I did a paper on this in college and if the Olympic committee deems chess as a “mental sport” then I sure and shit think esports can be considered a real sport too
If chess can be a mental sport there’s no way in hell that Starcraft isn’t. The mindgames and insane amount of instant control and choice making is crazy. Sure professional chess players attempt to go as quickly as possible but they could take their time if they wanted in Starcraft a fraction of a second can be the difference between winning or losing in a battle that you are controlling hundreds of variables
There’s a lot of grey area in that distinction though. There’s a handful of Olympic sports that showcase fine motor control in ways that aren’t that different from esports. Fencing and shooting are in the same realm as an RTS or FPS.
So is gaming at the extremely high level. A best of 5 or 7 in SC2 is 45 minutes to an hour and a half of focus with multiple periods of extreme focus and reaction. In both cases actions are happening faster than average humans can observe.
i just wanted to state, that i see quite a big difference between shooting, which is mainly fine motor control and focus on the one side and fencing, where the athletes need quite a big physical endurence and good body control and strength. Esports are maybe more like shooting in this regard, but you also need a high mental endurance, since matches can get quite long in some disciplines. (At least in CS, which is pretty much the only esport i watch from time to time)
I did a paper on this in college and if the Olympic committee deems chess as a “mental sport” then I sure and shit think esports can be considered a real sport too
If chess can be a mental sport there’s no way in hell that Starcraft isn’t. The mindgames and insane amount of instant control and choice making is crazy. Sure professional chess players attempt to go as quickly as possible but they could take their time if they wanted in Starcraft a fraction of a second can be the difference between winning or losing in a battle that you are controlling hundreds of variables
Ok then mental sports need to have their own separate Olympics.
Because Olympics originated as a competitive showcase of the world’s peak physical prowess.
(tongue-in-cheeck devil’s advocate)
And everyone knows the best way to do things is never change them. Like music, and bigoted voting rights.
There’s a lot of grey area in that distinction though. There’s a handful of Olympic sports that showcase fine motor control in ways that aren’t that different from esports. Fencing and shooting are in the same realm as an RTS or FPS.
I agree with you on shooting. But fencing seems to be quite physical.
So is gaming at the extremely high level. A best of 5 or 7 in SC2 is 45 minutes to an hour and a half of focus with multiple periods of extreme focus and reaction. In both cases actions are happening faster than average humans can observe.
i just wanted to state, that i see quite a big difference between shooting, which is mainly fine motor control and focus on the one side and fencing, where the athletes need quite a big physical endurence and good body control and strength. Esports are maybe more like shooting in this regard, but you also need a high mental endurance, since matches can get quite long in some disciplines. (At least in CS, which is pretty much the only esport i watch from time to time)