Board 8 > Olympics committee to consider adding esports.

(+) Yeah! (+)

What does an esports player do? Manchester City's Kez Brown explains

that made me laugh
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Then I guess they've kept it this long for tradition. Video games are probably always going to have this visual obstacle of not being perceived as sports or physical activity though. I play a lot of games and can't say I've ever cared to even check out any esports videos. I've never even cared to play Comp mode in any game either.

swordz9 posted...

It's difficult for me to think of that as a sport too

Good thing the olympics isn't based on what's easy for you to understand
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yeah no way in hell should esports be getting in before things like autoracing and definitely not while stuff like wrestling is on the cusp of not making the cut year after year.
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KingBartz posted...

What does an esports player do? Manchester City's Kez Brown explains

that made me laugh

There are a lot of European football clubs that sponsor/invest in esports teams and players, especially Fifa (Which that guy plays) iirc. Schalke 04 even owns a League of Legends team that used to play in the top EU league, and actually has a decent chance to qualify for that league again in a few weeks.

Meanwhile, most of the traditional sports investment in American orgs seems to come from the NBA. The Warriors, Bucks, and Grizzlies have owners that have invested in various orgs, and the 76ers organization (Instead of just one of the co-owners) directly bought an organization and The Madison Square Garden Company (NY Knicks ownership) bought a controlling stake in the oldest NA League of Legends organization just last week, for example

People are thinking there's a ton of money here, and traditional sports orgs are taking notice
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If you showed people two pictures with one being Comp video game players and the other being actual swimmers doing laps, cyclists or some other sport and asked which picture contained athletes, sports or physical activity almost nobody would pick the gamers. Hell even people that do associate them with those might still pick against the gamers.

It's not a sport but the Olympics is kinda lame anyway so let it in.
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The IOC has a ban on motors as a primary use of power so autoracing will never officially be in the Olympics.
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KanzarisKelshen posted...

swordz9 posted...

Wha why? The Olympics should be for actual athletes....

How do you define athleticism without including mental exertion? It's kind of a big deal to know what move to make in every sport.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=define+athleticism

Like that?

I attribute significantly less value to the physical capabilities of the human body than to the mind's capacity for logic, creativity and emotion, but still, the Olympics has always been and should always be a celebration of peak physical form and pushing physical limits.

It's bad enough that all of the top athletes just dope, let's not tear off what vestigial shreds of dignity the event yet retains by welcoming in esports.
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charmander6000 posted...

The IOC has a ban on motors as a primary use of power so autoracing will never officially be in the Olympics.

Right but autoracing (and things like motocross and the like) are way more athletic than esports.
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Chillglad posted...

the Olympics has always been and should always be a celebration of peak physical form and pushing physical limits.

Some events in the last Olympics:

Archery
Dressage
Golf
Shooting
Table Tennis
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You clearly haven't watched/played table tennis if you think there is little physical activity to it.
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I'm almost afraid to ask what Dressage is.

Edit - Oh horses. Man I expected something way dumber like some sort of fashion event or something.

swordz9 posted...

I'm almost afraid to ask what Dressage is.

Horse dancing
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Man if you're gonna put video games into the Olympics DDR seems like much more natural choice
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voltch posted...

By 2028 the VR scene could be mad cool.

BBC comments section for this is funny,

Virtual Biltzball as an Olympic Sport.

Let's do this.
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I suppose BALL scratching will be an event next...
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given the nature of frequently updated online games there are gonna be logistical difficulties

like with all the bureaucracy i can easily imagine the league of legends patch at the olympics being several months (or more) behind and no one really practicing for the event

Hmm... How often are most current Olympic sports patched?
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Xeybozn posted...

Hmm... How often are most current Olympic sports patched?

I wasn't sure if you were joking, but this is actually the reason I don't think esports are appropriate as an Olympic sport more than any other argument, like this is the #1 issue for me is that video games are too mutable

Paratroopa1 posted...

Xeybozn posted...

Hmm... How often are most current Olympic sports patched?

I wasn't sure if you were joking, but this is actually the reason I don't think esports are appropriate as an Olympic sport more than any other argument, like this is the #1 issue for me is that video games are too mutable

I was mostly joking, but a lot of sports do have minor rule changes every season. It's just that they usually aren't as game-changing as video game patches.
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Paratroopa1 posted...

Xeybozn posted...

Hmm... How often are most current Olympic sports patched?

I wasn't sure if you were joking, but this is actually the reason I don't think esports are appropriate as an Olympic sport more than any other argument, like this is the #1 issue for me is that video games are too mutable

Yeah you almost would need to invent one specialised game for the Olympics or something..."eSports" can't be the event in and of itself. It would need to be like a FIFA event, a rocket league event, a LoL event. But those things fade from year to year and there'll definitely be a time where LoL isn't such a big deal.

I'm not against this so much, it just seems logistically difficult to implement at the Olympics. It's an entirely different genre of sports. Maybe they should just introduce an Esports Olympics that is run alongside the regular Olympics.
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swordz9 posted...

If you showed people two pictures with one being Comp video game players and the other being actual swimmers doing laps, cyclists or some other sport and asked which picture contained athletes, sports or physical activity almost nobody would pick the gamers. Hell even people that do associate them with those might still pick against the gamers.

What about a picture of comp video game players next to a picture of a guy shooting. Or riding on a horse (and not even racing).
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They'd still pick the horse and the shooting. But that's probably as much from what people are conditioned to think as anything else.
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https://pnimg.net/w/articles/0/571/a3c3b4c9c9.jpg

Like, does the first one actually look more "OLYMPICS PEAK PHYSICAL ACTIVITY YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAH"
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XIII_rocks posted...

They'd still pick the horse and the shooting. But that's probably as much from what people are conditioned to think as anything else.

Well, right.

I'm not really doing anything but making a comment of basing an entire judgment on "Does this look like physical activity or not" isn't the best idea.
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As much as I like esports, having to listen to the sports obsessed people complain about it isn't worth it.
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My objection is mainly that it's a competition based on a specific copyrighted commercial product. Nobody owns swimming. You don't have to buy running. Gymnastics isn't the intellectual property of a corporation. But esports can't really get away from that commercial promotion aspect.
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Unless you do as I said and invent that one game that's used in the Olympics.

Which seems a bit of a push

That said, you could make the argument that the games are simply equipment, in the same way you need to buy swimming trunks, poles for vaulting, kayaks, whatever
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StealThisSheen posted...

swordz9 posted...

If you showed people two pictures with one being Comp video game players and the other being actual swimmers doing laps, cyclists or some other sport and asked which picture contained athletes, sports or physical activity almost nobody would pick the gamers. Hell even people that do associate them with those might still pick against the gamers.

What about a picture of comp video game players next to a picture of a guy shooting. Or riding on a horse (and not even racing).

You've clearly never fired a gun competitively or ridden Dressage if you think the rider or shooter isn't an athlete.
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Eddv posted...

StealThisSheen posted...

swordz9 posted...

If you showed people two pictures with one being Comp video game players and the other being actual swimmers doing laps, cyclists or some other sport and asked which picture contained athletes, sports or physical activity almost nobody would pick the gamers. Hell even people that do associate them with those might still pick against the gamers.

What about a picture of comp video game players next to a picture of a guy shooting. Or riding on a horse (and not even racing).

You've clearly never fired a gun competitively or ridden Dressage if you think the rider or shooter isn't an athlete.

I never said they aren't athletes.

He's talking about looking like physical activity, though.
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So I mean, we are all obviously fans of games over sports.


It's gamefaqs. But I don't think video games should be in the Olympics.
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Remove wrestling, the first Olympic sport, and add esports. The fuck.
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XIII_rocks posted...

That said, you could make the argument that the games are simply equipment, in the same way you need to buy swimming trunks, poles for vaulting, kayaks, whatever

Yeah but you can get trunks from Nike or Under Armour or whoever and still swim. You can make your own if you really need to. But you can't play Starcraft in competition without Blizzard's product, or without the entire event being an advertisement for that product.

It also puts a third party in charge, at least in part, of the rules of the competition. The IOC would still be able to set rules for the format, such as what game modes are played, what maps are allowed, etc, but the game balance would still be whatever's determined by the developers.
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took golf what 100 years to get back in...so why not right?
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Korea>Denmark>China there I saved them the time.

Though I do wonder hat game they would choose and if it would just be one. There should actually be an esports olympics.
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Another thing to consider is that the Olympics is only every 4 years, which is a hell of a long time in esports terms. From one Olympics to the next you could have very different games, and if you did have returning games they could be in a very different form.
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How would it be included in the official Olympics videogame that is usually released?
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I think if you added e-sports to the Olympics it would have to be very specific "timeless" games, and you couldn't rotate them to be current. Otherwise it'd be stupid cause yeah esports changes a lot every 4 years so what would the e-sport position even mean.
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5tarscream posted...

How would it be included in the official Olympics videogame that is usually released?

you mash buttons and it makes a guy play dota faster

5tarscream posted...

Though I do wonder hat game they would choose and if it would just be one.

Lopen posted...

I think if you added e-sports to the Olympics it would have to be very specific "timeless" games

Starcraft
CSGO
LoL
Street Fighter
Rocket League
Super Metroid & SM64 Speedruns (Solo runs for qualifications for the 1v1 bracket elimination)
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You missed Tetris TGM. I don't think LoL is necessarily timeless, and I'd have to watch some Rocket League to see if it stands up to the others, but the rest are pretty interesting choices.
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The Sims
Minesweeper
Guitar Hero
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Should gaming companies bid for their games to be selected?

It's the ioc bribery is par for the course.

So why not have an official bidding process for their games to be selected.

Should gaming medals be unified like equestrian events or should there be gender segregation?
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Am eSports, do not want. Needs to get a bit more mainstream so we're not absolutely barbecued publicly for something like this. And I'm not sure I'd ever be ready to call someone playing LoL an "Olympic athlete".
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voltch posted...

Should gaming medals be unified like equestrian events or should there be gender segregation?

I know Counter Strike has always had them separated
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CSGO ain't timeless son; Valve has been dicking around with stuff like the Machine guns and the pistols recently!

Everyone knows what this means

1.6 supremacy.

WALL BANGS THROUGH DUST2 TUNNELS

KanzarisKelshen posted...

You missed Tetris TGM. I don't think LoL is necessarily timeless, and I'd have to watch some Rocket League to see if it stands up to the others, but the rest are pretty interesting choices.

Yeah I added Rocket League becasue it's more like a traditional sport that could only play be played in a virtual world. I guess FIFA, NHL or NBA would work as well. Not Madden though :(

I also picked LoL becasue its been the most popular video game for what, 7 or 8 years now?


Could throw in iRacing or something representing racing games too. Gran Turismo maybe.
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MasaomiHouzuki posted...

CSGO ain't timeless son; Valve has been dicking around with stuff like the Machine guns and the pistols recently!

Everyone knows what this means

1.6 supremacy.

WALL BANGS THROUGH DUST2 TUNNELS

I say just use Source and make everybody hate everything.
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ViviffTheMobile posted...

Am eSports, do not want. Needs to get a bit more mainstream so we're not absolutely barbecued publicly for something like this. And I'm not sure I'd ever be ready to call someone playing LoL an "Olympic athlete".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPCfoCVCx3U

If the level of play rises high enough that this becomes something that happens more than like, twice per year, I fully believe LoL will be ready for the olympics. This play is just as visually impressive as anything out of Soccer or Basketball, the problem is that it's too rare so it's hard to appreciate the amount of skill expression League can have.
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