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The counter argument against eSports becoming a considered professional sport is fought by the people who see the definition “sport” as being physical contact. Most of these people are professional athletes who play a major “sport” such as, baseball basketball, hockey, football, soccer, etc. Matt Kasten states “video gaming was not a sport when professionals earned pennies; and it is not a sport now that they earn thousands.” This is like saying that the title of being a professional at anything means that the professional has to make thousands and thousands of dollars during their career . Tim Warwood said “sitting down for hours in a darkened room playing computer games doesn’t strike me as a sport” (Dirs). With Tim Warwood being a former professional snowboarder, he doesn’t understand the life style or the amount of training that eSports players go through to achieve their goals at becoming the best and staying the best at their specific game. If Warwood was to understand and compare the amount of time that these players go through, it would have been the same amount of training that he would have gone through to become a professional snowboarder.
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This video is added on this page because if you type in "Sport Highlights" on Google, these are the sports highlights that come up within the search critea. |
Also, ESPN’s president John Skipper said “[esports] is not a sport… it’s a competition” (qtd. in Dirs). John Skipper is fifty-seven years old, so he doesn’t understand how eSports could be sport because while he was growing up, he didn’t have the technology that the eSports players grew up using. ESports is considered to be a competition along with bowling, billiards, darts, chess, poker, spelling bee, and many others. If Skipper does not want to allow eSports on ESPN broadcast, then why does ESPN cover the PBA (professional bowling association), billiards, poker, and the spelling bee? With John Skipper wanting to focus on “real sports” why does he cover all these “competitions”? These events are aired because the president before John Skipper saw the potential within these competition. He won’t air any eSports events because he does not see the potential that airing them would bring to the channel, and he doesn’t want to take the risk of losing the channels fan base, by airing eSports.
Video III
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The video to the left is a clip from Real Sports with Bryant Gurmbel that airs on HBO. They discuss the issue of eSports-weather it should be considered a sport or if it shouldn't be a sport.
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