Der Spiegel [in German], supported by Sky News [in English], report:
[translation mine]Ever since young people started earning money playing computer games, a discussion has arisen within Gamer circles: is E-sport, professional computer game playing, really sport? Is mouse-clicking and button pressing at high tempo easier, more challenging, or just as sophisticated as kicking a ball or swimming faster than others?
To put it plainly, whoever games professionally needs exactly as much training, passion, and talent as professionals in classical sports. And that good gamers compete in front of tens of thousands of spectators makes the world hardly better or worse than a football/soccer world championship or the Tour de France.
In any event Gamers may have to think about the issue more than they'd like. The E-Sports League (ESL), in which players of games like "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive," "Fifa," and "League of Legends" compete, has announced that they will be cooperating with the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA). It is supposed to not only prevent doping, but institute concrete testing. ESL has announced that the Counter-Strike competition on August 22-23 in Cologne's Lanxess Arena that skin tests will be conducted.
Additional reporting here and here.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2015, @05:06PM
Maybe not: what if, in lieu of a secular PED-free league, you had an explicitly Mormon league? Sponsors would be wary.
The Mormons would probably welcome it. They've made huge forays into music via YouTube; many of the "viral" stars (Lindsey Stirling, The Piano Guys, etc) are well-funded Mormons. The LDS church is making a push to demonstrate that its members are talented and relevant individuals rather than puppets of some cult. A Mormon video game league wouldn't be out of the question. On the other hand, advertisers might not flock to them because of the culty-side of things.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2015, @05:09PM
Do you have any information about the LDS church bankrolling those acts?