What Qualifies As Sports?

[Snaggletiger]

I know this a very trivial pet peeve of mine and all I have to do is tap one button on the remote and problem solved.  But after last night, I'm wondering who in the wide, wide world of sports is making the programming decisions for ESPN? 

For years now, I've face-palmed every time I come across an ESPN channel and they're showing a Poker Championship. Watching other people play cards?  Seriously?  I'd rather watch other people fish. How does that have any relation whatsoever to sports of any kind?  It's people playing cards...on ESPN.

But let's not stop there.  Let's have hours devoted to....ready?....Corn Hole! We're not talking nekkid people having butt secks.  It's fat guys tossing a bean bag into hole on a board a few feet away.  Now granted, I'll give them the fact that this endeavor does require a modicum of hand-eye coordination and the physical ability to launch a 7 ounce bean bag a good 10 feet.  Plus, it's a popular pastime for shit-faced people tailgating at a sporting event.  And I've been quite the accomplished Cornholer myself.  So, I guess I could somewhat consider the stretch to call it a sporting event...but ESPN worthy?

So last night, I drew the line in the sand.  No really, we were at the beach and I had a stick and....oh whatever.  I flip to one of those 30 for 30 or E60 documentaries.  Don't know what it's about but I came in on a skinny Oriental guy talking about how, as Captain, he could possibly motivate his team without making them angry.  He thought about leaving school because he had alienated so many of his teammates, but his parents encouraged him to return and try and get back to the world-class level he was at before he.....blah, blah, blah.  I'm thinking, what sport could this 127 pound geek be playing?  Ping pong?  Badmitton?  Jockey?  What?

The scene turns to one of Chang Long Dong's teammates and he's saying he knows he's the best player on the team.  But school work is getting in the way of his practice time.  And then I see what "sport" this in-depth documentary is referring to:

Video Games!  This is a college video game team.

Video games. Farking video games.  What....The....F? 

An ESPN documentary on a video game team.  No wonder society just keeps getting fatter and/or lazier each and every year.  Our "sports" are becoming cards, corn hole and video games.  Well, that ends my trivial rant.  I have to go place my Wal Mart grocery order on-line and drive over there so an Associate can bring it all out to my car.    

[AUJarhead]

Video Games!  This is a college video game team.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/mizzou-adds-new-kind-scholarship-student-athlete-esports-gamer#stream/0

Mizzou adds new kind of scholarship student-athlete: The esports gamer


Mizzou’s newest athletes won’t be bruising each other in the football stadium. Instead, they’ll spend hours in front of the screen tapping furiously on keypads.
The University of Missouri-Columbia is joining a growing number of colleges and universities adding competitive video gaming — commonly called esports — to its roster of varsity sports. Mizzou announced last week it will form an esports program beginning in fall 2019.
There are 112 schools in the National Association of Collegiate Esports. Maryville University has brought home two national championships in "League of Legends" gameplay. Missouri Baptist University also has a program.
St. Louis Public Radio reached out to the first coach of Mizzou esports, Kevin Reape, who also works in the university’s marketing department, to talk to us about the rise of esports on college campuses.
Ryan Delaney: How did esports come to Mizzou?
Kevin Reape: At Mizzou, we’re just looking for programs that we can bring to the university that will speak to students in the next generation, something that we can do differently that everybody would be excited to have on campus. And esports is one of those things that is getting bigger and bigger every single day.
Delaney: There’s a stigma or a perception about video games and the people who play them. Explain to me why this should be taken seriously as a sport.
Reape: I think that over the last few years with esports and this kind of legitimized competitive aspect behind video games, we’re seeing more of the physical side of it and how a person can prepare their body and their mind to be as good they possibly can. And I know some people are going to roll their eyes at that and think it’s crazy. But at the end of the day, there are people in this that are the best at these games, and it is because they prepare themselves to be the best. It can be draining. And it’s important for anyone participating in these games to make sure they have a strategy for themselves to make sure they don’t over-practice, that they get enough sleep, have the right diet and take care of themselves.
Delaney: How do you get esports to stand out at a school that also has larger, more traditionally popular sports?
Reape: We say “show me” a lot at Mizzou, and I think that’s what we’re going to have to do, is a year from now evaluate what we’ve done and look at the success we’ve had. How do we make a program where a student comes to Mizzou to play video games, but if we treat this like sport, where they have mandatory study hours, minimum GPAs, attendance standards in class? And they’re doing everything that they need to do to be the best possible student and figure out how to be the best possible gamer as well, I have no doubt they’ll graduate in four years and have a degree and a plan in place, and they can look back and say video games are a big part of what got them to where they are.
Delaney: This is a sport so far dominated by smaller schools, including Maryville University here in Missouri. Where does Mizzou fit in?
Reape: We’re excited to be one of the bigger schools to dive into this. It’s awesome to see what Maryville has done. I think they helped lay the groundwork. We’re less than 10 years out from esports looking like a traditional sport with division rivals and traveling to compete. Thousands of students are going to be watching this and excited about it, and that number is just going to go higher and higher. On the larger, Division I-school level, we are definitely in the infancy stages, but it is going to mature very quickly all across the country.

Edit to add:  https://nacesports.org/about/

Shows you all the schools with eSports Programs.

[wesfau2]

Egaming is huge.  The players make shit tons of money.

Sport?  Probably not...but as you pointed out, ESPN covers lots of non-sports (including NASCAR and horse racing.)

[Godfather]

Egaming is huge.  The players make shit tons of money.

Sport?  Probably not...but as you pointed out, ESPN covers lots of non-sports (including NASCAR and horse racing.)

It's a sport for the horses dammit!

[Snaggletiger]

Egaming is huge.  The players make shit tons of money.

Sport?  Probably not...but as you pointed out, ESPN covers lots of non-sports (including NASCAR and horse racing.)

I get it.  Maybe I'm just too much of a traditionalist and feel there's got to be at least some form of physical/athletic challenge for something to be considered a sport.  I can even make the argument for golf since a PGA golfer is going to walk about 4 miles in any given round and make a series of athletic movements along the way.  I know video gaming is huge and I've seen some shows where teams and individuals are competing.  But money aside, I look at it more as something that involves telling my son, "Put that thing down, get off your lazy ass and get your homework done." 

[Saniflush]

It's a sport for the horses dammit!

I didn't know they had video games for horses?

[Snaggletiger]

I didn't know they had video games for horses?

[AUJarhead]

I didn't know they had video games for horses?

It's becoming more and more popular, especially due to the high rate of drowning while playing water polo.

[CCTAU]

 a 7 ounce bean bag a good 10 feet. 

27' from the front edge of each board. Get it right dammit.

And if these tournaments required at least two beers to be drunk each match, then I 'm in.

It would be like playing pool at Harry's...The more you win, the drunker you get.

[Snaggletiger]

27' from the front edge of each board. Get it right dammit.

And if these tournaments required at least two beers to be drunk each match, then I 'm in.

It would be like playing pool at Harry's...The more you win, the drunker you get.

I was drunk when I wrote that.

[GH2001]

Egaming is huge.  The players make shit tons of money.

Sport?  Probably not...but as you pointed out, ESPN covers lots of non-sports (including NASCAR and horse racing.)

I think you’re mixing up sports and athletes. You can have a sport that doesn’t necessarily have an athlete such as nascar. Since the instrument or car is doing most of the work.

A sport meaning it’s merely a contest or competition with some sort of physical ability being used. Horse racing is very much a sport - it just doesn’t have human athletes as the competitors doing the work. 

[wesfau2]

I think you’re mixing up sports and athletes. You can have a sport that doesn’t necessarily have an athlete such as nascar. Since the instrument or car is doing most of the work.

A sport meaning it’s merely a contest or competition with some sort of physical ability being used. Horse racing is very much a sport - it just doesn’t have human athletes as the competitors doing the work.

A "sport" whose primary instrument is non-human ain't no sport.

[Saniflush]

A "sport" whose primary instrument is non-human ain't no sport.

So sport fucking qualifies...Call the Ocho.

[Buzz Killington]

It's a sport for the horses dammit!

Ain't no horses in no Nascar races!  If you ain't first, you horse meat!

[Kaos]

Egaming is huge.  The players make shit tons of money.

Sport?  Probably not...but as you pointed out, ESPN covers lots of non-sports (including NASCAR and horse racing.)

I like you more and more every day.  

[Snaggletiger]

I like you more and more every day. 

Are you saying NASCAR drivers aren't athletes?  Do you have any idea the flexibility it takes to do this? 

[Kaos]

Are you saying NASCAR drivers aren't athletes?  Do you have any idea the flexibility it takes to do this? 

So if I just just the hand as I look at this photo, that’s a sport.  But if I break out the gas-powered fleshlight that disqualifies me?

[chityeah]

So if I just just the hand as I look at this photo, that’s a sport.  But if I break out the gas-powered fleshlight that disqualifies me?

I'm calling bullshit. I can't find a gas-powered fleshlight  on Amazon.

[GH2001]

A "sport" whose primary instrument is non-human ain't no sport.

Guess depends on what your definition of sport is. At its core going way back it was simply a game or competition involving a human in some form.

I think both of those are sports. Just not athletes. I guess we could say the same of poker and similar things. 

[WiregrassTiger]

So if I just just the hand as I look at this photo, that’s a sport.  But if I break out the gas-powered fleshlight that disqualifies me?

I’d love to check her oil.