Competition, skill in playing video games similar to sports
When we think about sports, football and soccer come to mind. But most people don’t think about video games.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a sport is defined as “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.”
There is a huge difference between competitive gaming and casual gaming. Casual gaming is when you sit down and play a game for fun. But competitive gaming is a sport, when you group together with your friends and form a team, with your only goal to beat everyone who stands in your way.
Gaming technically requires physical exertion. When you are playing a video, whether it be a shooter or a strategy game, your whole body is in the game. Your brain is racing, processing information and reacting to every detail and move your opponents make.
Sometimes gamers move along with their character, even if they are playing on a controller or keyboard. But with the invention of consoles such as the Wii, or an accessory like the Connect for the Xbox, you can actually physically move your body and the character on screen moves with you. You are physically exerting yourself in any of these scenarios.
It’s no secret that video games require a certain skill set. In shooter games, such as “Call of Duty” or “Battlefield,” the player has to have great hand-eye coordination to process what your eyes are seeing, as well as to move the analog sticks or buttons and eliminate your opponent before they can eliminate you. Gamers also have to have impeccable reaction time to react and counter-react to your opponents. The player also needs the knowledge and strategy to create a weapon loadout that will out-do your opponents every time, along with the skill and training it takes to be better than the other team.
You can play video games as an individual in one-on-one battles, or you can gather a team of your own to play against another team in the game. Some teams that are created are competitive teams, and can be professional gamers. Yes, there is a professional side to the sport, just like football, soccer, and basketball, among others.
The sport also has an official title, which is E-Sport. It contains many different leagues across all gaming platforms and across a multitude of games. The leagues consist of Apex League, “Call of Duty” World League and “Overwatch” League, to name a few.
Just like in professional sports such as football and soccer, these professional gamers get paid. They receive sponsors like NASCAR drivers do. Most of them are also Youtubers, which you can get paid for and also sponsored through. There are also hefty grand prizes in league and world final competitions.
Some might say that gaming is one of the most versatile sports in the world, due to its wide variety of games and platforms you can play on.
Sports require physical effort, unlike video games
A sport takes physical activity such as running, jumping, and climbing.
But sitting and moving your thumbs back and forth on a controller is not a sport.
Some may argue that playing video games is a sport. But playing video games for hours is not a sport. One may consider it a competition, but it is barely that.
Just because you can make a competition out of it does not make it a sport. You can turn drinking water into a competition, but that doesn’t make it a sport.
Playing “Call of Duty” or whatever video game it is that you play requires no physical movement. All you are doing is sitting there looking at a screen. Even indoor sports such as soccer, swimming, or gymnastics take serious athletic ability.
I understand that some boys take video-game playing seriously. But it cannot be compared to any type of sport.
I know that there are national competitions for that kind of stuff, but the only thing you have to train is your mentality. That is just a quarter of what an athlete has to train for. Athletes have to worry about their body, mind, and image. The only thing a video-game loser worries about is how fast they can move their thumbs.
Playing video games for hours at a time benefits no one. It doesn’t make a person stronger or healthier. In fact, it probably makes them unhealthy and lazy.
All you need to know for video-game playing is the controller and different buttons. Athletes have to train constantly and strategize every game, race, or meet. Video game players can expect the same thing, just another guy or girl on the other side of the screen pushing a few buttons.
In real sports, there is usually human contact. Video games have no human interaction at all besides someone else’s voice.
Almost everything that is considered a real sport is in the Olympics. No where do I see video-game playing in the Olympics. Even Curling is in the Olympics, and that requires little or no athletic ability.
I know firsthand how playing video games all day could hurt more than help a person. My cousin’s husband would sit in front of his little monitor and play games that didn’t even make sense. He gained weight. He wasn’t involved in his relationships anymore because he was so focused on a video game that wasn’t going to benefit him in any way.
Playing sports at least helps your health.
Yes, playing video games could be a profession. But what kind of profession is that, just sitting there not doing anything but staring at a screen?
Playing video games is more of a hobby than a sport or a profession. It is something you should do during your free time, not something that takes up all your time.
If some people can’t even define cheerleading as a sport, how can anyone justify playing video games as a sport?
Even cheerleading requires lots of physical training. With video games, on the other hand, not so much.
In the definition of “sports”, it says that a sport requires physical exertion. That is why there is an “e” in front of Esports, because it is electronic and nothing physical.
All in all, professional video-game playing is not a sport and shouldn’t even be considered close to anything sports related.