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Tyler Blevins ("Ninja"): The First Gamer on the Cover of ESPN Magazine

posted by martyb on Thursday September 20 2018, @01:17PM   Printer-friendly
from the ligma-cured dept.

takyon writes:

Ninja is the first gamer on the cover of ESPN Magazine

Ninja is the first professional gamer to feature on the cover of ESPN Magazine. The 27-year-old streamer, real name Tyler Blevins, is most famous for playing Fortnite and has more than 11 million followers on Twitch.

He reached the mainstream earlier this year when he broke Fortnite streaming records after playing with Drake.

But some people are questioning if a gamer should be in the same category as athletes.

Ninja started off as an e-sports competitor, mostly playing Halo. He switched to streaming, becoming known for battle royale - or last player standing - game Player Unknown's Battlegrounds. But when Fortnite introduced its battle royale mode, Ninja jumped ship and then started getting really big.

Back in March, Forbes reported that he had 3 million followers and 4 million YouTube subscribers. He now has 11 million Twitch followers and 18 million YouTube subscribers.

Related: Ninja explains his choice not to stream with female gamers

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 20 2018, @01:45PM (11 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 20 2018, @01:45PM (#737483) Journal

    some people are questioning if a gamer should be in the same category as athletes.

    It makes sense. Since professional sporting is all about one thing . . . money! Otherwise why would it be called "professional"? So they'll recognize anything as a sport if there is money to be made. Money to be made is a result of lots of followers willing to fork over money. Did you see the part about millions of followers?

    So I wonder when they will recognize youtube videos of "jackass style stunts" as a sport? Don't laugh. I suppose gamers do engage in a physical endurance competition. Running from police as a sport? Evading border patrol as a sport?

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday September 20 2018, @01:54PM (2 children)

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Thursday September 20 2018, @01:54PM (#737484) Journal

    Video Gamers Head To The Gym To Enhance Competitive Edge [npr.org]

    Robert Yip is the performance coach for the professional Los Angeles-based team, the Immortals. Teams like his compete for prize money that added up to more than $65 million last year. He says the days of a slacker hoping to make it big in gaming are coming to an end.

    "You're getting paid a lot of money but at the same time, you have to treat it like it's an actual job. It's fun, but it's very, very demanding," Yip says.

    He provides fitness training, meal planning and a structured lifestyle for his team of college-aged players, who spend hours a day in front of a screen. For them, the coaching isn't just to boost scores. It's also about providing balance.

    "We're very much invested in making sure that it's a holistic wellness program, that they're not just going to be playing the video game a lot, that they're not just going to be sitting in front of the computer at all times," Yip says. "We want to make sure that they have a social life, that they have active recovery periods, that they are not burning out because they're still very, very young."

    How esports competitors prepare, mentally and physically [venturebeat.com]

    Esports competitors are increasingly focusing on their physical conditioning, especially endurance. According to Darren Heitner writing in Forbes, the new Sandbox Esports Training Center facility in Thousand Oaks, California, has opened to meet the training needs of these athletes, with training regimens carefully tuned to the needs of pro gamers. He states, “a strong core, perfect posture, hand-eye coordination, and strong forearms, hands, wrists and fingers. Additionally, professional gamers should be training with cardiovascular exercises, focusing on nutrition and partaking in cryotherapy, according to [facility co-owner Happy] Walters.”

    Cryotherapy, tho?

    Science shows that eSports professionals are real athletes [dw.com]

    Scientists at the German Sports University have conducted a study of eSports athletes and they were surprised by their results. They found that they are exposed to physical strains similar to those of "normal" athletes.

    [...] "We were particularly impressed by both the demands placed on the motor skills and their capabilities," Froböse said. "The eSports athletes achieve up to 400 movements on the keyboard and the mouse per minute, four times as much as the average person. The whole thing is asymmetrical, because both hands are being moved at the same time and various parts of the brain are also being used at the same time," he added.

    This is a level of strain that the scientist had never observed in any other sport, not even in table-tennis players, who require a high level of hand-eye coordination.

    [...] "The amount of cortisol produced is about the same level as that of a race-car driver," Froböse said. "This is combined with a high pulse, sometimes as high as 160 to 180 beats per minute, which is equivalent to what happend during a very fast run, almost a marathon. That's not to mention the motor skills involved. So in my opinion, eSports are just as demanding as most other types of sports, if not more demanding," he said.

    I guess the missing link for me would be calories burned per hour of intense gaming. Anyone got that?

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    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday September 20 2018, @04:47PM (1 child)

      by Freeman (732) on Thursday September 20 2018, @04:47PM (#737584) Journal

      I doubt it's very high as you're still sitting in a comfy chair, most probably in a nice air conditioned building.

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @11:28PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @11:28PM (#737849)

        The brain burns a lot of calories, and I bet the increased adrenaline causes some extra burn, so overall I'd say the calories burned will be significantly higher than sitting on the couch watching Netflix. Well, unless you're chillin'

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @02:57PM (6 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @02:57PM (#737522)

    Yes, but esports aren't sports. Only fat sweaty nerds think that esports are actual sports.

    How pathetic to people have to watch other people playing games?

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Thursday September 20 2018, @03:12PM (4 children)

      by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Thursday September 20 2018, @03:12PM (#737535) Journal

      Your comment is insensitive to the pro gamer community. We just had the Jacksonville tragedy, and Ninja himself recently recovered from the deadly disease ligma.

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @04:15PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @04:15PM (#737566)

        and Ninja himself recently recovered from the deadly disease ligma.

        How is that relevant to sports or esports?

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 20 2018, @05:17PM

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 20 2018, @05:17PM (#737607) Journal

        A long time ago, like 15 years, on a different green site, I had a sig: gamers are the root of all evil.

        That would probably not fly in today's PC world. Er, I don't mean the magazine. But . . . nevermind.

        --
        The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.

      • (Score: 1) by oldmac31310 on Thursday September 20 2018, @07:58PM (1 child)

        by oldmac31310 (4521) on Thursday September 20 2018, @07:58PM (#737698)

        wow. I learned something I really did not need to know. Thanks a lot.

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Thursday September 20 2018, @06:44PM

      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday September 20 2018, @06:44PM (#737654) Journal

      Yes, but esports aren't sports. Only fat sweaty nerds think that esports are actual sports.

      Neither is golf or bowling but that doesn't seem to stop anybody.

      How pathetic to people have to watch other people playing games?

      Agreed, it's pathetic that people watch games like football.

  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday September 20 2018, @04:53PM

    by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Thursday September 20 2018, @04:53PM (#737587) Homepage
    > recognize youtube videos of "jackass style stunts" as a sport

    That's most winter sports, isn't it? Let's fling myself down a hill and off a cliff - yeah, that's totes rad, duuuuud! Nah, it's lame - I'm gonna slide down a twisty-turny ice-slope lying on a tea-tray! Do it head first, I dare you! Wohhhh kewl idea bro!

    Eläma On laiffi.
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