OWL On ABC Garners Rage

General Discussion
471

Thank you for remaining open minded and taking into consideration what I said. I really appreciate that. Rare around here.

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472

It happens, I should have been more respectful to the pros as well as those who spoke back to me. A growing experience all the same, maybe try to asks others their views instead of yelling mine.

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473

True true :frowning:

474

Please don’t forget that you either invest into your brain, or your body.

Luckily I can watch esports, Srsly sport is the most boring thing i’ve ever seen in my whole life.

Those athlets can’t do anything more than theyr muscles allow. Like as if they don’t have a brain.

And don’t pretend its hard to go to the gym weekly. Its not even funny how easy it is. :sweat_smile:

Let me go to the gym the same amount of time the others did and I could easily get gold at the olympics.

Its not like its hard. Its not
Its dedication, the same with esports.

Well anyway last reply in this topic, i’ve yet to see a more ignorant blind person in my live haha :slight_smile:

Oh btw i don’t want to get a gold medal that’s the reason I’m not in the olympics, just bc I don’t want to. I could easily do that.

475

Way to reply a bit late there ace. Anywhere this topic has been concluded for me. Say what you want and all that.

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477

welp, what a thoughtful and intellectual discussion!

Time to let the past die. Mods, you know what to do.

478

Wow! This was certainly a very long thread.

Having had time to read through everything and i would say that everyone has a fair point.

To be fair, Wrex had been rather cordial and polite in many of his replies and based off one of his replies to me and his concluding post, he is not unreasonable.

Also, i see many of the longtime forumers who posted here (some of whom i consider to be a friend in the forum) provide thoughtful answers as well.

My take on this, is that Wrex and others subscribe to the tradition definitions of “sport” and “athlete” as defined in a dictionary:

sport

[spawrt, spohrt]

noun

  1. an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing,baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.

  2. a particular form of this, especially in the out of doors.

athlete

[ath-leet]

noun

  1. a person trained or gifted in exercises or contests involving physical agility, stamina, or strength; a participant in a sport, exercise, or game requiring physical skill.

Hence, the term “eSport”, the “e” prefix is to differentiate that the sport is done via an electronic medium and is virtual instead of physical.
Accompanying that, the competitors are “cyber-athletes”, because they compete within a cyberspace.

As for whether anyone can do it. Well, that discussion has been belaboured long enough.

Personally, i think that with enough time, effort and raw talent, anyone can be a professional in any sport and eSport.

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479

To add to the others who had replied Wrex,

Here is an article directly citing Mark Cuban’s reason for holding out investing in an eSport team, in particular the OWL:

Kobe on supporting eSports:
http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/kobe-bryant-mamba-sports-academy-esports

Shaq on eSports and Overwatch:

and just off the press on the Business Insider, the Philly Fusion proposed eSport OWL arena:
https://www.businessinsider.my/philadelphia-esports-overwatch-league-fusion-arena-details-2019-3/

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480

The Olympic Committee and its stand on eSport:

in particular, this quote argues for Wrex’s case:
"It is too early to discuss including esports as a medal event at future Olympic Games, says the International Olympic Committee.

The IOC said “competitive gaming entails physical activity which can be compared to that required in more traditional sports”.

However, it said further study is needed before using the word “sport” to describe esports and egames."

Of course, the debate is still ongoing and previously posted and mentioned articles have already stated that eSport would be a medal event in the South-east Asian Games this year and the Asian Games in 2022. Both of which are under the jurisdiction of the IOC.

Meanwhile, Forbes articles argues for the case of eSport as legit.

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481

I for one would like seeing some 500lb guy who was out of breath from walking up the 2 steps to the winners podium holding up an olympic gold medal.

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482

XD XD XD

Ha ha!

to be fair, quite a few cyber-athletes are quite fit nowadays. Like Mickie from the Dallas Fuel.

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483

Finally i can now sleep in peace :smiley:
Its not like every pro gamer and every pro athlete was once a tiny no skill noob baby and had to work his way up to the top. Regardless where.

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484

oh noes, the most popular and biggest earning form of entertainment has finally arrived on television

485

Meh its not an issue, but is very odd to me that espurts is being treated like well…sports.
I’m in my late 20’s so I’m not an old fart…yet
Its just strange that playing games has gotten so big for some reason.

For context I don’t see the point in places like twitch/watching other people play a game either (outside of lets plays which add their own commentary/personally)
I don’t even like regular sports.

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486

Since it is so easy why don’t you go pro and rake in on all that easy cash in the tournaments then?

487

Well you can also casually kick a ball with your kids doesn’t make you really sporty.

Same with casually klicking some buttons, your just doing a hobby.

If you start to put in real effort and time to become better anf enter the league, is it football or overwatch doesn’t matter at that point. :slight_smile:

But yeah i personally don’t really get it why we call it e-sports… And not something like pro-gamer-tournament… :sweat_smile: I guess its easier to writte

488

Unfortunately the ABC populace did not get to experience the banshee shrieking.

489

i believe that it lies in the definition of what a “sport” is

So if we take the definition (1), which is an activity of a competitive nature requiring skill or physical prowess, then video gaming at its highest level which requires skill which is done via an electronic medium can fit into the term “E(lectronic)-Sport” and of course, the players, “cyber-athletes” because the sport occurs within a cyberspace instead of a physical one.

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490

i, myself, find the phenomenon of watching people play video games to be rather puzzling as well. I would rather play than watch and even during the 1980-90s arcade boom, i would get bored looking at the better players go head to head on Street Fighter 2, King of Fighters 95 etc. I would rather play and learn from the experience, even if it meant that i got crushed.

So when i see my children now watching YouTube vids of people playing games, i was like … “hmmmm…”
I asked them why do they watch and they just said that it was entertaining and that they can learn some things from the streamers.

imho, i think that it is an evolution of how far video gaming had progressed for the past 30+ years much like traditional sports. 50-60 years ago, no one would really bother to watch a basketball game but now millions watch it because they want to learn from the pros and of course, find it entertaining.

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491

As a continuation of the first article on ABC viewers raging over the OWL screening, Nielsen ratings are in.

" In comparison, last year’s Overwatch League grand finals drew 289,175 per-minute viewers from the United States. The full per-minute audience number also pulled from streaming websites, such as Twitch, MLG.com, and ESPN’s app. Overwatch League’s season two opening week had a per-minute audience of 440,000. The numbers for viewership on ABC on Sunday are made more impressive considering that many viewers in the United States experienced up to a 45-minute break due to breaking news reports cutting into programming."

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