ESPN Says eSports Isn't a Sport

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ESPN says that eSports isn't a sport, it's a competition.

“It’s not a sport—it’s a competition. Chess is a competition. Checkers is a competition,” ESPN president John Skipper said at Re/code's Code/Media Series: New York conference when asked to comment on Amazon's $1 billion acquisition of Twitch. “Mostly, I’m interested in doing real sports.”
 
I agree.

Now you have a pretty good argument when it come to golf and maybe car racing; but still there is a major component of reality and physicality that is missing in gaming as a sport.

I'm sorry, gaming is not a sport. period.
 
No they actually aren't a sport is defined as a game in which opponents have to play offense and defensive roles. Esports have the defined defensive and offensive roles. I would also argue that chess has this as well.
 
They are 100% correct.
And by coincidence Most of them suck at it.

Video games are not a sport though. Anymore than chess. But Chess and Video Games are competitions with clear winners and losers. Don't know why people try to equate it to sports. Limit vocabulary of our school sytem or trying to rationalize that they don't play sports like their friends do (shame?). idk.
 
noun
1.
an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.

Athletic/physical, those are the keywords right there.
 
Athletic/physical, those are the keywords right there.

But using the definition you provided how do you differentiate examples such as -

hunting, racing, fishing, golf and bowling?

Gaming requires traits such as hand eye coordination and dexterity as well.
 
But using the definition you provided how do you differentiate examples such as -

hunting, racing, fishing, golf and bowling?

Gaming requires traits such as hand eye coordination and dexterity as well.

True.
Actual definition:
  1. an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment: team sports such as baseball and soccer | (as modifier sports) : a sports center.
    • dated entertainment; fun: it was considered great sport to trip him up.
    • archaic a source of amusement or entertainment: I do not wish to show myself the sport of a man like Williams.
  2. informal a person who behaves in a good or specified way in response to teasing, defeat, or a similarly trying situation: go on, be a sport! | Angela's a bad sport.
  3. Biology an animal or plant showing abnormal or striking variation from the parent type, esp. in form or color, as a result of spontaneous mutation.

So it can be a sport, just a non-athletic sport.
 
Um, that's why it's called E-sports and not sports :rolleyes:

Much ado about nothing
 
Hmmm....

Sports or Competition...the interest in it is large and very real...
 
But using the definition you provided how do you differentiate examples such as -

hunting, racing, fishing, golf and bowling?

Gaming requires traits such as hand eye coordination and dexterity as well.

Ask Webster, I didn't write the book. My guess is the amount of physical exertion is much less playing a PC game than anything else. Basically if you're not hooked up to a treadmill while playing world of warcraft. It's not a sport to them.
 
Neither is driving. Or poker. Or pool. Or golf.

Now Ballet dancers, those people are real athletes, generally in better condition than any professional athlete on this planet.

If anyone is going to miraculously decide the new criteria for sport it shouldn't be anyone who thinks North American football is a sport either, too many of the players are dangerously obese.

Maybe it doesn't matter? Sport is what you make it, you can make an argument for or against just about anything. You can make a sport of throwing paper clips into a cup. Hell you can make sport of making up sports.
 
Don't care what you call them. SC2 is entertaining. I haven't gotten into DOTA and the like, I'm sure they are entertaining as well.
 
Anything can be a sport, or not a sport, depending on who you ask.
 
I bet ESPN doesn't care either way and are just saying that because they cant control broadcast & viewing rights.
 
The official definition of sport aside, if we let those douchebags at ESPN decide what is and isn't a sport we are all fucked. Because they would stop coverage of anything but the NFL, NBA, and MLB.
 
I bet ESPN doesn't care either way and are just saying that because they cant control broadcast & viewing rights.

Or rather, they're looking for something that is watchable on TV with the least amount of production effort that'll hold an audience.

Poker is very easy to cover. NCAA basketball-easy to cover. Baseball? Easy to cover. American football? Easy to cover. Course there are dozens of other sports-but those take some effort to cover, so ESPN won't spend money covering them.
 
ESPN doesnt care until theres money to be made ala Big name advertisers with large ad budgets start throwing their weight at it. If that happens I assure u ESPN will be first on line to broadcast this thru new e sports mobile app on the go lol
 
ESPN doesnt care until theres money to be made ala Big name advertisers with large ad budgets start throwing their weight at it. If that happens I assure u ESPN will be first on line to broadcast this thru new e sports mobile app on the go lol

DOTA 2 International being the largest competitive prize pool of all the time probably had something to do with it.
 
ESPN doesnt care until theres money to be made ala Big name advertisers with large ad budgets start throwing their weight at it. If that happens I assure u ESPN will be first on line to broadcast this thru new e sports mobile app on the go lol

Not sure what your point is ESPN has been showing competition on their channels as well for a long time, i.e., poker, etc...doesn't have anything to do with being a sport or not. So many people butt hurt over their favorite "whatever" not being called a real sport.
 
So it can be a sport, just a non-athletic sport.

Not sure how you define athletic. If a guy can hit a bullseye on a dart board consistently from 100 feet I'd call that an athletic feat.

Same thing goes for controlling a mouse as precisely as top FPS players do.

These guys are using giant mousepads and making fast movements. You won't wear out your shoulder moving chess pieces.
 
Neither is driving. Or poker. Or pool. Or golf.

Now Ballet dancers, those people are real athletes, generally in better condition than any professional athlete on this planet.

If anyone is going to miraculously decide the new criteria for sport it shouldn't be anyone who thinks North American football is a sport either, too many of the players are dangerously obese.

Maybe it doesn't matter? Sport is what you make it, you can make an argument for or against just about anything. You can make a sport of throwing paper clips into a cup. Hell you can make sport of making up sports.

Golf involves:
1) real time, real physical activity....ie (most of the time) walking to the next shot
2) swinging the club with a practiced skill.

As I said above, in some cases it's a stretch, but it's real not virtual. The distance walked in a typical 18 hole round is over a mile and a half.
If you sit in a cart and drink beer.....that's where it gets fuzzy.
 
Golf involves:
1) real time, real physical activity....ie (most of the time) walking to the next shot
2) swinging the club with a practiced skill.

As I said above, in some cases it's a stretch, but it's real not virtual. The distance walked in a typical 18 hole round is over a mile and a half.
If you sit in a cart and drink beer.....that's where it gets fuzzy.

Ooo walking a mile and a half. Most people have to walk more than that distance to and from their car in a typical work day.
 
Yeah, neither is Golf, Poker and Snooker

Oh wait, they are sports, very little physical activity
 
Golf involves:
1) real time, real physical activity....ie (most of the time) walking to the next shot
2) swinging the club with a practiced skill.

As I said above, in some cases it's a stretch, but it's real not virtual. The distance walked in a typical 18 hole round is over a mile and a half.
If you sit in a cart and drink beer.....that's where it gets fuzzy.

More like 3 miles the courses I'm used to and they are not flat so it's walking up and down hills carrying a bag of clubs, golf balls and water. Things start getting fuzzy when the temperature outside is 95+ degrees.
 
ESPN doesnt care until theres money to be made ala Big name advertisers with large ad budgets start throwing their weight at it. If that happens I assure u ESPN will be first on line to broadcast this thru new e sports mobile app on the go lol

Pretty much this. ESPN covers stuff that's not sports (poker, anyone?) already; they just don't see the need to have a crew ready to go for the E-sports stuff yet, because they won't make their money back. Yet.

I like games, and even most of the games these guys play, but I can't see the draw of watching someone else play except maybe to pick up some hints or something. That being said, to each their own. I'm not sure how many of these guys would share my hobbies.
 
Maybe we should simply stop trying to pigeonhole everything into the same category.
 
If cutting a log six times with in a foot of log space as fast as possible with a chain saw that rivals a muscle car for horse power is a sport. Why is this argument even necessary.
 
I really don't get the physical activity requirement for such loose definition of sports.

Chess is a game that requires brutal endurance for results, and since Fischer in 1972 we do not have a crowned world chess champion above 50y old.

Yesterday i finished my first chess tournament after an 11 years absence from competitions. 3 of my 4,5 points where conquered not by knowledge, skill or instinct, but because i was able to keep my wits sharp after 4h of game, while my younger opponents succumbed to exhaustion.

Tournament Poker is probably even more brutal than Chess. It's is not uncommon for players stay 13+ hours a day playing, for 3 days in a row. Compared to that level of activity, marathon runners have an easier life.

Similar arguments can be made to consider eSports an sport, but fez popular games at such competitions require the level of energy, endurance and resilience that professional Poker and Chess demand.
 
Pretty much this. ESPN covers stuff that's not sports (poker, anyone?) already; they just don't see the need to have a crew ready to go for the E-sports stuff yet, because they won't make their money back. Yet.

Amigo, they won't ever.

99% of competitions/sports/arts SUCK when given the NFL football treatment. That is 2 minutes of action mixed with 5+minutes of advertisements. Try playing any video game and imagine watching it with random 5+ minute commercials inserted. You couldn't follow crap, and it would get annoying as hell real fast.

The only events that get TV time in the USA are events that survive the NFL treatment. Because NFL football is the only event that US sports broadcasters know how to show decently anymore.

It is why futbol never gets air time in the USA, can't insert tons of ads without ruining it.
 
It's kinda like X-gamez which is skateboarding ect.... not accepted by the national spotlight just yet. I will say one thing your eyeballs get a workout.
 
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