Esports athletes are not like other professional athletes

"This isn’t to say that one athlete is better than the other. It is simply to make the point that the platform in which esports athletes compete is vastly different than professional sports. Fans hang on to every character that is utilized and watch their performances like a hawk. Athletes like that of Brady, are judged in front of millions, in stadiums of thousands, most of the time without ever uttering more than a handful of responses at an official press conference."

[brettnll]

Article isn’t what I thought. Good read.

[LaWiiG]

I shared it and got some interesting comments.

[ziggurcat]

in that they're not actually athletes, and playing video games isn't a sport?

[AGVulture89]

While not athletes per se, competitive gaming can become physical. Plus, stars can get benched because of injury. Carpal tunnel, strained joints, etc.

[LaWiiG]

It goes back to that saying, once you start to get paid or something you do, you’re a professional.

[robtion]

Ha ha ha ha. Hilarious. That unemployment office 'athlete' has been 'benched' due to typing all those disability pension reports and getting a repetitive strain injury. Come on man ;)

[343_Guilty_Spark]

You can get those at a regular office job.

[munchmiller]

"Plus, stars can get benched because of injury. Carpal tunnel, strained joints......"

.....indigestion of having eaten 3 bags of Doritos in half an hour....... having the cardiac system of an 85 year old on their death bed..... etc. etc.

[rainslacker]

Carpel tunnel takes years to form. Likely they would have it long before they would have become professional.

If you get benched because of injury then it's because you became too physical. I've seen some of these guys jump up from excitement, but never heard of anyone spraining their thumb because they play games. At least not to the point some aspirin couldn't fix it. That is an ancillary injury not caused through the direct playing of the sport, thus not relevant for comparison. More often than not, I'd see them damaging their vocal cords before anything else because they scream way too much. The only other injury may be back pain due to improper posture and prolonged states of physical inactivity....the so called vegging out state of the body all of us are familiar with.

Sorry, but I find the physicality of gaming more self induced, than actually necessary to perform the actions involved. Every one of us here has probably played long stretches of gaming without issue, or suffered from sore knuckles or backs or eyes. But those physical strains are more because of inactivity or lack of concern for one's personal state of health, than the use of the body to perform the actions necessary to play a game.

I've watched some of the best players of intense games remain practically still, maintain a steady breathing rate, and basically seem like they're hardly doing anything on enough occasions to know what I say to be true. There are even some ESports players that aren't all crazy like a college kid hopped up on too much adderall during finals who do this.

This means they aren't athletes...per say or otherwise.

@343

Love your disagrees.

Why?

Because those things he's saying actually are more a problem for professional office workers than they are for the young club that exists in professional video games. OSHA actually has tomes of guidelines on safe and proper working environments for office workers exactly for the reasons stated within AVG's post. Office workers don't typically get physical by getting over excited like some frat boy or over-zealous dude bro gamer who most of us find annoying anyways.

[ziggurcat]

“competitive gaming can become physical”

Throwing a fit of rage, and hitting your controller doesn’t count.

[LaWiiG]

How do you write them off as not being a sport? And no, that’s not what the articles about.

[TheGuitarist]

eSports certainly is booming but I don't think they'll ever get the same level of recognition as "regular athletes"

[LaWiiG]

They don’t need to be. They exist solely in a...league of their own 😏

[AnubisG]

They will be a laughing stock as long as it's called a sport and these unhealthy sometimes even overweight kids called arheletes.

If they want people to take this seriously, they need to drop the word sport and the word athelete. These pro gamers are so far from atheteletes it's not even funny.

I will never take them seriously as long as they call themselves that.

They are pro gamers. That is the proper title. Not athetletes. It's an insult to real arheletes to call these children atheletes.

[rainslacker]

They won't get that same level of recognition, because they aren't regular athletes. They're not athletes at all...at least not in video gaming. Some may be playing other games/sports, but not because they play video games. Maybe if VR comes far enough to have real athletic ability be required to play them.

Think of it this way. If they're athletes, then we're all athletes, as we all play video games. Would you ever classify yourself for playing games? Even if it can only be applied to pros, would you consider yourself athletic because you're playing a video game?

I think the answer is no, which is why they won't get the same level of recognition.

[Lennoxb63]

They don't need to be super physical athletes in order to be athletes. Remember the brain is a muscle. If Chess and Poker can be on ESPN then why not games?

[LaWiiG]

Exactly. Which it’s why what they say and do on social media and when playing is much more criticized.

[PhantomS42]

Except people have said the same things about Chess and Poker, they aren't sports and they aren't athletes.

[AnubisG]

That is true, chess, poker, pool, darts.... none of these are sports.

[AnubisG]

The brain is NOT a muscle. It's just a term they use. But it's very diffetent frrom your biceps.

[bluefox755]

The brain is not a muscle...

[rainslacker]

The brain is actually an organ. It does contain some muscle matter though. The phrase is more about how you have to work out the organ to make it stronger....like a muscle.

Chess and Poker players don't call themselves athletes, nor does a game being on ESPN make it an actual sport.

One doesn't have to be super physical to be an athlete....that is true. But you can literally play any traditional game with the only expenditure of energy being the pushing of some buttons, and movement of some thumbs. You can literally expend less muscle energy than a boring game of finger wrestling with a half asleep 3 year old. Just because some get more into it, doesn't make them athletes, because that physical exertion isn't actually necessary to play the game.

[PhantomS42]

Correct, they aren't athletes at all and sitting on a couch playing video games is not a sport.

[Exvalos]

A person gifted in contests involving physical agility, stamina, or strength; a participant in a sport, exercise, or game requiring physical skill. That is the definition of athlete, please enmlighten me as how that relates to video game players

[Lennoxb63]

Twitch fast inputs and accuracy aren't one of the things you have to be good at to play a sport? News to me.

[rainslacker]

Being good at something that isn't considered athletic otherwise doesn't just make you an athlete because you happen to be good at it.

I'm a damn good cook....like professional chef at a 3 Star Michelen restaurant good. But cooking isn't considered athletic, so being that good at cooking doesn't suddenly make me an athlete....even if I did it professionally, or somehow decided to do it competitively on one of those cooking throw down shows. Funnily enough, there actually is more physical activity involved in creating a big fancy meal or working on the line in a 3 star Michelin restaurant than these pro gamers exert playing their game for 15 minutes, or the ungodly hours they spend learning muscle memory enough to hone their responses.

You know big competitions for gaming have existed long before ESports right? The so called tournaments. Some were even for money. I have been in a couple. I know lots of people who have been in a lot of them. Not once has a single one ever considered such an activity be a sport, or themselves an athlete or them athletic because they participated in one.

Why is it any different now that there are now marketing forces which have legitimized the activities on a larger scale?

[Hugodastrevas]

Yeah they're different, they're no athletes at all!

[Aenea]

Yeah, no shit, Sherlock!

[munchmiller]

That's likely because they are not athletes. Who knew?

[sampsonon]

i don't understand how anyone making a comment that says Esports isn't a sport gets a thumbs down. strange, but it shows just how lazing todays gen is when they think it is a sport. go to a gym and play some basketball or go play hockey and then tell us which is a sport and who are the athletes. now back to your cushy gaming chair.

[AnubisG]

Yeah, they need to lose these two words; athelete and sport. This has nothing to do woth it. These pro gamers are probably in poor physical shape and in poor health. Sitting down playing all day is not a sport and is unhealthy.

They should be called pro gamers and that is what I call them. They take part in video game competitions or tournaments which is the proper term to describe what they do. Not sports or atheletes.

[AnubisG]

They are not athletes. They are professional players. Playing a video game is not a sport. Can we stop using the wrong wrods?

[Nacho_Z]

It's insulting to athletes to call people who play games for a living the same thing. Gaming isn't a sport either and never will be, unless it evolves into an augmented reality deal where people are actually getting off their arses and doing something physical.

Maybe pro gamers have their words scrutinised more than sportspeople because the public has a lot more respect for the latter and is more likely to give them a free pass.

[mafiahajeri]

This is like saying people who play chess aren't like people who play Football...

Obviously FFS this doesn't even need to be explained...

The scene is totally different, pro gamers don't really get taken seriously by people, so no one really gives af what they say on social Media and even if they do, the culture and crowd are far more lenient.

[Eulderink]

sigh it just needs to be pro gamer that's it, since it isn't really physically demanding. ofcourse being in good shape can help but not the same. it's not even a discussion imo.

[bluefox755]

They're not "athletes" at all. They play video games, lol. They're no more athletes playing a sport than a competitive chess player or a poker player is.

[2pacalypsenow]

Athlete? lol

[OffRoadKing]

There's nothing remotely athletic about Esports and no one should be calling these kids athelets.

[il-JumperMT]

billyard darts racing bowling gold

[LaWiiG]

Bowling ftw

[drunkenspy007]

Captain obvious writer. Well, they're not athletes for one.

[LaWiiG]

That’s what the articles says 😂

[GamesMaster1982]

Put it this way all you fools eating Doritos and drinking Mountain Dew no matter how good at games your ass is you ain’t a athelete . E sports is a joke to real sports accept it. Esports is a competition nothing more . A athelete puts hard physical work until they are tired and can’t go on no more into training before a event . Skills at games which is good for like I said competitions is great. But athelete hell no.