Anyone else hate the term "Esports"?

[Guest]

Poker is a sport, hell, sleeping is a sport in some countries? Esports?

 

Fuck esports 'cuz it's gaming, right?

[th3kru5her]

I would definitely class competitive electronic disciplines as sports. 

My reasoning being, while you're not exerting yourself in large movements such as in football or MMA, you are still required to master a set of physical disciplines to become a high-level athlete. 

The comparison that is made to chess all the time, in my opinion is flawed, due to the fact that the sport itself isn't fought with physical execution; but rather mental prowess is the entirety of the game. It's all fought ENTIRELY in the mind. The format can change but you can't win with anything other than your mind. You can lose all your limbs and as long as you can inform the opponent on where you are moving (and maybe someone can move for you), you can still be a grand master at chess. 

Before I play a league CS match, I still need to warm up. I still need to stretch, drink water and "get my eye in"; for lack of a better phrase. Muscle memory still needs to have set actions committed to it and I still need to learn strategy and nourish creativity within my own play style to beat my opponent. 

It's the same reason I consider pool a sport and synchronized swimming a sport. 

To all of you that disagree, I'm sure you have your way of thinking and rationalizing your decision and probably within your life's context it makes sense; but to me, someone that has competed on a competitive stage in eSports, I would have to respectfully disagree. 

Also I'm part of the 1000 lbs club for all you gym rats; I know both sides

EDIT: it to is

[GigaSnow]

Mind Sports exist (Chess, TCG, Shogi, etc) and nobody complains about the name 

 

I would definitely class competitive electronic disciplines as sports. 

My reasoning being, while you're not exerting yourself in large movements such as in football or MMA, you are still required to master a set of physical disciplines to become a high-level athlete. 

The comparison that is made to chess all the time, in my opinion is flawed, due to the fact that the sport itself isn't fought with physical execution; but rather mental prowess is the entirety of the game. It's all fought ENTIRELY in the mind. The format can change but you can't win with anything other than your mind. You can lose all your limbs and as long as you can inform the opponent on where you are moving (and maybe someone can move for you), you can still be a grand master at chess. 

Before I play a league CS match, I still need to warm up. I still need to stretch, drink water and "get my eye in"; for lack of a better phrase. Muscle memory still needs to have set actions committed to it and I still need to learn strategy and nourish creativity within my own play style to beat my opponent. 

It's the same reason I consider pool a sport and synchronized swimming a sport. 

To all of you that disagree, I'm sure you have your way of thinking and rationalizing your decision and probably within your life's context it makes sense; but to me, someone that has competed on a competitive stage in eSports, I would have to respectfully disagree. 

Also I'm part of the 1000 lbs club for all you gym rats; I know both sides

EDIT: it to is

 

 

I've always been a believer in the "healthy body for a healthy mind" camp. If your body isn't in it, your mind certainly isn't going to be in it.

 

Not that I'm the pinnacle image of the human form, but the point is still valid.

 

God, I miss working out.

[KingKeith55]

But we can completely defy some of your points by saying ping pong is a sport, or even bowling. Bowling doesn't take all that much strength, just the amount that an average human would have. It's entirely strategy. And ping pong isn't all that physical.

[Daegun]

2 hours ago, KingKeith55 said:

But we can completely defy some of your points by saying ping pong is a sport, or even bowling. Bowling doesn't take all that much strength, just the amount that an average human would have. It's entirely strategy. And ping pong isn't all that physical.

Ping pong isn't physical? Something tells me you haven't seen China and ping pong together yet.

 

 

[theanimun]

This is one of the few topics that has such blurry mid section, while yes there are gamers who are overweight, that doesn't mean all gamers are overweight, and if you have ever seen any esports tournament the players aren't unfit to any degree, and while it probably has something to do with them either being in school or something else.

If you want to define a sport by an athlete who is physically moving, then by that definition, racing, chess, shogi, poker, and horse racing wouldn't be considered sports.

And while wresting does have people who move around, its all staged, and i personally don't count that as a sport because of the staged bit.

And while ESPN has done esports before, they have only done one tournament for Heroes of the Storm so far and that was a collegiate level tournament, and TBS (Turner Broadcasting System -- a station in southeast united states) has even announced they have plans to do eSports and they have done baseball, hockey, and basketball. So its all dependent on how you perceive the definition of sports.

One side note, esports is just a general term, a lot of games have their own leagues, such as LCS for league of legends, so that's something to think about as well

[lior1111]

On 8/25/2015 at 4:11 AM, Godlygamer23 said:

Depending on what kind of fishing you're doing, you can get overweight. What's your stance on calling racing a sport?

Car racing is one of the most physical intensive sports on the planet , you have to drive at 350 km/h to understand , but basically the G-Force on corners or on high speeds , is so intense that the drivers has to be thin to be able to stand it , an overweight guy will pass out instantly for example because when so much G-Force is involved , the weight of the driver is like , getting higher , thats as simple as i can explain it so you have to be an athlete to be an F1 or GT driver . 

[thatguyjerry]

why is everyone so concerned with the physical components of sports? honestly, you can make a much stronger argument to call competitive gaming a sport when you look at it from the perspective of a team operation. The group dynamics of esports prove parallel, if not exactly similar, to that many 5 man sport games (basketball and hockey immediately come to mind).

 

I didn't have the time to read through all of this, so I'm not sure if this point has been brought up, but I like to bring up the pit crews of NASCAR drivers. I don't think I'll have a very hard time finding those who say racing is an individual sport, like golf or singles tennis, but when you listen to any interview from a driver they will attribute as much of their success as an individual to their pit crew.

 

Now, I don't know how everyone feels about racing as a sport, but if these drivers recognize their success in a sport as dependent upon the non-physical abilities (yes, non-physical; they use aids, power tools, lifts etc. this is not physical ability), i.e. reaction time, awareness, teamwork, communication, and so on, then I don't see how anyone can consider the physical components of sports to be the sole determining factor.