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Are eSports competitiors Athletes?

ajhawk··3 votes·628 views

Hello fans of the Community board! This is my first time trying out the new discussion area. Despite the previous uproar over the new format, I hope some people are enjoying the new layout. Personally, I hope both the GD and the Community portions are allowed to work concurrently, as they both have their advantages.

Anyway, back to what I wanted to come here for. I'm sure most of you have heard that LCS players have been recognized as professional athletes under the INS visa standards. However, it is difficult to know what that exactly means.

I want to share a research paper on what exactly that means.

Long story short:

-For athletes to get their P-1 visa they must be "internationally recognized."

-The INS provided two elements that may prove "international recognition" 1) a tendered contract with a major United States sports league and 2) various forms of documentation.

-That means the LCS needed to prove it was a major United States sports league. Proving this can be difficult, and it would be cumbersome to reproduce that information here.

If you are curious to read the rest of the research, you can read the full paper here: http://wp.me/p3Jzz2-2g

3 Comments

Fr0g91 votes

NO.

Definition of Athlete: a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina

League of Legends is a game, but not a game that requires any amount of physical strength. Basically your question is the same as asking of pro chess players are athletes, and the answer is no.

thiefste1 votes

i think this is kind of a narrow response. sports are often defined as an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature. the key word is the or. yeah i will say they are not what i define as a traditional athlete but the idea of what an athlete is definitely something that can be rethought. playing at the professional level exhibits the need for a lot of the same skills traditional athletes needed. fast decision making in stressful situations, understanding of offensive and defensive strategies and really finding ways to beat your opponent.

blueYurble1 votes

"fast decision making in stressful situations, understanding of offensive and defensive strategies and really finding ways to beat your opponent." This is all very true, just don't forget that you have to do those things AND coordinate your thaughts to your actual body (let alone the fact that you need years of training just to be physically able to do what a "traditional" athlete does). With this argument I find that the "traditional" athletes have a way more difficult job than an "esports" athlete. Just my opinion.

Edit: the difference is not a matter of physical strength, but a matter of training to A. make fast decisions in stressful situations etc and B. being able to apply all this knowledge and coordinate it with your body.

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