I hope ESPN President John Skipper's email inbox is empty, because he's about to get a whole lot of obnoxious hate. That's because Skipper, when asked about his thoughts on Amazon's $970 million purchase of Twitch, the popular video game streaming website notable for broadcasting eSports, had the audacity to call eSports "not a sport."
Here's his official response, via re/code:
"[eSports] is not a sport—it's a competition. Chess is a competition. Checkers is a competition. Mostly, I'm interested in doing real sports."
In 2013, League of Legends' World Championship Finals were played at the Staples Center, home of the NHL's Los Angeles Kings and NBA's Los Angeles Lakers. This year, it's being played in Sangam Stadium, the Seoul World Cup Stadium, which has a massive 66,800 capacity.
Still not a sport?
What about the small fact that eSports are now being recognized by even the United States government as a "real" sport, providing pro gamers with the same visas that are given to professional athletes.
Still don't think it's a sport, Skip?
How about, you are head of a network that streamed DOTA 2's 10 million dollar The International championship.
Pro gamers go through the same grueling training regimens as those Skip says play "real" sports, and the fact that he dismisses eSports as nothing more than a "competition" is simply a ridiculous statement. This is just a simple case of some big-wig in a suit not understanding the fundamentals of what's required to be a professional gamer. I'd really like to see him sit down and play StarCraft, or League of Legends, or Call of Duty with the best in the world — that opinion will change real quickly.
