December 19, 2013 at 2:00 pm
HBO’s Real Sports laughs at eSports
By Zoe Hawkins
Where to begin? I’m honestly shocked that people on a high profile sports show could make a comment that something that’s a game can’t be a sport. Does that mean that baseball, (American) football, and even poker aren’t games? They are all covered on major sporting networks – even hotdog eating competitions are covered on networks such as ESPN in the States; all of the games covered on Super Sport are just that – games.
I understand that some people still debate the athletic ability required in eSports. Does Chess count as a sport? It has a federation, ratings and huge competitions; it has widely been considered a sport ever since the Cold War when Chess matches were used as athletic events between the US and USSR. So what is the difference with eSports? It also requires mental acuity, but it requires some degree of physical speed and precision as well – do you have any idea how many clicks per second those guys manage? Meanwhile, venerated athletes like Babe Ruth, Zola Budd, Ernie Els and Benni McCarthy are all universally accepted as athletes, even if their skill is limited to one activity; Babe Ruth couldn’t even run between the bases – the only reason he was loved in baseball was because he would knock out home runs… when he actually managed to hit the ball.
Full article here: http://www.lazygamer.net/general-news/hbos-real-sports-laughs-at-esports/
Chess is a sport.