm playing a sport. I feel like I'm playing a game.
Associate
I guess u have never heard of LoL teams and championships. They get sponsored, watched by millions and thousands pay to go to the biggest live shows.
Soldato
No.
Soldato
Are you seriously comparing tennis and gaming, in terms of fitness levels required?
Go tell that to two of my friends who are professional tennis coaches. They are the fittest people I know!
Given how much effort the likes of LoL put into there shows I wouldn't' be at all surprised either. I have got into watching LCS lately as its fun to stick it on the TV while I'm cooking/eating dinner.
Davey, when I go to the park to play a game of football, I don't think I'm playing a sport. I think I'm having a laugh with mates and kicking a ball around, doing a small amount of exercise in the process.
I honestly couldn't compare professional gaming to professional level sports, just wouldn't know how to do it. Even when comparing it to much lower forms of 'other' sports it's hard to not make the premise of gaming as a sport seem like a complete joke.
You've just shown as to why you can though, they not only need various ranges of physical attributes to excell but varying magnitudes. At the absolute maximum level, every sport has it's requirements and is no less of a sport than something else from an ubiased point of view. Football requires very little strength or physical endurance/toughness but requires a gigantic amount of stamina and cardio. Tennis requires decent strength and high cardio with mental ability to coordinate under fatigue. M.M.A requires extreme amounts of cardio and physical endurance/toughness and the rest is variable dependant on weight class/fighting style. So on, so on...
By this reasoning, I wouldn't consider any of the sports either of us mentioned to be lesser sports or greater sports other besides golf, which I would rank as a physically lesser sport. Although I guess that is opinion or bias as I value high-physicality sports over those of the mind like golf, which is why I found it difficult (less so now) to accept golf as a sport, and will never accept gaming/darts/chess/snooker as sports.
Exactly, requires no athleticism in it's current state.
I find the way a lot of things are coined as sports to be wrong and there needs to be other labels for them. Hunting takes a lot of skill, especially with non-firearms, but it isn't a sport even if you're competing for better trophies. Chess takes a lot of skill, as does darts take a lot of coordination and accuracy, snooker requires dynamic understanding of angles and momentum and so on. None of them require physicality though which is what I believe to be a sport. They just need seperate labels, and I am in no way shape or form trying to dismerit them with that statement.
No, that would be a rediculous thing to do.
If you go down physical activity route... Please tell me more about the number of muscles you use to play darts over a computer game and tell me what uses more muscles/concentration
Re who ever mentioned fitness level... need I mention that a large proportion of darts players look like mobile refrigerators?
Soldato
But you just did. You stated that a slob would have no trouble either gaming or playing tennis.
Caporegime
For it to be a sport it would have to be sporting no? You don't hear tennis players insulting their opponents mothers do you?
Honestly, people under estimate darts and snooker in terms of skill level and practice. The skill is astounding for both sports - I've played both and to be any good (and not just throw the odd dart or pot the odd ball) you have to practice for hours every dya. I believe most dart players practice for between 5 hours and 8 hours a day. Snooker is very similar.
Ok, so both of those aren't the most atheltic of games, but I don't think a sport needs to be athletic.
Ok, so both of those aren't the most atheltic of games, but I don't think a sport needs to be athletic.
I stated that two average people on the street would have no problem having a decent game of tennis together. I haven't once compared gaming to professional sports and I never will. As you said, professional coach, fittest people you know. Me and you could go and have a good 30 minute game of tennis right now and unless either of us are very skilled at it we won't get to the pace where we start to tire out.
The way I see it is a game becomes a sport if it has an official governing body
FIA for football
RNA and PGA for golf
NBA for basketball
etc etc
while you could have a hardcore game of hungry hippos theres no ruling body for it and therefore isnt a sport
FIA for football
RNA and PGA for golf
NBA for basketball
etc etc
while you could have a hardcore game of hungry hippos theres no ruling body for it and therefore isnt a sport
Never mentioned skill, was only making statement based on the fitness level since someone else mentioned that. For me, I say esports all the way. I don't care about football or rugby. I find it boring. But in my opinion, esports and "conventional" sports are on the same level.
There's money in watching people who are WAAAAY better then you do stuff (regardless if its no a pitch, in a ring, in a pub or at computer tables) and that's what makes it tick. I do like to call it esports though, just to make the distinction.
I think another reason as to why e-sports shouldn't be considered sports is what somebody else mentioned earlier in the thread (brilliant point, should have been bought up sooner) is balancing. In DOTA for example, some DPS characters are flat-out better than others, some healers are flat out better than other healers etc. yet only one person can choose those characters and then they become locked out. Whats to say that in a tournament you are a DPS player, are highly trained in the use of all of the DPS characters and then somebody beats you to choosing the best DPS character who is of comparable skill. Boom, disadvantage right off the bat.
Granted that is less of a concern in something like Street Fighter as two people can be Akuma and have a mirror match, but it's still there to a degree, some fighters are just flat out stronger than others, although you have the option on whether to gimp yourself or not.
In real sports, there are no disadvantages or advantages other than what you yourself are capable of.
Granted that is less of a concern in something like Street Fighter as two people can be Akuma and have a mirror match, but it's still there to a degree, some fighters are just flat out stronger than others, although you have the option on whether to gimp yourself or not.
In real sports, there are no disadvantages or advantages other than what you yourself are capable of.
Man of Honour
Actually, you do. Juan Martin Del Potro got a bad reputation about 5 years ago for having a go at Andy Murray's mum during a match between the two - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/te...-Murray-angry-with-Juan-Martin-Del-Potro.htmlFor it to be a sport it would have to be sporting no? You don't hear tennis players insulting their opponents mothers do you?