Does eSports truly count as sports

In today's age of technology, we as a society either embrace or reject eSports. It's for this reason I feel eSports needs to get a good look into why exactly is it considered a sport.

[Sureshot]

"Sport" comes from the Old French desport meaning "leisure", with the oldest definition in English from around 1300 being "anything humans find amusing or entertaining".

-Wikipedia

[breakpad]

NO they dont count as sports ..no matter how much i like games as a hobby..they have no relation at all with sports ..also whatever bs wikipedia writes because some ambiguous guys said it in the past , doesnt mean its a rule

[pompombrum]

While I personally don't see the point in competitive gaming trying to legitimize itself as a sport but if things like chess can be considered a sport, why can't gaming?

[AudioEppa]

Yes.

It's 2015, that's like asking if "streaming and YouTube is a real job"

Let's be honest there's always going to be certain individuals who will never change their mindset on how things use to be and are to blind to see everything evolving past them.

eSports can be just as exciting as any other sport from the past 100 years. Does everybody like the same sports? No, so I don't think eSports needs the approval of everybody to be considered a "real" sport.

I'm not watching NASCAR or Golf this weekend, I'm watching call of duty pro teams compete at gfinity.

[scark92]

Call it what you will, I would like to keep it out of the Olympics!

[Eterna1Ice]

Most of eSports games are club-based, so there are multiple nationalities in teams, i'd guess that it would be too terrible to try to make national teams outside of Korea and China.

[GrimmQuiorra]

Yeah, no. Don't care about technicalities. Esports is not a damn sport. Stop calling it that.

Trying to compare athletes who get up early in the morning to workout to someone who sits on their ass while performing this supposed "Sport" is absurd.

But hey, if it makes you feel better.

[fattyuk]

sorry but coming from the uk, snooker and and darts are sports - "pub sports"

there still sports.

oh and what abot professional chesss???

[GrimmQuiorra]

Not from the UK so I do not care what you call your games over there.

Professional chess is exactly that. Professional chess.

[fattyuk]

"Professional chess is exactly that. Professional chess."

and what training do they do? marathons? 5 hours a day in gym?

reading all your posts i gather you dont care.... so why post??

[ninsigma]

Well racing is a sport. You're basically just sitting there (concentrating) making movements to control the machine to make it do what you want in a competitive manner. Sounds a bit like gaming to me.

And no one cares that you're not from the UK. What has that to with something being a sport?? Snooker and darts ARE sports. You don't have to be from the UK to realise that.

[GrimmQuiorra]

As I said, you can come up with all the technicalities you want. I do not care.

It has nothing to do with something being a sport. Someone mentioned being from the UK and the sports they have there. If you want to read into what I said then be my guest. I just don't care about what other countries decide to call sports. So, exactly what I said.

Good day.

[ninsigma]

Except snooker and darts are both worldwide sports, so there goes that argument.

[GrimmQuiorra]

There seems to be something about the phrase "I don't care" that's difficult to comprehend.

Oh well.

[fattyuk]

so why post

[ninsigma]

Oh no, I comprehend alright. But what you're not getting is that whether you care or not, they're sports. You said you don't care what other countries call sports, suggesting if only one country see something as a sport then it can't be concidered a sport (fair enough) but the fact they're world wide (meaning all or the majority of countries consider them sports), just shows that just because YOU don't see something as a sport, the rest of the world disagree.

[GrimmQuiorra]

Never implied any of that. Ever. All I said was that I don't care.

[fattyuk]

are you a teenager?

and thats what teenagers say " i dont care i dont care blah blah blah"

[Batnut00]

No, but does it really matter? People are watching and enjoying anyway and it's only growing so people shouldn't give a damn wither or not it can be called a "sport"

[fattyuk]

im far from a die hard e sport fan

but recently watching cs:Go can be pretty fun!¬

[Batnut00]

That's great,I'm not saying it can't be fun, I'm just saying why are we getting all up in a tizzy about wither or not it's actually a sport? It just doesn't really matter in the long run. You're still going to have fun watching, so is everyone else. Doesn't really matter what people want to classify it as.

[Immorals]

If you call golf a sport, it's not much further to say gaming is too

[iDadio]

It has as much skill, dedication and entertainment as many other sports and with a much larger following in some cases.

I wouldn't consider throwing metal darts half pissed at a board any more of a sport than competitive gaming. It shouldn't have to be confined to physical exertion otherwise darts and pool and bowling and snooker etc etc wouldn't count either.

[jmc8888]

No of course it's not a sport.

Is it a competitive endeavor? YES.

A sport is something in the physical world which involves exercise.

Think of it like poker or something. It's competitive, but it's not a sport.

[Jerry Seinfeld]

Curling.

[Savsky]

You need to be physically strong in the lower body in order to participate in curling, especially at the Olympic level.

[Jerry Seinfeld]

@Savsky

WHAT?! Mopping my kitchen requires more strength than this sport does. And lower body strength? You need to be "physically strong in the lower body" to crouch? If this is what you call physically strong, then I can say that gamers need to be physically strong in the thumb area.

Here's a video of some of the best shots in the sport of curling for reference.
https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[lipton101]

That's like asking is Caitlyn Jenner a female? It all comes down to ambiguities and semantics. I do not feel that "esports" can be mentioned alongside NFL, MLB, Barclays Premier, etc.

Another question - is cheerleading a sport?

[Ramser12]

Some people don't consider it a sport and others do, and the end of the day it doesn't really matter all these people are just making a shit load of cash doing something they love.

[Jerry Seinfeld]

No! Games are not art! I mean, wait... Games aren't sports. No... VIDEO GAMES ARE NOT SPORTS. Yeah. That's it. /s

Also: Curling is a fucking olympic sport. And if competitive sweeping can be a sport so can starcraft. Oh, wait... *Looks at South Korea*

Is It over? Did I win?

[Savsky]

All professional sports have one thing in common, you have to be athletic to play them. eSport players sit in a chair and play videogames.

[gamer7804]

as much as some people don't want it called a sport. It is in fact a sport. Just as much as poker or sitting in the woulds in a tree pulling a trigger. #3 definition would include video games as a sport.

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.
2.
a particular form of this, especially in the out of doors.
3.
diversion; recreation; pleasant pastime.