The British team that topped the world to win the Championship Gaming Series have called for gaming to be made an Olympic sport.
The 'Birmingham Salvo' beat out US rivals in Los Angeles to be crowned world champs of the gaming league. Eat that!
Brumy team leader Michael O'Dell said that gaming requires enough dedication and skills at the highest level, that it should be recognised at major sporting events like the Olympics.
"I think there are tests going on at the moment about making gaming an Olympic sport," he said. "I would like to think that it will happen and maybe sooner rather than later."
In the final the team had to play five rounds of different games, such as FIFA and Counter-Strike, on different platforms.
"It was a great feeling to have beaten the Americans," said O'Dell. "I said in the build up that if they underestimate us, we would destroy them and we did
"We have some of the best game players in the world on the team and we proved it with the win. We are delighted with it all."
Would Red Bull count as a banned substance at the Gaming Olympics though? We're already assembling our Mario Kart team...
Haha. Thats some funny s**t. Gaming should never be an Olympic sport. The Olympics is about athletes in peak physical condition pushing themselves to the absolute limits (oh that and putting some 2000 chinese people on the streets after their houses were demolished to make way for easier access to the bloody games!!), not some guy sitting on a couch playing Quake!
"and here comes Nicole Cooke our gold winner for womens cycling at the last olympics in beijing, and following her is our leading gaming expert, undefeated at super smash bros. going by the name of "your-mum-is-a-hom" its chris spittle!"
i would happily eat those words if this was ever to happen!
tho i do love these "professional" gamers who get shouted at while there playin, if this kinda thing gets them in the olympics i want these ppl shouting to have megaphones!
Hello.. I am a professional gamer that currently plays for team-dignitas.org. Gaming SHOULD be at the olympics, it needs Skill,Determination,Team Work,Dedication. No different from any of the other sports. A lot of people get the idea of professional gamers being big,fat and nerds. They aint! I am a normal guy who loves playing games for a hobby and also earning thousands of pounds.
The olympics has changed a lot since its ressurection by that french feller back in the late 1890's. It's dropped a lot of definate sporting events, rugby, cricket, polo, and quite a few others. Gained a bunch of odd ones too.
Fundementally though, for a sport to be olympian it must; be practiced in at least 75 countries for a male sport, and 40 for a female, The world anti doping code must be applicable, no means of mechanical propulsion may be used (motor, etc). Quite a few other criteria aswell.
Sure, gaming is popular world wide, but in the main it is strictly as a hobby, not as a sport.
Cricket is trying to get back in under its T20 format, but it's got a lot going against it. Even they stand a better chance than gaming in its current form. Hell. Chess has been hammering on the olympic commissions doors since 1924, and the olympic commission considers it a sport (yes, they do dope tests too would you believe?). Are they in? The commission is 'considering' it for the future. This is something they actually view as a genuine sport.
Can you really imagine as eclectic a subject as gaming getting past the 'laughing in thier face' stage of the application? I mean, which games would get played? What genres? Would the whole event implode if they included 'Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games' as an sport? Too many questions...
sport (GAME) noun 1. a game, competition or activity needing physical effort and skill that is played or done according to rules, for enjoyment and/or as a job.
Gaming does fill most of that criteria apart from the 'physical' part which is probably the most important and defining.
Sports also tend to make/get you physically fit, but apart from a couple of games like DDR and Wii Fit (is it even a game?) you usually end up slouching down on the couch or huddled over your desk
Think Darts, Golf & Dominoes has a better chance than Gaming to get into the Olympics. Anyway, seems to be forgetting that all the people involved in this league thingy they won, were professional. The IOC only allow non-amatuers into the Olympics if they can draw a crowd, like Nadal or NBA players.
Really can't see 50 stone loser competitors called 5p00g3kill3r or B4llick3r being terribly popular.
...and there you have it ladies and gentlemen, the gold goes to John Twiddlestix. That final double back-flip, twist-decapitation with a shimmy strafe was all he needed to see off the competition. As he struggles onto his Segway, pouring with sweat from that final effort, gripping his chest and wheezing like an accordian, the 40 year old live-at-home IT consultant from Croydon manages a brave smile and waves to his doting mother. She, who has stood by him even when this champion was in his darkest hour, with the press hounding him over the now infamous Hot Coffee ver 1.2 doping allegations. "I just want to thank the fanboys, they were l33t (sic.), the noobs can blow me. Lol!" *Keels over and dies*!!!
The IOC only allow non-amatuers into the Olympics if they can draw a crowd, like Nadal or NBA players.
actually that's a common misconception because of the boxing which is only amateur. everything else is purely professional since the olympics is often the pinacle of the other sports.
gaming is a sport, i think. it does require some true skill to be able to achieve such things, but it's a not a truly widespread sport like football or swimming.
i mean, eating a lot of food in 60 seconds is a sport requiring proper skill, but that doesnt mean it's gonna go in, simply because it's not widespread.
ofcourse there is the snobbery to deal with.
frankly if someone tries to be a snob about a sport, they should try the sport out and see if they can match up to true professionals.
Look, we have premiership managers telling us that kids aren't kicking footballs outside their houses or at parks because they spend all their time playing Championship Manager. A slightly extremist comment to make perhaps but when I see how long people have spent playing that and other things like f**king WoW I find it hard to disagree. If we were slapping our kids on the back and congratulating them because they left the local football club to beat the best lap times on Mario Kart Wii we'd have nothing more to say on the issue but clearly that is complete and utter b0ll0x. Games, much as I love them, are an unhealthy 'hobby' and nothing more than.
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