Sitting down playing video games is not a sport
- Bryan Schaaf
- May 9, 2018
- 1741
For as long as I can remember, I’ve found myself an active participant in the ongoing debate over what truly constitutes being labeled a “sport” vs. what’s simply an “activity.”
If you’re unfamiliar, this is traditionally a point/counterpoint discussion over which activities are unquestionably competitive sports (think most of your mainstream athletic events), which are unquestionably recreational activities (think Monopoly) and most importantly where do we categorize those “other” things that tend to fall somewhere in the middle.
I generally draw the line like this: If you can seriously compete while holding some kind of alcoholic beverage in your hand, then you’re out. Sorry golfers, dart throwers, billiard players and Olympic curlers.
But even at that, I’ll allow room for debate. However, there is one new significant activity that, despite its new designation, I’ll offer no allowances for consideration.
I’m talking, of course, about e-sports. The very notion that society has attached the term “sports” to what’s essentially sitting down playing video games is insulting at best and an embarrassment to where we’ve ventured as a culture.
Don’t get me wrong. Even as a 38-year-old male with a job, children and adult responsibilities, I love video games. I still vividly remember hooking up my first Nintendo in 1988 and firing off shots at the taunting dog laughing at my Duck Hunt failures.
To this day I have a rather impressive collection of FIFA games dating back to the 1996 Sega Genesis system sitting on my basement book case. Most are unplayable due to the game system being phased out, but at least to me, they’re a piece of my past.
But to take those hours I’ve spent growing up sitting in front of a television playing games and classifying it as a “sport” is laughable.
Today though, there are respectable universities and colleges across the country offering scholarship money for students interested in majoring or minoring in some type of e-sports, presumably as a means of growing recruitment.
There’s even a large e-sports tournament coming to Northeast Ohio in the coming weeks that’s drawing competitors from along the East Coast.
At their crux, I understand. The future of the world is rooted in technology, and there are an awful lot of opportunities for young people who can control systems remotely. Video games, if nothing else, require a unique ability to think quickly and react intuitively and instinctually, despite being separated from their surrounded by a screen and a remote control.
But let’s not kid ourselves. These are not sports.
For decades now we’ve been pushing kids to get outside and get active, to sweat a little, expand their lungs, shrink their waistlines and develop a knowledge of the world beyond their four walls. I’d like to think that it’s made a bit of a dent in America’s child obesity rates, but we’re still miles behind other industrialized countries.
That’s not to say there isn’t a place in the world for video games. They’re a great escape and a lovely way to wind down. But one thing the world doesn’t need more of is more people planted behind a screen.
Get out, kick a ball, take a jog and push yourself until you smell so bad you can’t stand not taking a shower.
Once you’ve done that, go nuts. Plant yourself in front of the television and be the best video gamer on the planet. You’ll thank me when you’re older.