

US Immigration recognizes League of Legends players as pro athletes - changdizzle
http://pandodaily.com/2013/07/15/95749/

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_delirium
As the article notes, this is a pretty standard immigration classification for
people who travel to participate in competitive tournaments; chess players are
classified similarly. It's not really about the U.S. immigration service
"validating" anything as a cultural category, just classifying what kind of
business travel the people in question are engaged in, from the perspective of
immigration law.

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blutack
An issue I see here is the relatively rapid trend changes within e-sports
compared to more traditional sports. What happens when League of Legends 2 is
released (or everyone drops it and moves to DOTA 2)? Or Starcraft 3?

Would it not be more appropriate to classify e-sports as a single sport, with
various subcategories for the individual games (or even game types)?

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wslh
They can even recognize professional players as militaries.

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wslh
I am sure that a crazy gamer will be like Ender.

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JonSkeptic
Is 'athlete' really the appropriate term? 'Pro' yes. A pro LoL player is
probably less athletic than pro pool player.

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steveklabnik
I only dabble with LoL, but in StarCraft, there is a physical element: it's
really tiring to sustain a high APM while also maintaining accuracy.

Micro is certainly a different kind of physical prowess than sprinting 100m,
but I think it's close enough to qualify.

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j_horvat
Avid LoL scene follower checking in, most players are in fairly good shape.
With the scene getting more serious and professional most teams are getting
coaches that mandate healthy diets and exercise as part of a team's training,
since you know healthy body healthy mind. So while the game might not be that
physically intensive (though it definitely can be really stressful) most
players do at least undergo some kind of physical 'training'.

Obviously differs from team to team and there are some overweight pros as
well.

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ChessPlayer
That still doesn't make LoL an athletic sport (a sport that requires athletic
capability), it just means some athletic people play LoL.

I'm athletic and I play chess, but chess is not an athletic sport.

    
    
      ath·lete [ath-leet]
    
      A person trained or gifted in exercises or contests involving physical agility, stamina, or strength; a participant in a sport, exercise, or game requiring physical skill.
    
      http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/athlete?s=t

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j_horvat
Totally agree sorry if that came across differently in my comment :)

