FaZe Clan is taking over

[Say Hey Kid]

" FaZe Clan: Gaming, e-sports streaming giant is changing the industry - Sports Illustrated

How did FaZe Clan grow from a 'Call of Duty' trick shot feed to a lifestyle power brand? Start with this modern truism: Athletes want to be gamers and gamers want to be athletes ..."​

Click to read more...

 

[JaegerDice]

Good read.

Esports is just gonna continue to grow and gain cultural cache.

 

[Dolemite]

Faze can suck my call of duty left nut. They're not that good.

::edit::

They play core CoD which is considered by everyone who plays the game is the little kids table. None of them have the stones to play hardcore which is the Adults table.

 

[Hammettf2b]

When is @H3ckt1k going to become a full time LoL streamer and be on the cover of SI???

 

[Rodgerwilco]

It's hilarious to watch the rapid progression of E-sports growing and growing while the old dinosaurs yell at clouds, claiming these aren't real sports.

 

[Beau Knows]

It's hilarious to watch the rapid progression of E-sports growing and growing while the old dinosaurs yell at clouds, claiming these aren't real sports.

The definition of sport has pretty much come to mean any competitive activity involving skill, including games like chess or darts, so yeah I suppose videos games can be considered sports. But none of those games are quite the same thing as boxing, tennis, hockey, etc. There's a clear difference between those types of activities, lumping them all together as sports doesn't make "FaZe Temperrr" an athlete the way that LeBron James is an athlete.

 

[PK Cronin]

It's hilarious to watch the rapid progression of E-sports growing and growing while the old dinosaurs yell at clouds, claiming these aren't real sports.

The definition of sport has pretty much come to mean any competitive activity involving skill, including games like chess or darts, so yeah I suppose videos games can be considered sports. But none of those games are quite the same thing as boxing, tennis, hockey, etc. There's a clear difference between those types of activities, lumping them all together as sports doesn't make "FaZe Temperrr" an athlete the way that LeBron James is an athlete.

The definition of sport is:
"an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment."

E-Sports are not sports unless it involves the Wii or some shit. It doesn't take away or diminish anything that doesn't require physical exertion, it's just different. An athlete requires athleticism, e-sports do not require athleticism, they require a much different skillset involving the ability to multi-task, process information, make sound decisions, and have quick reaction times.

 

[John Price]

Shout out to my good friend FaZe Crowder

 

[Ceremony]

The definition of sport is:
"an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment."

E-Sports are not sports unless it involves the Wii or some shit. It doesn't take away or diminish anything that doesn't require physical exertion, it's just different. An athlete requires athleticism, e-sports do not require athleticism, they require a much different skillset involving the ability to multi-task, process information, make sound decisions, and have quick reaction times.

Not sure this is a good argument to separate the two given literally every athlete in any sport has to do this

 

[NyQuil]

I don't understand why something has to be characterized as a "sport" in order to be entertaining and competitive.

It's not a ranking or a tier, it's just categorization of the activity.

For the record, while athletes make great golfers, I don't consider it a sport but more of a game.

The same applies to curling, chess, darts, snooker and pool, etc.

Baseball has always been a bit borderline for me judging by some of the designated hitters.

 

[PK Cronin]

Not sure this is a good argument to separate the two given literally every athlete in any sport has to do this

That's not true. Golf is a sport and doesn't require multi-tasking or quick reaction times. Most sports don't require people to multi-task in the same way many e-sports do. The bottom line is that sports require physical activity/exertion in addition to other skills while e-sports do not.

 

[aleshemsky83]

eSports are not sports, but that's okay.

 

[Shareefruck]

At the end of the day, it's all pretty much irrelevant, and how I feel about either has more to do with how much I respect the individual game itself, how it's presented, how cool mastery looks, and how the people involved carry themselves rather than the amount of physical exertion required.

 

[780il]

Grew up watching the og Faze guys cod videos and when they were in the NY Faze house. Crazy that they’ve come this far.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

The definition of sport is:
"an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment."

E-Sports are not sports unless it involves the Wii or some shit. It doesn't take away or diminish anything that doesn't require physical exertion, it's just different. An athlete requires athleticism, e-sports do not require athleticism, they require a much different skillset involving the ability to multi-task, process information, make sound decisions, and have quick reaction times.

Dictionary.com defines a sport as “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess”. Professional esports players absolutely exhibit physical prowess and skill, which is finely tuned and meticulously trained. I also think that the mental exertion required for the top-level of esports trumps the physical exertion from some traditional sports.

The definition of sport is clearly shifting. Is competitive Cornhole a sport? Is chess a sport? (The IOC says yes). Is drone racing a sport?

 

[Ceremony]

On the Olympics note, it's worth pointing out they're doing "physical and non-physical virtual sports" this year if that's a definition that appeased anyone: International Olympic Committee makes landmark move into virtual sports by announcing first-ever Olympic Virtual Series - Olympic News (olympics.com)

 

[Mikeaveli]

I don't really understand why people need to force it and call them "e-sports". Just call them what they are, competitive video games. Not everything has to be a sport. Nobody in their right mind would call something like Magic: The Gathering or the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG a sport despite them being very competitive, but for some reason video games need to be called a sport.

Not that it's really a big deal lol, I just find it interesting.

 

[Osprey]

I don't really understand why people need to force it and call them "e-sports". Just call them what they are, competitive video games. Not everything has to be a sport. Nobody in their right mind would call something like Magic: The Gathering or the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG a sport despite them being very competitive, but for some reason video games need to be called a sport.

Not that it's really a big deal lol, I just find it interesting.

I think that there's some embarrassment at the thought that their "job" is playing video games competitively, and framing it as though they're athletes playing a sport makes it less embarrassing. It's sort of like how women call themselves "dancers" or "cam girls" instead "strippers," IMO. I'm not one to embarrass or judge people for what they do for money, but I'm not necessarily going to go along with how they justify it to themselves, either.

 

[x Tame Impala]

I don’t think many people who’ve played real, physical, competitive sports at any point in their lives would consider E-Sports an actual sport. It doesn’t need to be. It was a dumb name to begin with.

It’s such a cool thing on its own and doesn’t need to be lumped in with the “Big 4”+ soccer. The audience they’ve build doesn’t tune in because they’re in the mood to watch sports. They just love videogames and love seeing the competition.

 

[Dolemite]

I don’t think many people who’ve played real, physical, competitive sports at any point in their lives would consider E-Sports an actual sport. It doesn’t need to be. It was a dumb name to begin with.

It’s such a cool thing on its own and doesn’t need to be lumped in with the “Big 4”+ soccer. The audience they’ve build doesn’t tune in because they’re in the mood to watch sports. They just love videogames and love seeing the competition.

Honestly? PvP is an extremely mentally taxing as you have laser like focus while trying to do multiple complex calculations on anticipating the enemy movements to where coupled with the range/damage of your weaponry and what can be used where/when. The confusion comes from the lack of physical exertion sitting in a chair while the brain is getting an overdrive workout.

That said, League of Legends doesn't fall into this category.

 

[PK Cronin]

Dictionary.com defines a sport as “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess”. Professional esports players absolutely exhibit physical prowess and skill, which is finely tuned and meticulously trained. I also think that the mental exertion required for the top-level of esports trumps the physical exertion from some traditional sports.

The definition of sport is clearly shifting. Is competitive Cornhole a sport? Is chess a sport? (The IOC says yes). Is drone racing a sport?

Physical prowess requires physical activity. Sitting in a chair is not a physical activity. Mental exertion is not what makes something a sport, otherwise mathletes would be called athletes. You start getting way too broad when using your definition and you'd end up having to include all sorts of other things. Is competitive cooking a sport? Ice sculpting? Can competitive drawing be a sport now? They require similar skills to esports. The things that separate esports professionals and others has little to nothing to do with athleticism or physical prowess. Just so we're clear, I played StarCraft at a very high level (within the top 1% of all players) it had nothing to do with my athletic ability.

Cornhole is not a sport to me, no, and neither is chess. The IOC also removed wrestling, no? They're into making money not defining what sports are. Drone racing is not a sport. There are things that require physical activity that I personally wouldn't consider a sport either, but an athletic competition (think anything routine based or with judges only) but that gets into a whole other topic.

---

Regarding the article, I think the growth of esports is great. It's really interesting to see how various communities react to the different ways in which they are presented games. I do think that games are kind of a challenge to corral though because it's an always changing landscape, from players, to patches for games, new games, and trends within the gaming communities.

I'm not sure one organization will ever be as big as some of the people in that article think.

 

[SuperScript29]

I would lump this in the same category as Chess. Whether you think Chess is a sport or not is up for debate.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

As someone who loves a good deal of sports and video games, I just don't get e-sports...nor the need to call competitive multiplayer a sport

Nothing against the whole concept or anything, it just feels like poker again. It's fully allowed to be it's own thing, but the overlap seems pretty nominal and I don't get this need to cross streams when the connection feels so forced. I'm cool with e-sports as long as I don't have to interact with them...well, mostly cool. I do blame them, along with certain greedy business practices, for destroying the sports games that used to take up most of my free time...eh, saves me some money at least.

To put it another way...I like Smash Bros, especially with friends. The second I'm playing with somebody who takes it even slightly seriously it ceases being fun immediately.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

Physical prowess requires physical activity. Sitting in a chair is not a physical activity. Mental exertion is not what makes something a sport, otherwise mathletes would be called athletes. You start getting way too broad when using your definition and you'd end up having to include all sorts of other things. Is competitive cooking a sport? Ice sculpting? Can competitive drawing be a sport now? They require similar skills to esports. The things that separate esports professionals and others has little to nothing to do with athleticism or physical prowess. Just so we're clear, I played StarCraft at a very high level (within the top 1% of all players) it had nothing to do with my athletic ability.

Cornhole is not a sport to me, no, and neither is chess. The IOC also removed wrestling, no? They're into making money not defining what sports are. Drone racing is not a sport. There are things that require physical activity that I personally wouldn't consider a sport either, but an athletic competition (think anything routine based or with judges only) but that gets into a whole other topic.

I think it really just boils down to the opinion of what constitutes “physical prowess”. I think the physical skills that high level professional esports players exhibit (manual precision, reaction time, and hand-eye coordination) at such a high level are ABSOLUTELY examples of physical prowess. These are highly trained physical actions that the players are Displaying.

I very strongly disagree that what separates an esports professional from anyone else is “little to nothing to do with physical prowess”. There are some people who, no matter how much they train, will never have the physical capabilities to reach the level of top esports players. They just don’t have the physical skills (dexterity, reaction time, or coordination. Just like someone could train for 12 hours a day on the links and never become a pro golfer.

I don’t get why you’re limiting your definition of “physical prowess” to be synonymous with “athleticism”. I think you’re discounting the actual physical skill required to compete in esports professionally. These guys aren’t just dudes who played games a lot. They have better physical mechanics and/or mental processing than the average joe. That counts as physical prowess to me.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

I don't really understand why people need to force it and call them "e-sports". Just call them what they are, competitive video games. Not everything has to be a sport. Nobody in their right mind would call something like Magic: The Gathering or the Yu-Gi-Oh TCG a sport despite them being very competitive, but for some reason video games need to be called a sport.

Not that it's really a big deal lol, I just find it interesting.

It’s rather disingenuous to put MTG or Yu-Gi-Oh in the same discussion as E-sports, or competitive video games, as you prefer.

Esports require high levels of training, mental prowess, and actual physical skill.

That’s why many people consider them Electronic-Sports (E-sports).