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ESPN Says eSports Isn't a Sport

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fluffydelusions

Member
It might have the word "sports" right there in the title, but according to ESPN's president, playing professional League of Legends and Dota 2 isn't the same as playing professional football or basketball.

“It’s not a sport—it’s a competition. Chess is a competition. Checkers is a competition,” ESPN president John Skipper said at Re/code's Code/Media Series: New York conference when asked to comment on Amazon's $1 billion acquisition of Twitch. “Mostly, I’m interested in doing real sports.”

It's a surprisingly dismissive position coming from the president of the company that just a month ago partnered with Valve to stream the $10 million Dota 2 world championship tournament The International on ESPN 3, the cable television network's online branch.

It's also not the same position as that of the United States Government, which last year recognized League of Legends players as professional athletes.

It'll be interesting to see if Skipper's position is reflected in ESPN's programming. From a strictly business perspective, there's certianly money to be made by airing eSports. According to a recent report from IHS Technology, 2.4 billion hours of eSports were viewed during 2013, and the eSports video market will be worth $300 million annually by 2018.

We've reached out to ESPN for comment and will update this story with anything we hear back.
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http://www.gamespot.com/articles/espn-says-esports-isnt-a-sport-what-do-you-think/1100-6422148/
 
I tend to agree with the whole competition and not a sport thing. I never considered poker a sport when it was on the rage and on tv. So it would be hypocritical for me to say games are a sport.
 
While I agree with him in theory, the word really doesn't work that way any more. The IOC recognises board games like Chess as a sport, and the term "mind sport" gets used quite a lot.

I really hate the eSports term, though.
 
“Mostly, I’m interested in doing real sports.”
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“Mostly, I’m interested in doing real sports.”
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I dont really care what semantics gaming gets put under, this is the more dismissive quote IMO than the bolded parts.

At that level if you wanna enjoy dem gaming dollars what youre 'interested' in shouldnt be part of an interview
 
Chip N Chance said:
I tend to agree with the whole competition and not a sport thing. I never considered poker a sport when it was on the rage and on tv. So it would be hypocritical for me to say games are a sport.
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It's not hypocritical to recognize that you were wrong then.
 
Personally I dont consider it a sport either, at least not like physical sports.. I consider it a competitive game like playing board games.
 
The point is, it's competitive. They should just call it competitive gaming, not eSports. It avoids dealing with all these pedantic morons.
 
I think they are full of shit. I don't play those games but the amount of thought, reading the other players involved and overall reflexes may not require the stenght of a football player, but I believe the mind can be on the same level as athletic players
 
I agree with them. I shudder every time I hear the "e-sport" term.

Although there is competition, It isn't a sport. There is no athleticism involved.

If everything competitive is a sport then those old Bingo ladies at the local church are fierce athletes.
 
He's right, it isn't a sport - its an Esport. If it was a sport it would be called a sport, but as there is a difference it was called Esport instead.
 
ESPN will air whatever makes them money. As they've shown with the World Series of Poker and Nathan's Famous Hot Dog eating contest.
 
Of course it's not a sport.

It's an eSport. eSport's probably sounded better than a lot of the other terms people thought of.

Sport is a really strange looking word if you stare at it long enough.
 
There's no doubt it's not a sport. That doesn't mean EPSN shouldn't cover it though. They run poker, billiards (or did anyway), and the SPELLING BEE.
 
There is no denying it's going to become a real sport soon. Who knows how they will actually feel about it but it will be considered a sport real soon.
 
Majine said:
Don't most sports nowadays include electronic instruments? ;)
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I think robots are gonna be pissed in the future that eSports is a coined term for videogame competitions. Probably be called rSports or something. Roborts, something like that I dunno.
 
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