Will League or any online game be considered a sport?

Nìcô·10/23/2017, 8:47:23 PM·8 votes·1,570 views

I have my own opinions on why it should never be considered a sport. Primarily dealing with health issues just from trying to be good enough to even qualify onto a professional team, but I would like to hear arguments for or against why it would ever be played at an olympic level. I'm not saying that it can never have the entertainment value of other sports, rather that I don't believe that there should be a point in which this game or other online games should be classified as sports. It clearly has entertainment value, but to make it to the point where it could ever be an elective in school in order to train better players just doesn't seem correct to me.

38 Comments

Calamitosus Cini10/23/2017, 8:50:54 PM10 votes

i still think it would be cool af to have a huge arena that shows the entire summoners rift as a hologram and follows emulates what is happening in game. that would be huuge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSyWtESoeOc

DrCyanide10/23/2017, 9:05:58 PM4 votes

You've got to define what a "sport" is. Nascar and Formula 1 are considered sports, despite not being in the Olympics nor being offered as after school activities.

"health issues just from trying to be good enough to even qualify onto a professional team"? There are probably more health issues from trying to be good enough at physical sports, what with concussions in contact sports, heat exhaustion from pushing themselves too hard, or losing water to fit into a different weight class for wrestling.

Staying up late playing video games is something that happens regardless of if it's officially a "sport" or not. The advantage of having it be a school sponsored extracurricular activity is that you can then hold the players responsible for their schoolwork if they want to play with the team.

Audhulma10/23/2017, 8:51:54 PM4 votes

Video games are not sports, that's why some dilweed had to coin the term "e-sports." I don't even like sports, but even I can see how ridiculous it would be for them to ever be widely considered sports.

Akali Prime10/24/2017, 12:48:22 AM3 votes

no, they're not sports and never will be. calling it a sport is just a nerds excuse for not playing any real physical sports, lets be honest.

Wes the Mess10/23/2017, 10:48:26 PM3 votes

As long as it continues to trigger boomers and gen x I will continue to call it a sport

Like the guy above me

NekoniClaws10/24/2017, 1:20:20 AM3 votes

Sport is whatever you were told was sport as a kid, it's like the gender rules in a lot of languages- it's arbitarry. You might as well be asking what makes apples "female" in french.

Do you need to be a team or even competing on average? No - paragliding, skiing, sailboating, surfing

Does it need to be physically taxing? No - shooting, archery, pool, dressage(an olympic sport, I remind you)

As far as I can tell the only rule that something is a sport is that you "can't do it while sitting in a normal chair" - bit of a silly rule, if you ask me.

YoungFarmer10/24/2017, 12:09:51 AM2 votes

I mean darts and bowling are sports, and the only health requirements for them is to be able to walk basically.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/816080326120394753/pEuc2Wz0.jpg Best darts player^ rocking the dad bod.

Azurith10/24/2017, 12:37:42 AM2 votes

https://www.geek.com/games/us-goverment-confirms-league-of-legends-is-a-legitimate-sport-1562188/

Got some news for you mate, and if you don't think that's a legitimate source than just google it. It isn't a question of whether or not we should consider it one, it has already been answered. League is a sport now. Whether or not the general populace agrees is a different matter but I would assume that they are actually very welcoming to the idea based off of the reactions and how massive a following League has now. Worlds has gotten bigger and bigger, the attention the game has gotten has gone up as well. So... yeah, League of Legends is an official sport and its pro-players are recognized as official professional athletes.

The times are changing and I for one am actually quite happy with this result. You can compare it to many of the other sports such as chess that doesn't require much physical activity but does need a hardcore dedication to master. I get not everyone is ready to accept it as a sport, but I think it is amazing to see how far the game has come. The thing I am most excited about and yet worried about however, is how do you keep League as an official sport with the ever increasingly more rapid rate of technologies growth. Where will technology go and where will it take League? That can go two ways. The game either becomes outdated and archaic as well as incompatible with future tech or it takes the game to an entirely new level. I am curious and excited to see what Riot does and how they handle the ever changing and rapidly advancing tech, yet can't help but be worried that maybe even tech will leave the game behind.

Edit: Got to add, I don't care about other official sports like football, baseball, or basketball however I get people's passion for them, and I would say that passion is very similar to the one many of us have for League. At one point or another every new game, whether heavily physical reliant or more mentally reliant, they were all just a game at the beginning. Then they got more attention, people cared more and more, we are witnessing right now the birth of an entire new sports era, thus the E in E-Sports to signify its connection to tech with electronics, tech has become a vital part of our lives and exists almost everywhere. With how vital and important electronics have become, this to me was just an inevitable natural outcome for even sports to be born from techs ceaseless march forward.

Edit 2: Last one promise.

I have to say that this new era of sports, in particular to this case League, is great for the current youthful generation. The internet has allowed us to communicate on a regular bases to the entire world. A few decades ago that was unimaginable that you could be in NA and have a casual conversation without a phone to millions of people in china. Humans are more connected to each other than they have ever been. Sports have generally been for the most part restricted to their countries origins. Sure, you have FIFA and many other similar sports that do have multiple countries competing in a Worlds like match, but you don't usually see a big following other than soccer and the olympics. League is a perfect new form of sport however to match this era of global communication. A perfect sport to represent this internet connected world. Maybe not perfect, but it is a huge step.

Well that is all just my opinion anyway :D

ADC Bard10/23/2017, 10:26:07 PM2 votes

Chess isn't a sport

neither are video games

Bard

z63XnLCMwX10/23/2017, 10:05:35 PM2 votes

Why would league degrade itself to be a mere sport? Everyone knows E-sports are superior to traditional sports.

CrazFight 10/24/2017, 4:00:32 AM2 votes

" Primarily dealing with health issues just from trying to be good enough to even qualify onto a professional team, "

Look at football, there concussions lead to permenate brain damage quite often, does that mean football is also not considered a sport?

Barcid10/24/2017, 4:10:03 AM2 votes

Sport:

noun

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.
a particular form of this, especially in the out of doors.
sports, (used with a singular verb) such athletic activities collectively

Also Sport:

diversion; recreation; pleasant pastime.
jest; fun; mirth; pleasantry
mockery; ridicule; derision
an object of derision; laughingstock.

From what my understanding is, the issue is that sports are nothing but dicketry - a combination of physical motions used to achieve an objective. As science has actually already proven, factoring out intelligence (something traditional sport tends to lack), the vast majority of someone's prowess in sports is already decided by biology, with so much of what's not decided by biology being muscle memory and training to the point the sport becomes second nature.

So when something's obviously a bunch of grabassing, people taking sports so disgustingly seriously can make other people wonder what makes their pastime more legitimate than any other person's. I can't fathom why for sports, it's a circle jerk of near pointless crap proving you're better at a game that machines are already being made to play them better to begin with and the natural progression of science and technology will without a doubt render sports not only completely pointless pastimes again, but with gene-therapy becoming a significant possibility basically everybody would be able to be on the same level of physical prowess anyway, making these games boil down to the utterly minute details: reaction time, decision making, all things that your brain is wired to do since mapping any one person's brain out is utterly pointless since the minute workings of the brain tend to be vastly different from person to person - two entirely different people smoke pot, a depressant that generally relaxes the nerves and gives off dopamine, and you have one that reacts accordingly and the other becomes aggressively anxious and paranoid. This shit happens all the time with basically any drug, any brain-affecting substance that by the end of technology I've no doubt the one thing we still won't be able to figure out properly is our own selves because the brains aren't as mechanically simple as a muscle, ligament, or bone.

So to answer your question: no it's not a sport. At least not a traditional one, though any intelligible person would be able to explain to you that the definition of words changes as time goes on. It is a game. But does that make it any less legitimate than football? No, it doesn't, because both in the end are fucking stupid pointless pastimes, one of which I just happen to enjoy more. The way it should be is "to each their own" - we take each others' pastimes into consideration and respect each others' preferences. People don't do that, though, which is why we're even having this conversation.

Terchio10/24/2017, 1:41:30 PM1 votes

It's all based on definitions and translations. By the same translation that video games could be sports, typing could be exercise, or healthy eating could be gluttony. It's a matter of perspective, or just exaggerated to make it feel like a sound comparison.

FCJAAAAGOOOO10/24/2017, 1:23:51 AM1 votes

Yes, but probably never this one. Never an MMO or a game with any sort of grind either, because the companies focus on providing more grind over consistently substantial gameplay.

I Main Swain10/24/2017, 1:37:07 AM1 votes

honestly in my mind e-sports would make a healthier school elective sport than physical sports. its obviously a lot safer and also more inclusive because as we all know with physical sports if you have the wrong height or any sort of physical condition getting into a serious sport is a very slim chance. it would also in some ways be more beneficial for later in life because your average person is infinitely more likely to use skills they gained from playing a more mentally based sport than a physical one, not to mention a lot more likely to go into a career involving gaming or game production or something of that nature. now of course thats not to say that there arent any cons to it or that theres nothing good about physical sports, but overall if you ask me gaming would be a better choice as a sport than physical sports.

to answer the question though, yes, i think that having gaming be a major sport is not only perfectly acceptable but also really cool and an interesting addition to a competitive world

devdev46310/24/2017, 2:27:04 AM1 votes

If we define sport as "an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.", then no, I don't think video gaming is a sport in this sense because there isn't much physical exertion. But if we consider shit like chess and golf sports then that means this definition doesn't really work, and you're kinda a hypocrit if you consider those things sports but not competitive video games imo.

Colonel J10/24/2017, 4:25:46 AM1 votes

No.

Proxy34510/24/2017, 4:45:11 AM1 votes

Yes and it has been officially confirmed because esports will be a sport in China in 2022.

Asian Games to be exact but they are related to the Olympics. The Asian Games are the second biggest competition between athletes in the world and there is a partnership with the Olympic association.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/apr/18/esports-to-be-medal-sport-at-2022-asian-games

ChemicalBuster10/24/2017, 5:05:53 AM1 votes

It will be an esport, but never on Olympic Level. On the health part, Golf and Baseball suck for health (golf more than baseball) but its still a sport

DarkRitual10/24/2017, 10:43:55 AM1 votes

Esports are not sports. They are esports. I feel this distinction is fine, but people need to realise esports is a legitimate competetive environment, just like traditional sports and other competetive activites.

DariusDemiurge10/23/2017, 9:01:33 PM1 votes

They should never be considered sports.

6Sfool10/23/2017, 9:55:42 PM1 votes

Not sure. I personally don't think it qualifies, but I didn't define it. Chess is officially a sport (????????). Golf is a sport, but I wouldn't call it one. It's a leisure activity requiring coordination, like a manly version of knitting. For me to call something a sport it has to require strategy, competition, and a great deal of physical activity. But really what we consider "sports" is irrelevant, because some board somewhere already decided, and the general consensus doesn't change it.

zAber3310/23/2017, 9:25:23 PM1 votes

http://www.businessinsider.com/esports-in-consideration-for-2024-olympics-2017-8

XxDRAGONsAK47xX10/24/2017, 12:20:19 PM1 votes

Its already considered a sport...

https://www.geek.com/games/us-goverment-confirms-league-of-legends-is-a-legitimate-sport-1562188/

And this was posted a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time ago

Vacus10/23/2017, 10:56:39 PM1 votes

Whether or not it's a sport and whether or not it should be an elective in schools are two completely different questions.

Skorch10/23/2017, 11:20:30 PM1 votes

I think It is an entirely different medium. Like it SHOULD be considered a national "game" But not a "Sport."

Esports should have their own teams/international rules/etc.

I also believe that ESPN and Olympics shouldnt have the ability to adopt esports. They are currently quite against the idea and if the "E-Olympics" and a channel network for Esports showed up I would be legitimately happy. Dont want to accept us? We will form our own sports group, and when we are raking in millions of dollars, as the Olympics and other sports crash and burn. You'll wish not being stubborn.

@Riot You know any way for people to do this?

Lithium Rosa10/23/2017, 8:55:12 PM1 votes

If shooting is a sport... Not requiring physical strength isn't a reason to stop something from being a sport.

None of the current mobas should be qualified as sports tho, due to heavy RNG and frequently changing rules.

Just Jangle10/24/2017, 1:06:17 AM1 votes

I have a better question for you OP. Why does it even matter if its considered a sport?