Is e-sport a sport? Who cares, we need a world at play

If boxing is a violent art, then knuckles are its paintbrush. But even boxers, old pals with pain, would wince if they saw a video of the man from the Arctic Games.

- Rohit Brijnath Assistant Sports Editor

Enthusiasts competing during October's EVO France gaming festival, an example of e-sports requiring not only a high level of skill and intense training, but also a lot of hand-eye coordination.

(PHOTO: AFP)

With his body in a push-up position, he starts to bounce forward on his knuckles.

Fifty feet, 90, 150...

To watch is to wince, but this is not just perseverance but tradition at work. Once his ancestors hunted by creeping up on seals by mimicking their movement. Now knuckle hop has become a competition.

My nephew, a rugged fellow who builds gyms, would not object to this being called a “sport”. For him, the “physical aspect” is mandatory to the definition of the word. The rest are games, he says without a trace of scorn. E-sports, for him, are simply a cousin of the spelling bee.

E-sports feel like a pastime to me, too, yet it’s probably because its intricacy eludes me. Belittling an activity is easy, appreciating it takes effort. Indeed, on the weekend a highly rated chess player told me that he doesn’t think chess is superior to these button-punching gamers. “While both games require a high level of skill and intense training,” he said, “for e-sports there is a lot of hand-eye coordination, much more than required for chess.”