I'd like to preface this little post by first stating that I myself don't like sports overall. I'm not a very physical person, I'm a bit of a pacifist, and they just really don't interest me overall. That said, if you enjoy sports, it's your choice, and, as I always say, do what makes you happy. However, as I seem to be seeing recently, my primary hobby/passionate obsession, games, have begun to permeate into the sporting world. I first noticed this around last year, when I was flipping through the TV channels and noticed suddenly that ESPN was in fact airing a MOBA competition, with full commentary, coverage, and everything. This left me a bit dumbfounded, as I had never heard of such a thing, but I gradually soon began hearing of aired and followed competitions like these more and more frequently. I myself was quite impressed by this, seeing my hobby slowly spread to other potential fans throughout the world. But as I began to see this more and more, I began to realize that there were more and more people in the athletic community who were taking very active stances to prevent this from happening. This all came to ahead today as I was considering what I could write a blog post about, when I got my daily update from Gamespot regarding the days top stories, the first of which was in regard to a rather obscene radio host who had raked pro gamers over the coals on his talk show The Herd, claiming that he would quit his job if he were ever asked to cover such an event. With further research i've learned that yes, this is a show hosted by a "Loose Cannon" type of guy who likes to act unorthodox in order to elicit responses from his audience, and yes, he was likely blowing his response out of proportion, but it got me thinking "Do games really have a place in the athletic community on a certain level, and if so, in what situations?". So first, let's get the basic information out of the way. Dictionary.com describes a sport as "An athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature". So what is competitive gaming? It is generally two teams or players COMPEATING against each other in competitive multiplayer games, such as fighting games, FPSs, MOBAs, etc.. The key thing to take away from this, as if the capitalization weren't enough, is that, much like the definition states, these players are taking part in a competition to see who can best the other. It may not require physical strength, but there are some sports like NASCAR that also fit this category, and the games that these people are playing require skill. So yes, overlooking some minor discrepancies, competitive gaming could be considered a sport, and, should ESPN be willing to air it, I don't see any reason why it would be any different to watching cars go around in circles (No offense to NASCAR fans, that's just how I see it).
And yet, despite the growth and popularity of this community, there are still some who see it as a personal offense to their way of life and sportsmanship, such as the subtle and open-minded Colin Cowherd, who feel that they need to rant and shout and stomp their feet at any new from of sport they they don't deem personally acceptable in their chosen career. This likely stems from the fact, and I've said this many times now and may be beating dead horse, that games are for children, and not worthy of any real recognition or respect. This is a bit of a rant for another time, but the short story is that many people still see games as a dumb kid's hobby, not as competitive or artistic forms of media that can be entertained by a wide age group. While i'm also willing to accept the reason that games are pretty different when compared to most sports, this undoubtedly is one of the primary contributors to this particular mindest. A man goes out and buys his son an E rated game about cartoon bubble wars for Christmas and soon gets the idea that these things are just for kids, and who can blame him when that's his only exposure to games. But the fact of the matter is that making such a broad generalization about games and gamers doesn't do the community justice, just as me making a biased claim about sports wouldn't reflect the diverse community and types of athletics in the sporting world. As such, it's just immature and rather ill informed for somebody to bash the hobby of another just because they don't agree with their view or idea, and such thinking only fosters animosity between people. After all, both communities are about bringing people together, sharing passions for their own forms of entertainment, and entertaining their fans, and a union of the two would should only generate mutual enjoyment, not animosity. I know I may seem like an idealist, and you'd probably be right for calling me one, as I myself don't find sports or super competitive pro gaming personally entertaining, but at the end of the day we all want to be able to sit down an enjoy the things we love doing, and if what you do is structured in such a way that it can be grouped and shared with others, I don't see why that would be so bad.
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