eSports Options

[Svea Rike]

Do you consider it a real thing? Or, well, a real sport? Do you like it? Me, I don't get why eSports is so friggin' popular. Watching some nerds massacre their mouse buttons on League of Legends, that's fun? The commentators scream like they know what's going on, but I watched a LoL stream once and had no idea what the hell was going on.

[Shiro]

eSport is like any other sport, masses of not-very-sufficiently educated peopple hoard around a select few with slighty higher skills to get shouted right into their ears by some over-eager not!Orks to somehow have a good time. How else do you explain the popularity of football, American football, basketball, racing, ice hockey bledablah. /cynic Less cycnical, people gather around those with higher skills than the average person to be entertained by a "Who is gonna win?" suspence and have a good time with family/friends.

eSport is the same, some people have skills that others don't have and attract the masses who want to be entertained by the suspense. Now a person even more cynical than me could say that eSport and any racing competitions are not actually sports, you spend most of the time in the same position and tap a few buttons or turn a wheel. Compare that to the 45*2min marathon of a football match where two teams of 10+1 people constantly chase a single leather ball to shot it into a rectangle with a net. Does any of this sound exciting? Well not to me, but somehow it is to millions of people world wide.

[Zeke]

The commentators scream like they know what's going on, but I watched a LoL stream once and had no idea what the hell was going on.

I would like to deviate a bit from the topic and just point out a flaw in your logic here. If you "had no idea what the hell was going on", then how did you know the commentators only "think" they know what's going on?

Isn't it the same as if you tried to watch any sport where you didn't know any of the rules?

EDIT: Returning to the topic, I'm not really interested in esports because I'm not interested in sports in general. The only time I care is if there's a match involving a game, team, or player that I know and actually like because of reasons.

This post has been edited by Zeke: 24 Aug 2015, 4:04

[Tobæ]

First of all lets clarify what a sport is, according to Google, this:

sport
spɔːt/
noun
1.
an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

Now, to transform that into a e-sport.
I'd say it fair to swap out physical for mental due to the fact we are talking about e-sports not regular sports. That seems to qualify quite well for League of Legends and as many eSports I can think of.


Also, (coming from a regular league player myself) I can agree that alot of LCS (Leagues' eSport scene) streams are pretty boring, the thing that is exciting is what the games lead up to. For the past couple of days I have been watching the IWCI for League of Legends. This is Oceania's (my region) only chance to get into World Championships and become the best team in the world.

There are some fun VOD's to watch though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj9q3-YFteA

eSport is like any other sport, masses of not-very-sufficiently educated peopple hoard around a select few with slighty higher skills to get shouted right into their ears by some over-eager not!Orks to somehow have a good time. How else do you explain the popularity of football, American football, basketball, racing, ice hockey bledablah. /cynic Less cycnical, people gather around those with higher skills than the average person to be entertained by a "Who is gonna win?" suspence and have a good time with family/friends.

eSport is the same, some people have skills that others don't have and attract the masses who want to be entertained by the suspense. Now a person even more cynical than me could say that eSport and any racing competitions are not actually sports, you spend most of the time in the same position and tap a few buttons or turn a wheel. Compare that to the 45*2min marathon of a football match where two teams of 10+1 people constantly chase a single leather ball to shot it into a rectangle with a net. Does any of this sound exciting? Well not to me, but somehow it is to millions of people world wide.

Wow quite harsh! For some reason the brain quite enjoys playing competitive video games in similar way to sport. Of course eSports aren't as physically strenuous but there is still a plethora of skill being shown (similar to chess players). Not all watchers are "not-very-sufficiently educated".


Feel free to ask some more questions.

This post has been edited by Tobæ: 29 Aug 2015, 9:55