[ThumBlister] Is Pro Gaming a Sport?

   Can video games be considered a sport? In all actuality, this shouldn’t even be a question. Today, games such as “Starcraft 2”, “Pokemon”, and “Street Fighter 4” are played and respected in worldwide tournaments more often than most any other real sport. “Starcraft 2” even has it’s own competitive gaming channel in Korea. Still, I will entertain the idea for those who still believe gaming is a fad for overweight male teenagers.

   Most people believe having to wear a certain shoe to play something, makes it a sport.  More specifically, to play in high heels would leave you at a severe disadvantage. Football, baseball, swimming, gymnastics, all of these and more are defined by being completely unplayable in high heels. This argument could even be used to define why baseball belongs back in the Olympics, but equestrian should be cut.

   While it makes a good point, I beg to differ with this argument. You do not need to sweat for  something to be considered a sport. I can respond to, and win this argument with a single game.

   Chess is easily the worlds longest running and most historical sport, and I doubt anyone could argue against this. In fact in the late 90′s during the XXVII Olympiad chess became recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Committee. It just has yet to enter into either the summer or winter Olympics, due to legalities of other “mind games” having been rejected.

   Now if Chess can be considered a sport, even an Olympic sport, then why would games of equal thought management such as “Starcraft 2” be looked over? If it is a question of skill or technique, I assure you more goes into a single game of Starcraft, than will ever go into any game of football or baseball. It isn’t even a competition.

   The current top tier Starcraft players are playing at upwards of 400apm. An APM is a single Action Per Minute. So where I am typing this article at maybe 70 words a minute, these players are making 400 full complete strategic moves in a single minute. To watch a professional match, is to watch masters of a craft. The game is always flowing in a different direction, but there is never a single hesitation in a players hand speed. Imagine a football game where the quarterback has to make 400 complete passes in a single minute, with the pressure of being in the pocket the entire time just waiting to be sacked. These players are on an entirely different playing field than other sports.

   Fighting games such as “Street Fighter 4” are for the newer, more attention starved ‘digital age’ audience. You get all the drama of a UFC or boxing match, but in the course of maybe ten minutes. The matches turn back and forth so fast, and the skill is easily visible to even the most uninitiated viewer.

   Last month the world wide fighting tournament Evolution Championship took place. Having watched a live stream of the finals, I can say that the fights managed to keep me just as entertained as any other recent sport.

   This year’s EVO tournament actually had some huge upsets as Daigo Umehara (considered the greatest Street Fighter player in history) placed 5^th in the tournament. He is literally a living legend in the gaming community, and anyone interested in seeing why games are definitely sports should view just a few of his matches.

   For instance in his 2004 Street Fighter 3 match, he managed what is still considered to be physically impossible, and has yet to ever be repeated. On a single sliver of health, he performed a parry on another players special upwards to 15 consecutive times. To put that into a perspective, Street Fighter plays at 30 frames a second, and the openings to parry are only 4 single frames. This means that Daigo needed to input just over 7 completely separate commands on his controller in a single second, twice in a row. I can’t even count to 7 in a single second. Watch the aforementioned clip here, and it all becomes clear:

   Daigo’s performance was so remarkable, many believe it was even the reason Capcom removed a parry system from the later released Street Fighter 4. How many times have you seen a soccer or football player get a core mechanic of a game changed because they played too well?

   The definition of a sport is as follows: An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or competes against another. I would say that by definition video games are a sport. Real sports may take more physical exertion, but no sport requires more skill.

   Honestly, I think the more apt question at this point is, can a valid case be made for video games to be considered  for the 2016 Rio Olympics? I would say yes, and I bet we will see this argument much sooner than you think.