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from the all-competitors-are-disqualified dept.
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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2015, @06:11PM
For example, there's been relatively little doping in basketball (the genetic advantage of being tall seems to matter more than being strong or quick)
If it is genetics; is it really still a competition?
This sounds similar to me to the 'competition' of "being born in the best country".
Good job, you on the left won the competition... You on right on the other hand, you lost, but just try harder next time and maybe you'll win.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Thexalon on Saturday July 25 2015, @06:27PM
Yes, because there are other aspects of the game that can overcome being tall.
I pay some attention to basketball because I played basketball fairly seriously until it became clear I was going to be a 5'9" center (which simply doesn't work). The folks who do some fairly sophisticated statistical analysis on it (worth checking out just for the math nerddom) have worked out that, for example, the 6'11" DeAndre Jordan is about as effective as the 6'3" Stephen Curry: DeAndre Jordan's height advantage which absolutely helps him, but Curry has compensated by learning to shoot exceptionally accurately. Now, if DeAndre Jordan learned to shoot as well as Curry has, he'd be a much better player than Curry, but he hasn't needed to because he's so big.
There are even a few NBA players (e.g. Isiah Thomas) under 6 feet tall. They're a rarity, but they do exist.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.