This is the front page of ESPN.com right now. I mean, I know EPSN’s lesser channels are broadcasting/streamingThe International, but still. That’s DOTA 2 front and centre on ESPN.com’s front page. Crazy.
(thanks Insanely Gaming!)
This Is The Front Page Of ESPN.com Right Now.
Comments
11 responses to “This Is The Front Page Of ESPN.com Right Now.”
I’m not seeing it?
Me neither. Right now doesn’t mean right now =P
It was up about 12 hours ago.
there is no mention of dota anywhere on espn.com at all
I know right! I went to different page/location makeovers for the site, fiddled around on the main page, tried to check with the original picture if anything was different… Nothing. There is nothing there at all!
not a fan of Dota or any Moba really. but i love the fact that gaming is front page on a Majorly respected sports news site.
But it’s not, that’s what the other commenters have noticed 😛
It doesn’t worry me because I don’t think it will happen, but I’d have to say if I ever DID see a day when playing games with a mouse and keyboard was a legitimately recognised mainstream “sport” I’d actually be a little sad about it.
I’m happy for watching games to be a mainstream form of entertainment, in the same way that reality television shows like survivor or even gameshows are, but they shouldn’t be chewing up column inches in places that cover real, physical sports (like ESPN is supposed to).
It’s nothing personal against the self proclaimed “e-atheletes”, it’s for the exact same reason that I don’t want to see the winner of MasterChef on the back page of my paper.
Kinda with you on this one Foggy. I love e-sports, but I love physical sports so much more. Athleticism can’t be measured as well in PC games and that makes it difficult to watch for the masses.
Haha, good to see I’m not the only one being downvoted.
Some people get so caught up in the idea that games should be accepted and loved by all that they lose track of reality.
I love games, I want others to love them, but I don’t think the world is made better by people who are good at games being given the same level of admiration and recognition those who succeed in more physical pursuits.
If you’re die-hard enough about it you can totally make the argument that gamers are “athletes”, that succeeding in games requires many of the same attributes as are required in traditional sports, or even that games themselves are no different to traditional sports.
To me the argument is kinda embarrassing, like someone who works at McDonalds but who craves validation so badly that they tell girls that they’re a professional chef. They can totally do it, but why would you?
Games are a skill, they’re a competition but I think it’s stretching to call them a sport in the traditional sense which the average person would understand. If I met someone in the pub who told me they were a professional gamer who made a living off games I’d think that was awesome, if they called themselves an “e-athlete” I’d be more likely to think they were a massive tool.
That might change one day though. There’d be a level at which something like the Oculus Rift would meet the criteria where an average person would view it as an athletic endeavour. We’re still a ways off yet though.
As long as the distinction is made between e-sport and sport then I don’t see why there wouldn’t be room for both. E-Sport has teams, managers, analysts, sponsors, players (re: athletes) spectators, drama, televised matches and streams, commentators that people recognise and so on and the same can be said of traditional sports, or the catch all sports ball as it is known in these parts. I’ll concede that we don’t have burly men touching each others asses in short shorts and there are only a few minor incidents relating to broken bones etc but I hold that this is a positive.
The sooner that the closed minded recognise that the competitive games some of us enjoy aren’t trying to muscle in on their hallowed sports ball fields nor take anything away from the accomplishments of their athletes then they will find that we can actually be friends and enjoy different things. Hell, I watch TI, LCS etc but I also found myself up bright and early for the world cup recently, tennis when I have time and when the olympic games roll around chances are I will be losing sleep again.
Generic argument about how chess, bowling and snooker are all considered sports and how they are as much about mental agility over physical might so why can’t video games be the same goes here.
tl;dr Can’t we all just get along and enjoy stuff we enjoy without the need for labels