No one who knows me would ever consider me to be a bonafide sports fan. I keep up with 1 sport, and root for 1 team… That’s about it. I don’t check player stats, team stats, or participate in any events, with the exception of major ones pertinent to the sport I care about (World Cup). Outside of that, I don’t know (or care) about sportsball.
And with that having been said, some may find what I’m about to say odd, if not a bit illogical: I don’t personally think eSports is a sport. I know it has a huge following, and tons of money is flowing into it, and “eSports” players practice a lot, and blah blah blah, but I find it a bit comical that a person who is REALLY good at playing a video game be compared to someone who can run 26.2 miles in 2 hours, or someone who can hit or throw a ball at a target and nail it 70-80% of the time.
All of that is not to demean or belittle “eSports” or the people who play them; but don’t call yourself an “athlete.” I’m a believer that anything considered to be an actual “sport” should necessitate a heightened degree of physical exertion and activity that you can’t get while sitting competitively playing Angry Birds. Even more so when in a national championship or international competition; an athlete at that level possesses physical prowess that the average person does not. They can do things with their body that the vast majority of us can’t, and that is why people like to watch.
I draw a clear and present distinction between sport and competition due simply to the fact that competition does not a sport make. The muddy definition and blending of a “sport” to entail any competition that the general public will spend money to see is what made the way for things like poker and eSports to creep in. Everything in life is a competition of some sort, on some level, with winners and losers, but I doubt anyone would consider something like politics or salary negotiations a sport…
Then there’s the difference between real world ability and simulated ability. I’ll no doubt agree that people who play computer games professionally have developed better than average skills like reaction time with a keyboard/mouse, but I would be VERY interested in how that correlates to real world abilities. As someone who used flight simulators basically every weekend for 2 years (for fun) before I piloted my first 172, the difference between video game and reality was less akin to apples and oranges, but more like apples and mountain lions. My point is, physical reality has a way of quickly dispatching with those who have simulated abilities against those with real abilities, which makes real-world abilities impressive, and simulated abilities… well, imaginary.
So while I am perfectly fine calling professional video game playing a “competition”, I doubt I will ever call it a “sport.” I personally don’t find achievement in a simulated environment all that impressive.