When is a sport not actually a sport?

[BnM]

Sport is

An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

[sockwithaticket]

Golf, darts, snooker, shooting and all similar endeavours aren't sports imo.

[New guy]

I've noticed e-sports becoming more and more mainstream. I really cant wrap my head around the appeal.

Sky Sports shows people playing Fifa...

[BnM]

I've noticed e-sports becoming more and more mainstream. I really cant wrap my head around the appeal.

Sky Sports shows people playing Fifa...

I discovered recently that Twitch is just people playing games you can watch.

[Munch]

Speed walking: when you want to get somewhere as quickly as possible while always keeping one foot on the floor.

[ASMO]

I've noticed e-sports becoming more and more mainstream. I really cant wrap my head around the appeal.

Sky Sports shows people playing Fifa...

I discovered recently that Twitch is just people playing games you can watch.

Don't knock it, there are some very hot laydees on there who stream themselves playing games whilst wearing not a lot.......allegedly

[New guy]

I've noticed e-sports becoming more and more mainstream. I really cant wrap my head around the appeal.

Sky Sports shows people playing Fifa...

I discovered recently that Twitch is just people playing games you can watch.

Don't knock it, there are some very hot laydees on there who stream themselves playing games whilst wearing not a lot.......allegedly

They get paid obscene amounts of money too. 7 figure annual incomes some of them.

Why anybody would donate to a multi millionaire is beyond me.

[Longshanks]

Golf, darts, snooker, shooting and all similar endeavours aren't sports imo.

And there folks is the answer! It's an opinion, and whatever yours is, is the right one.
Silly thread

[sorCrer]

Throw curling in.

[BnM]

I've noticed e-sports becoming more and more mainstream. I really cant wrap my head around the appeal.

Sky Sports shows people playing Fifa...

I discovered recently that Twitch is just people playing games you can watch.

Don't knock it, there are some very hot laydees on there who stream themselves playing games whilst wearing not a lot.......allegedly

And that's why Amazon included it in prime. I get it now.

[HouseofPane]

Speed walking: when you want to get somewhere as quickly as possible while always keeping one foot on the floor.

I always affiliate speed walking with this part of Malcolm in the Middle - heck Bryan Cranston is a legend, and the helmets kill me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVBN7NAIrfg

[LandOTurk]

Kabaddi is I think. Its just the holding ones breath is a little odd.

[LandOTurk]

Golf, darts, snooker, shooting and all similar endeavours aren't sports imo.

I assume because they have limited physical effort.

Climbing and Motor Racing anyone?

[Ponga]

Any activity that requires 'Judging' to decide the winner is not a sport imo. they are competitive activities and great to watch but they should not be in the Olympics

Gymnastics, surfing, high diving ect ect. (Boxing is a tricky one since judges are subjective but it could be decided by the number of connecting hits or something. Or if no KO its just a draw)

While great spectacles and highly physical activities any subjective scoring system is a crock!

[LandOTurk]

Any activity that requires 'Judging' to decide the winner is not a sport imo. they are competitive activities and great to watch but they should not be in the Olympics

Gymnastics, surfing, high diving ect ect. (Boxing is a tricky one since judges are subjective but it could be decided by the number of connecting hits or something. Or if no KO its just a draw)

While great spectacles and highly physical activities any subjective scoring system is a crock!

Boxing in the Olympics does have a defined scoring system. It can take some time for an amateur to convert to a professional scoring system.

[sockwithaticket]

Golf, darts, snooker, shooting and all similar endeavours aren't sports imo.

I assume because they have limited physical effort.

Climbing and Motor Racing anyone?

Pretty much. I suppose I've not considered climbing a sport either, impressive physical feat certainly, but not a sport.

Racing just never crosses my mind. I don't get it at all.

[Wild Beef]

I love competitive e-sports. Very easy to get hooked if you enjoy those kind of games already (I love strategy games like Starcraft 2). It’s fascinating to see the combination of skill and strategy at the top.

I realise this makes me an epic geek but I don’t really care.

[FujiKiwi]

What qualifies as a sport is just a matter of opinion, isn’t it?

Except in regard to synchronized swimming. That’s objectively a sport.

[Guy Smiley]

So, anything involving the Irish then.

[-RB-]

Golf, darts, snooker, shooting and all similar endeavours aren't sports imo.

I assume because they have limited physical effort.

Climbing and Motor Racing anyone?

All of the above are clearly sport. There is competitive speed climbing for instance and as for motor racing any fat tourist attempting to withstand the g forces, heat, and physical exertion required on top of the required reaction times would be dead in about 3 seconds flat. Just think of F1 or Moto GP and that's before we get to the TT loons.

Imo sport is any competitive endeavor that requires both mental acuity and physical coordination.

Board games don't count but most other "sports" including esports count imo.

[stemoc]

golf is a sport, you walk for miles a day in the hot sun....what isn't a sport is .... curling.

[Wild Beef]

Interesting take RB, on I think I agree with. Happy for e-sports to be given their own category though as they definitely have different flavour.

[Zig]

Hunting animals for trophies.

[FujiKiwi]

Hunting animals for trophies.

Is shearing sheep for wool OK?

[Punter15]

You have to wear shorts = sport
You can wear trousers = game

Sorted.

[FujiKiwi]

You have to wear shorts = sport
You can wear trousers = game

Sorted.

Cricket, though.

[Zig]

Hunting animals for trophies.

Is shearing sheep for wool OK?

Shearing good, shagging bad.

[FujiKiwi]

Hunting animals for trophies.

Is shearing sheep for wool OK?

Shearing good, shagging bad.

Of course. Nobody would call making sweet love to your soulmate a "sport". What a disgusting thought.

[assfly]

If darts is a sport, then so is chess.

At least golf involves a fair amount of walking and physical strength when teeing off.

[Torquemada 1420]

Throw curling in.

Foul play?

[Monkey Magic]

See it as a sliding scale based on the difference between the amount you can drink at the after match vs what you can drink pre match.

Play a game of rugby or doing motorsport after 6 beers is going to hurt, while playing snooker or e games you'd be alright.

Somewhere in between you have the likes of golf where you can still drink a bit and play - but you can also drink a lot afterwards.

[Munch]

Speed walking: when you want to get somewhere as quickly as possible while always keeping one foot on the floor.

I always affiliate speed walking with this part of Malcolm in the Middle - heck Bryan Cranston is a legend, and the helmets kill me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVBN7NAIrfg

Malcolm in the Middle is an absolute belter of a show. Bryan took his part and ran with it, it was the speedwalking and the roller skating episode that tickled me the most.

[JM2K6]

I love competitive e-sports. Very easy to get hooked if you enjoy those kind of games already (I love strategy games like Starcraft 2). It’s fascinating to see the combination of skill and strategy at the top.

I realise this makes me an epic geek but I don’t really care.

There was a good thread on this lost to the mists of time. Whether e-sports are "sports" is kinda irrelevant to me, but they are absolutely fascinating. Things in e-sports favour:

A genuinely level playing field. Everyone has access to exactly the same things the pros have bar super expensive hardware that doesn't matter
A changing "meta" - i.e. the tactics and strategy that permeate e-sports. Teams will adapt and evolve much faster than in regular sports.
Huge amateur player bases thanks to there being no athletic boundaries
While it probably excludes the very poor (no access to consoles/PC) it is quite egalitarian otherwise, no matter race or creed (gender's still a problem)
Varying levels of complexity to suit whatever the viewer/player prefers
"In-game" tie-ins with competitions so amateur players feel a closer connection to the pro scene and can receive digital rewards
Very few "terrible" matches - we've all seen bad rugby matches, but a bad esports game is much rarer (this is hugely subjective and probably deserves a longer explanation, but no-one cares so I won't)
Very personality based making it easy to root for individual players or teams regardless of your attachment to the game
For MOBAs like DOTA2, the whole pick/ban draft phase is an entire level of strategy and counter-strategy that main sports just don't have


It's far from perfect, though. Leaving aside the fact that plenty of people just don't like video games:

Many e-sports are almost incomprehensible to new viewers/players, making cricket look like chequers
Many e-sports commentary teams ape the USian "ESPN" style of having a bunch of blokes in suits yell stats or try their hardest to sound deep; the few that have a more relaxed style are far easier to watch/listen to IMO, but they're outliers
The scenes can be pretty toxic, much less welcoming than "real" sports to new players, and established names can be genuine arseholes
Players switch teams constantly and there's no real identity to teams beyond the sponsors names
Drug use is pretty rife and the scenes are almost entirely unregulated and at the mercy of big money corporations
The rapid pace of changes to the "meta" via game updates and patches and new releases makes it really hard to keep up with a scene if you're not a regular - football is football with minor tweaks maybe every decade, DOTA2 changes massively year on year
There's no real local attachment to teams, they're all international mercenaries without even a city to nominally tie them to (so even worse than pro football) and almost no international setup
Games are fairly transient due to the need to keep making more money with new games so there's no real sense of history in many of these genres


They'll never replace sports but they have their place. There's been occasions where I'd much rather watch a DOTA series than another Worcs v Newcastle slugfest...

[Biffer]

Hypothesis: Sport requires specialised footwear (this includes shoeless).

Hence snooker, darts, not sports.

[Woddy]

that brings in lawn bowls...

[Yeeb]

Golf, darts, snooker, shooting and all similar endeavours aren't sports imo.

This - they pastimes. If you don’t get out of breath, they are not sports.
I’d also add cricket to the list of ‘not a sport’

[Biffer]

that brings in lawn bowls...

It does.

Lawn bowls is a sport, you have to change your shoes.

[Biffer]

Golf, darts, snooker, shooting and all similar endeavours aren't sports imo.

This - they pastimes. If you don’t get out of breath, they are not sports.
I’d also add cricket to the list of ‘not a sport’

Cricket requires specialist shoes, therefore is a sport.

[Fangle]

If darts is a sport, then so is chess.

At least golf involves a fair amount of walking and physical strength when teeing off.

Darts requires physical skill, chess doesn't.

[Biffer]

If darts is a sport, then so is chess.

At least golf involves a fair amount of walking and physical strength when teeing off.

Darts requires physical skill, chess doesn't.

Neither require specialist shoes, so neither is a sport.