Is Competitive Gaming a Sport?

Just thought I'd get your guys' take on this. Do you consider competitive gaming, console or PC, a sport? I know SC2 took on a life of its own in Korea, but other than the odd fun event here or there, would you really consider it a sport?

I mean I guess if curling, golf, and bowling are considered a sport then why not gaming?

 

I don't but there is a league.

Homepage | Major League Gaming

 

A sport is an organized, competitive, entertaining, and skillful physical activity requiring commitment, strategy, and fair play, in which a winner can be defined by objective means. The physical activity involves the movement of people, animals and/or a variety of objects such as balls and machines or equipment.

In contrast, games such as card games and board games, though these could be called mind sports and some are recognized as Olympic sports, require primarily mental skills and only mental physical involvement.


According to that last paragraph, if there are card games and board games that are sports recognized by the Olympics, I'd say gaming is clearly a sport.

 

Yes I think it is a sport when you get to a certain level. I have played in CPL and it always felt like a sport to me. Might not have been too physical but it definitely had A lot of commitment, strategy, and fair play.

 

Serious question. If that's the case, would you also consider table top gaming, or card games like Magic the Gathering a sport? Not really much of a difference based on the above criteria.

 

golf, curling, and bowling are all skillful physical activities.

Starcraft 2 is primarily a mind game, although there is a small physical element to it that separates it from something like a card game, but nothing like bowling or golf.

 

Thanks Wikipedia!


BTW Golf is a very taxing sport on the body.

 

I think any form of gaming is a sport. The similarities between playing video games and playing, say, soccer are endless. However I understand why a lot of people aren't so quick to deem gaming a sport.

As a side note, a few years ago I was discussing this topic with a friend of mine and his answer was, "If you're not burning calories, then it's not a sport."

 

You burn A LOT of calories, from mental exertion, in such competitive games as Chess, and online Professional gaming. That being said, I don't put it into the same class as any aerobic or strenuous physical exercise either

 

Not a sport and anybody who plays to make money is either a genius or a loser. (Just like a a father who stays home and wife works)
That was so ignorant I might be banned oh well I live in america

 

I wouldn't really consider it a sport anymore than I would playing chess or solving rubics cubes for time. But then again who knows? Racing's considered a sport and it's not that physical is it?

 

To me a sport is a competitive game or an activity something which can be quantified in objective numbers. The reason things like dancing and gymnastics aren't considered sports(as opposed to disciplines) is because the ability to "win or lose" is based on subjectives(i.e. judges' opinions) as opposed to objective numbers such as a score or something.

Sports in the archaic term usually referred to physical prowess activities. Nowadays, the term has gotten pretty much broader. Given the more traditional definition which I use to define sports, I would not consider professional gaming a sport. Given the broader current definition, I suppose it could fall in. Some people consider math triathlons a sport soooo...

But no, I don't personally consider it a sport.

 

they consider bowling a sport, and you know those guys eat a few slices of pizza between frames or sip on a brew. kinda not the most in shape athletes of a game...

however, i do not consider gaming a sport. its an activity that can hone senses and promote teamwork and camaraderie. cyberathletes....pffft

 

I consider it a sport, but I consider just about anything where one person can win or lose and there's some degree of skill involed (ie not fliping a coin) a loosely a sport.

 

It sure is to most of us competative gamers, including me.

 

So is a game of Go Fish a sport then too? I don't agree that competitive gaming is a sport.

 

Can you provide credible sources that prove this? I don't think mental exertion burns more than normal amount of calories. Maybe a few, but not much. Burning calories requires an increase in metabolism, thinking hard won't do that. Although I wish it did!

 

theres no way its burning noticeable amounts of calories off (unless youre acting like the crazy german kid that throws a tantrum at this computer)

 

No I don't think anyone plays Go Fish 8+ hours a day against other people who play 8+ hours a day just for practice and then travels around the world to play it competitively...

 

Google Answers: calories burned by thinking

 

If you consider snooker and darts sports instead of hobbies, then professional and competitive gaming isn't too far behind.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/science/02qna.html

Mental Workout | Popular Science

A little better respectable sources...

Idle, the brain burns 0.1 calories per minute, intense thinking is 1.5 calories per minute. But just a slow walk is 4-5 cal/minute. And you're not intensely thinking the whole time playing starcraft, you do it in spurts. Considering most games last 20-30 minutes tops, you're probably "intensely" thinking for 10 at best. So 15 calories, say three games an hour, 45 calories at best. Hardly anything to write home about. You can eat a small candy bar and destroy the whole thing in no time.

 

This argument is useless unless we have agreed to a common warrant.

 

English please...

 

Plus, the study that the Google answer links to 404s, not exactly reliable.

 

I don't consider it a sport personally......but if its generally accepted as one, that means cheerleading and NASCAR must be too.....

 

If Nascar is a sport then so is telling a good Chuck Noris joke

 

I'd consider RTS games an E-Sport ...

but games like WoW-Arena ...that's laughable. It's the only e-sport I've seen where 16 year olds smash their keyboards and scream if they start losing. At least RTS has a more disciplined mind and is too busy to scream and break things.

 

You may want to look up competitive cheerleading. Those cheerleaders on average suffer more injuries than soccer, baseball, hockey, football combined. Their injuries range from broken arm, legs, ribs to being paralyzed. The physical strength, flexibility and acrobatics definitely warrants it to be treated as a sport and competitive cheerleaders as athletes. It would also force schools to abide by regulations to ensure their safety etc, as it is, there really isn't any.

Compaing cheerleading to sitting on your butt just pressing buttons on a controller or mouse and keyboard is a bit too much for me. It's just not even close.

 

It may be competitive, but it is no sport. Then again, I also believe golf and baseball aren't real sports either...

 

I agree. Any activity where you can drink and eat or chew cud while you play isn't a sport. It's a hobby.

 

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I will leave this here

 

He's moving that fast but he's not doing anything. All I see his him rapidly stroking his keyboard and nothing happening on the screen. What's this guy's APM? I will leave this here :

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Not a sport. Racing (yes even nascar...) is actually exhausting, physically and mentally. Chess is mentally exhausting and you need to actually be there against an opponent. And they all take natural skill of a certain degree.

The problem lies in the fact that comp games in general change so fast because of tech advances, the rules are always in motion, and the players burn out just as quickly as the games/rules go obsolete. SC2's rules can change overnight with a patch - you can't just quickly change the rules in chess, baseball, ect. When a player gets bored of a game (yes even the pros burn out) they just hop onto another game; it'd be like a hockey player deciding to go play basketball because he is bored of hockey.

Then again, you have idiotic sports channels televising poker tourneys, so it will not blow my mind when we see gaming leagues on TV - maybe then it will be a "sport", but that's still a ways off.

 

APM = actions per minute (putting it up there for the ones that dont know what it is), this guys APM I think is around ~300-400, thats on average, there are games that people spike over 500APM, no idea how

The thing is, he is not mindless clicking anything, or pressing keys he memorised (like a piano). "Every" enemy movement needs to be countered in order to win high level games. So basically to actually click that fast you will need to think within a second what to do and react as fast as possible.

Most high level games is constant pressure as well so its not like half of the game you are idle massing an army and then attacking, you pretty much need to be active all the time, so overall it shouldn't really be only 40 calories, at least it doesn't look like it is. Ofcouse in the end of the day it will be less calories than lets say playing football but its still something.

People are confused for some reason, games (some of them) are classified as E-sports and not sports, that "E" in front makes the difference

 

Yes, I consider it a sport.

Sport is not just about burning calories, there are tons of non-physical games that are considered sports.

IMO, as long as it's widely recognized, and competitive, it is a sport.

 

Regarding APM, my point is it is, well, pointless. With 400-500 APM you should be able to touch every unit and micro every unit effortlessly. That's not possible and a load of crap. You never see that. That guy in that video was just banging on the keyboard with their guys on screen just standing there. Very inefficient. It'd be like a tennis player constantly swinging their racket, or hockey player constantly flicking their stick, or a football player rapidly running in place the whole game.

 

If you notice the tab bellow in the middle you will see what the guy is doing, what you mention is micro, there's almost the macro part. about 70% of your APM is probably doing all the macro, since you need to be making new units constantly and never have a bunch or minerals (as long as starcraft goes at least), so basically your micro will only be 150APM and not 500.

We are talking about very high level gameplay here so noone is just spamming for the sake of it (to increase apm) Pay attention to the bottom middle and the bottom right of the screen and you will see what I mean.

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Check 0:25 (the split), you will be amazed how much effort doing something like that takes

 

Gaming is just like poker it's a game, not a sport.. The day every wow players of this world will be fit, strong and intelligent, i may change my decision!

 

I dunno. I don't get it. I look at the Starcraft video, then I look at the pianist video, and it makes Starcraft look so cheesy. And taking effort doesn't make it a sport.

 

That was all on the calories, thinking etc subject not on the sport subject. Gaming esports have all the elements of sports apart from the physical part, which is why they are called electronic sports.

Take the physical word out and you have E-sports

 

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If video game is played like this
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Yes.

 

as much as i agree sports are usually physical activities, i still define automotive racing a sport even though they're not physically running themselves.

i could never justify gaming as a sport. i also couldn't justify that golf, is a sport, or that card games are sports, though, i do feel bowling is a sport (sort of).

 

I checked out a local driving range not too long ago and swinging that club does take a toll on the arms. I'm sure walking from hole to hole on the uneven grass is no walk in the park either. I think it can be pretty physical.

 

If its defined by calories burned, anything on wii kinect and playstation move would be considered a sport, they can be competitive, physical, team work, win or lose, goal oriented. Also, gaming involves more then just the brain and hand movements, some gamers get so involved their heart rate raises, so more heart beats per minute means more calories burned, this also must be factored. Games like Football and hockey and baseball can have their rules changed too, infact they change more often then not. Hockey net size, goalie crease size, electronic reviewing, football is completely different now that a play can be reviewed and slowed down, its not the refs mess up anymore it can be overturned. So saying rules change in gaming is not a valid point.

Also what about "virtual Reality", we are knocking on its door step, now hypothetically lets say you convinced your brain you were in a video game, playing lets say football. You take on the role of the qb, you running making plays, of course all in your head while you lying down on a chair. Your still fully involved you "feel" like your throwing the ball, dodging players, is that any less then the full experience itself. Your tricking your brain into thinking so, fully convincing.

 

golf just seems to me to be more of a hobby / past time, or professional game. because you play a game professionally doesn't mean that i see it as a sport. that's all i meant.

i think probably since i grew up competatively grappling / wrestling and doing muay thai, that i feel sports are usually very, very demanding. obviously the skill involved is the same intensity for everything.

 

I'll say yes, any sort of competition they can make into a sport, I think maybe sport is the wrong word for it though.
Hey it requires physical and mental skills.
Hey if NASCAR calls that a sport why not.

 

You miscalculated the piano player's APM. it is about 700 on average. I slowed down the video to verify this. Also, every single action is meaningful for the piano player (we are counting key presses as actions). In starcraft 2, not every action is meaningful. Pro players are certainly doing quite a lot, but many of their actions don't actually amount to any change in the game state (ie. clicking the warp-in sequence 12 times with 8 warp gates will result in many wasted actions, this and many scenarios like this are pretty common, because it would be a waste of time to verify that you are trying to warp in the correct number of units). I also watch pro players redirect their units in bursts of clicks rather than just giving them one command. Sometimes this is meaningful, other times it is not. They probably do it every time just to keep their APM as high as possible for the times they do need it, but note that this is still different compared to the APM of the piano player, where every action is actually meaningful.

Other things to note is that the piano player has his actions completely memorized, whereas the pro gamer has shorter sequences of actions memorized and strings them together in a meaningful way on the fly, which requires more brain power than the piano player. However, you still seem to be confusing the need to react quickly with the idea that every action taken is completely meaningful in a pro game of starcraft 2 (it is not).

Last point, APM spikes don't mean anything. Actions per minute is a *rate*. Note that if I press two keys at about the same time, my APM measured at that point in time approaches infinity. The total amount of stuff you can manage in a game depends on your sustained APM (look at the average, or at least an average over several seconds, not just spikes and bursts), and the quality of those actions themselves. The pianist also has APM spikes that go up to about infinity, it depends entirely on how small your sample time is.

It just bothered me that you think a starcraft 2 player is doing more actions per minute than someone playing flight of the bumblebee. That is not true. The starcraft 2 player is doing about half as many actions, and many of those are spammed actions that are clustered together (sending 4-5 equivalent commands at a time is very common). That said, the starcraft 2 player is improvising a great deal. They learn short sequences of actions but have to string them together in a novel way while constantly reacting to their oppenent, and interpreting and analyzing the game state. Lots of thinking.

 

Playing a game in a virtual world, no matter if its competitive, in team or not, its definitely not a sport for me, and never will be. I will never consider a geek with huge glasses and weird hair a sportsman or an athlete, end of story.