Giant Bomb Presents: Are Competitive Players Also Athletes?

Well the US government sure thinks so.

They are not athletes. Not all sports need to be athletic though. Chess anyone?

In my opinion no they are not, they are gifted and very good at what they do, but I would not call them athletes

psyched to see david show up on gb! maybe you can get james chen to prattle on about something in the future.

People call it eSports, they ought to be called eAthletes.

YO WHENS MAHVEL?

I love me some UltraDavid! Possibly my favorite fighting game commentator.

Short answer: No.

Hurray! I've been waiting for this

I'm very interested in the idea of banning chairs from tournaments and putting heavy weights on the players, but we'll see how long it takes for the competitive scene to take itself seriously.

^ I'm with him/her.
The concept of considering someone who consumes entertainment media an athlete is nothing short of ridiculous. If poker and video game players can be considered athletes, what's next? Professional bottled water drinking? Sponsored ChapStick applying? I'm being over-the-top of course, but surely folks get my point.

UltraDavid is the best.

When I first saw that title I thought it said "Are Competitive Players Also Atheists?" I was going to say that this is a weird subject.

I think they should have their own term. I consider athletes someone who does physical skills such as sports of some kind. While some of these games do require high levels of dexterity, I don't think it's on the same level as a sport where you need to run around and move.

Super fascinating conversation, Patrick. Along with being a great commentator, UltraDavid has a great perspective on things. I wouldn't mind more things like this in the future.

Very interesting.

Thanks for doing it Patrick.

One thing that I would have liked was to have explained some of the terms mentioned. Expecially the Title 9 clause/rule/law. Which I do have an understanding of since I read David's blog/article about this whole thing. But I think there might be some who don't know what that is.

Players put in just as much work, just because its not as popular doesn't mean it doesn't count. Also they are not athletes, they are; CYBER-ATHLETES.

Should athletes talk?

Should ath1337s talk?

I consider myself a mathlete.

Probably, but either way it's just arguing semantics and not a terribly interesting question.

I consider myself a mathlete.

o this goin be good

UltraDavid's so boss.

Athletes don't even come close to professional gamers in terms of aptitude and mental dexterity. NOT EVEN CLOSE. Keep them outside playing with their bats and balls, or whatever it is they do.

People tend to get too hung up over semantics. While it's Riot's goal to make competitive gaming more recognized by the public, the main intent was to provide players with an easier way to get into the U.S. which had been a problem in the past for many international tournaments. Whether it means drawing parallels to traditional sports or having them invent a new regulation for these players, the desired result would've been the same.

Similarly, the debate over eSports versus competitive gaming, professional gaming or whatever is ultimately stupid.

Hey! We in Major League Professional Bottled Water Drinking (MLPBWD), take our sport very seriously. We train several times a day!

Good god.

Do I consider competitive players athletes? No. I believe that the word 'athlete' is strongly tied to physical effort. I would not consider chess player athletes, even though chess is an official sport.

Do I consider certain games sports? Yes. I don't see a significant difference between chess and games like Street Fighter or Starcraft.

All in my opinion of course, and honestly this is 90% semantics.

i'm a chronic masturbater.

am i an athlete.

i'm fucking great at masturbating and have spent many years practicing and honing my skills.

does that count?

on the surface using words like 'sport' and 'athlete' to describe both Starcraft players and Football players seems dumb, but I think that there is a certain level of natural talent that the highest level players have which just cannot be taught, and in that way they are similar to more traditional athletes.

Is anybody else perturbed by the idea of the government getting involved in "regulating" e-sports? Does anyone relish the thought of the kinds of technologically illiterate morons that dwell in the halls of power holding hearings to determine if a gamer used performance-enhancing hax? Is there nothing that people can just leave well enough alone without getting excited about the prospect of involving the god-damn government?

Good job Patrick. Interesting and thought provoking. I can see where that rule could be a gray area. Also I guess on the Athletes or not Athletes thought I guess you would have the define the term Athlete and see if it applies.

Sportspeople? Sure.

Athletes? No.

@mrgtd: haha I thought the same thing.

Sportspeople? Sure.

Athletes? No.

We talk about the term "regulation." It's not always a bad thing, even though it's seen as such in a modern day context.

Sportspeople? Sure.

Athletes? No.

Can we just call them Elites (Pronounced "E-leetes")? Or will that give these idiots even bigger heads?

Honestly, I'm over all the professional competitiveness. Paying a football player millions every year to carry a ball, or hell some of them just warm the bench all season, is stupid.

Society needs to change and we need to hold scientists to the same celebrity standard that our current athletes are held up to. Like that episode of Sliders where they fall into a world where Quinn was a Mathelete or whatever it was.

So are people that compete in mechanically assisted sports athletes or not? Race car driver, firearms competitors, archers...

Nice job on picking a topic Scoops!

UltraDavid is a very well spoken member of the fighting game community and a solid dude.

Top-tier racing drivers are incredibly fit.

@alkusanagi: They are sportsmen and women, Athletics at the Olympics is performed as a part of the Athletics schedule in the Athletics stadium for the most part. All kinds of other sports take place at the Olympics too. There are swimmers who do swimming, archers who do archery. They may be athletic people but they are not Athletes performing Athletics. LOL, DOTA etc are just another sport.

Calling them cyberathletes or whatever just confuses the issue. Being athletic is not what makes you a sportsman/woman. Participating in a sport does.

@khann: So if I'm incredibly fit but spend my time reading books does that make reading books a sport?

That's... a really silly argument. If reading books required you to be incredibly fit to compete at the highest levels of book reading, then yes, I suppose so.

Dude, football quarterbacks (believe it or not) have to possess incredible mental dexterity. First, they have to memorize a playbook that literally consists of 100 different drawn up plays. Second, they have to keep track of all 11 players on the opposing team as well as their own, read what they are doing and make a decision all in under 2-3 seconds. Being athletic can only take you so far as a quarterback (i.e. Michael Vick, Jamarcus Russel, Jay Cutler, etc). You need to possess incredible poise and make good decisions under incredible pressure.

And I do view professional gamers as a sort of athlete. Being an athlete and being athletic, in my opinion, are different things. You can be incredibly athletic, but if you don't possess any dexterity or hand-eye coordination you will never be able to compete at the highest level in a certain sport. I don't see incredibly fit people as athletes unless they compete in a sport, though its very rare to see people who are athletic but not athletes.

There is nothing taxing about competitive League of Legends play.

So no, I'll never call them athletes, if I was going to do that to any type of gamer, it'd be fighting game players as it's more physically demanding than any other genre, but even then it sounds absurd.