ESPN president: Esports are not sports.

[nicehat]

 

 

The US government may have officially recognized eSports as a sport on par with the NBA, NFL, NHL (which now allows international players to get US visas for the duration of any American tournaments), but ESPN president John Skipper thinks otherwise:

 

 

"It’s not a sport -- it’s a competition," he argued. "Chess is a competition. Checkers is a competition. Mostly, I’m interested in doing real sports."

 

 

 

Skipper had been asked to comment on Amazon's $1 billion acquisition of Twitch. However, it should be noted that ESPN has shown increased interest in eSports during the last few months. There was the COD tournament held during ESPNs X games in Austin, and then dont forget about ESPN3 streaming Valve's "The International Dota 2 tournament" online

 

Still, its funny that Skipper's dismissing eSports as a competition considering his network's history of broadcasting poker tournaments, abandoning the NHL, and practically avoiding any mention of it on SportsCenter.

 

Are eSports...sports? I dont think so. Id have to agree with Skipper on this one. I generally correlate sports with physical competition to some degree or another. I find it funny when eSports jerseys come with Thermex and Techniflow technology built into them... I cant help but lol. 

 

What do you think? are esports....sports? 

 

 

 

http://www.polygon.com/2014/9/6/6113877/esports-not-a-sport-espn

[Bloodyvalley]

That's bullshit. They said that they would like to broadcast more E-Sports on their channels.

 

 

Anyway, I think E-Sports = BULLSHIT

[qwertywarrior]

he has a point

[Nico123473]

I agree they aren't sports, sports should include at least medium physical activity, chess, also shouldn't be considered a sport 

[Syntaxvgm]

[connorpiper]

It makes us PC gamers look less lazy...

[AlwaysFSX]

I know the following sentence will be restating the obvious, and possibly something stupid, but it holds value and remains true.

 

An e-sport is an e-sport, not a sport.

 

Sports are physical competition. E-sports are not, but they're still a competition and held in the same manner as a sport.

 

That being said, they're still dumb.

[_ASSASSIN_]

e-sports are for sure not a sport, but it's still a massive industry regardless.

[Rorgash]

its a HIGHLY competitive scene, with millions of viewers and hundreds of thousands of dollars in price money in the big competitions, and even more 1 million. the training and time these people put into getting good at these games are the same as a full time "normal" sports man or woman, while its not a sport its a competition and should still get the visa rights tho

[Hans Christian | Teri]

sport

Pronunciation: /spɔːt/

 

noun

1. An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

[Sauron]

They're called "E-sports", not "sports". Doesn't anyone think there just *might* be a reason for that?

[nicehat]

They're called "E-sports", not "sports". Doesn't anyone think there just *might* be a reason for that?

 

The US govt thinks they are sports and recognizes them as equal. What about that 

[Victor Golf]

I hate it when people call participants of E-sports athletes.

[Nineshadow]

Isn't chess a sport too?

[Luc401]

I hate how we have to classify things ,because you always end up with a problem like this.

[bchampion96]

Isn't chess a sport too?

 

no

[Sauron]

The US govt thinks they are sports and recognizes them as equal. What about that 

 

So what? On paper that just means they have the same right as "standard" sports to be shown in tv and be sponsored, as well as players having all the benefits that "standard" sport players have, which I'm all for. E-sports to the viewer are a form of entertainment on the same exact level of soccer or rugby and the players also give up most of the time they could use for other things to practice, which means they should have a right to "special lanes" in education etc.

[BallGum]

I usually consider competitions for things that aren't in real time; so like chess, YuGiOh, M:TG, etc. IMO the definition of sports should be changed to include eSports / games, as it relies on more than just "thinking", it requires accuracy and speed.

[pit5000]

why are there poker broadcasts then? if that is just competition, why is there such a big stage?!

[exyia]

The E-Sport term should have never came to be in the first place - someone just thought it was a cool way to refer to tournaments and the internet jumped on the bandwagon

 

when a "gamer" gets really invested in a game, we keep referring it to being "competitive" - not being "athletic"

 

I agree with John Skipper

 

but following up the comment with "Mostly, I'm interested in doing real sports" was really uncalled for. Though it might have just been taken out of context of the whole interview

[murratri]

Name one specific difference between sports and esports other than the platform used, and please don't say that its not physical because it really is-have you ever had a hardcore gaming session in twitch shooter and such?  I see the only difference is that in esports you don't put yourself in a potentially dangerous position. I play soccer and I still consider esports sports.

[Victorious Secret]

As long as we can agree that F1 drivers make every other athlete look like a bunch of sissies. 

 

I jest of course. F1 drivers go through a lot of shit and have to stay in Olympic level shape all the time just to withstand the cars and also need reflexes that put 99.9% of the population to shame, and thats the extreme end of "sport"

E-Sports falls under the definition of being a sport. We can argue semantics all day of course. 

[TopWargamer]

I agree with him. Video games are not a sport, they are an e-sport. 

 

e-sport = electronic sport 

Hardly even a "sport", but gives us a term to recognize competitive gaming with...or we could just use the term  "competitive gaming"...

[Thorium19]

If the BBC puts darts and snooker under the BBC sport banner, then e-sports would definitely be considered a sport. However, IMO e-sports are not a sport, so I agree with mr. Skipper, but having never taken part in e-sports I can't really say how strenuous it is. I just see it as a bunch of people sat at desks drinking energy drinks and struggling with chronic sweating from profuse brain overload trying to outwit the other team/people.

[lutewan]

sports are sports esports =/= sports esports are esports