A science-backed reply to someone saying “eSports is not a sport!”
What do you reply to the boss of the US sports network ESPN when he declares eSports “not a sport”? What answer would you expect asking a scientist if eSports is real sports? With eSports becoming bigger each year and drawing attention also from mainstream audiences, this question will definitely be an issue not so easily to be settled, even if the core of the competitive gaming scene has set its mind on this already. Reason enough for us to ask a leading German sports scientist about his opinion. If we would not have done so much research on eSports for the production of our conference recently, his answers would have been a surprise to us. But as it is always good to have an expert backing up your own opinion, we are excited to deliver you a legit scientific answer you can show the ESPN boss next time he gives his personal definition of sports.



Prof. Dr. Ingo Froböse, Head of Center for Health through sport and movement at the German Sport University Cologne(Cologne,德國教授 ), is a renowned expert and was a successful athlete himself. To bridge the gap between “traditional sports” and the scene of competitive gaming, which is still new to many brands, we invited him and his research assistant Christopher Grieben as speakers to CGC Europe. Read our short interview why we believe this was a good idea.

Not only the gaming world is having this heated discussion: Is eSports a sport at all? How you define sport? And does Competitive Gaming match your definition?

Sport is more than visible movements you see on a sports field. In fact, this is just one component of a big puzzle that defines the term “sport”. Mental skills, strategies or training are just a few other examples of components which influence the performance. All of them can be found in Competitive Gaming. Although the visible movement may not be comparable to traditional sports like football or swimming, the motor activity component of Gaming should not be underestimated. The movements may be in a smaller range but they are usually very fast and accurate. For that reasons, Competitive Gaming can be ranked among the “normal” sports.

“Mens sana in corpore sano” is a Latin aphorism that might get a new meaning in digital sports. How important is physical fitness for the capability of an eSports athlete?

In our daily work, we pursue a comprehensive and holistic approach. That means that we focus on nutrition as well as on mental and physical aspects. Performance is a complex structure built on many different pillars. For that reason, training only one of these aspects equals building just one pillar - it may work, but it will never be an excellent result. As such, our challenge and task is to integrate these pillars into our daily life with the aim of achieving sustainable impact.

eSports still is a world that is functioning as a closed system, although it is reaching millions already. What are the necessary steps to attract an audience for this sport apart from the gaming world?

From my point of view it is still necessary that different stakeholders (teammangers, players, clubs and federations) continue to intensify public education with the objective of a better understanding for example of gaming strategies. The clubs should offer free introductory courses for everyone. In general all of the stakeholders have to work on the image of aneGamer. They have to identify the manifold and ambitious requirement profile.eSports is more than just gaming.

Do you think that service providers based in traditional sports like agents, sponsoring-agencies, motivational coaches and personal trainers might find a field of activity in eSports?

eSports is currently in an initial phase of its development.Especially in Germany structures around gaming like analyzing, team-managing or movement and nutrition coaching are not established in general. In this case, the German scene can learn a lot fromother countries.

Source: http://cgc-europe.com/blog/when-someone-says-esports-not-sport