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[Syf]

Completely agree tbh, videogames feel out of place at x-games.

 

[SmokedMeat]

There's nothing athletic about sitting on your ass with a controller.

This is all about bringing in more younger viewers.

 

[ponpo]

Arcade bemani is more x-treme than any sport. That's just reality.

 

[TheDarkKnight774]

I'm almost certain that you weren't alive when ski racing was introduced to the olympics.

Reread what I type. When did I say racing? Racing isn't the showcase of xgames. It's the jumps, tricks, etc.

 

[Purest 78]

I agree 100%

 

[.la1n]

While I find it hilarious it's coming from someone involved with X-Games of all things I do think competetive gaming should exist separate from athletic competition. Why do people feel the need to mesh the two?

 

[Nickle]

Video games aren't extreme, the punishment for failure is not getting to twiddle your thumbs more.

 

[Zomba13]

Eh, I kinda understand. I mean, the X-games and other competitions of that type are physical/skill things and not games. I'm absolutely not opposed to e-sports or e-sports medals/trophies/prize money but I do kinda think they should be their own thing and not part of another sporting competition.

 

[EvilKatarn]

If I turned on the TV to watch X-games and they showed me Halo 5 I'd probably trash my cable box.

 

[BLunted]

Well, she's not wrong...

 

[PillarEN]

Golden... license plates?

I like to think of them as oversized dog tags.

 

[Osu 16 Bit]

I can see her point. Video games are there own thing. It takes incredible skill and determination to excel at competitive gaming, esports deserves it's own medals.

 

[KodaRuss]

I guess the X games are struggling in viewership? I cant tell you about any current skateboarders any more, does Chris Cole still compete? (I am 30 now so that could be it...)

Regardless, I don't believe that gaming should be a part of it but I doubt they really asked to be there? Could be wrong, wouldn't surprise me if the X games reached out to them and why the hell would they say no.

 

[Fnord]

Video games are not a sport. Then again, I have a stricter definition of sports than many. I don't consider golf, bowling, or billiards sports, either. Competitions based on skill? Sure. Sports? Nope.

 

[cosmicblizzard]

I await the day when Olympic gold metals are license plates.

 

[Doukou]

Should be a separate event. I really don't think sports and competitive gaming mix well.
Though X-games aren't the Olympics, they want to make money not showcase athletic prowess.

 

[Dryk]

Videogames don't belong at the X-Games. That's a weird concept to me.

Unless in a chess boxing style context

 

[RedAssedApe]

i love that the guy is repping USA on the left.

i don't think she's wrong...but calling out gamers is dumb (using hashtags #couchgames #athletesonly tells me enough about how she views e-sports).

call out whomever planned the event and decided that the winners should get the same medals as those participating in the actual x-games.

 

[stan423321]

I await the day ESPN will stream IOI live.

 

[entremet]

hey remember when the x-games used to get laughed at by real athletes for like decades because they were basically a bunch of venice beach rejects

Are you young? It's been ridiculed as gimmicks and for wasted rejects for years. I'm talking of course of all the tricks and jumps. And all the pushback when they showed up in the olympics

Yeah, I do.

But I wonder how many youngers poster grew up when the Xgames were not ridiculed lol.

 

[D i Z]

She's right. And it's stupid to pretend that there is even some kind of equivalence in athletics here.

 

[zombieshavebrains]

Who is kristi whoever?

 

[NinjamicWZ]

Most of the activities, not all, were pretty loudly derided when the X-games launched. The events were mocked by many sports journalists and "real" athletes.

Just look at the beginning of this article http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1873166,00.html

That details some of the early reaction from the established spaces.

Yeah, I remember. It was a miracle that we even got see stuff like that on TV for most of my childhood and teenage years.

That's probably also why so much of it had to associate itself with small clothing companies, junk food, head shops etc and be on side-channels for so long, just to get off the ground and put the money together, because Quaker Oats and Wells Fargo obviously weren't going to come knocking any time soon. A lot of the early marketing prospects shaped the culture spread. A lot of the rejection from mainstream America shaped the counter culture that sticks with it.

Same thing with our Dewrito Popery and our totally rad origins. Same thing with hip-hop and any brand of liquor or fashion, or battle rap with more cheap iron-on shirts than you can imagine. Get in where you fit in.

 

[Pop]

That Halo tournament was more entertaining than anything else happening at the X-Games.

So there's that

 

[CambriaRising]

I didn't even know they had videogames at the X Games.


Or that the X Games were still a thing.

 

[Consumer]

Halo should not be at the X-Games. What's extreme about hitting buttons on a controller?

E-sports emphasize mental exertion rather than physical; doesn't make them any less worthy of being sports. They're just as competitive.

I can't believe we're in 2016 and people still believe the stereotype that the prerequisite for being considered a sport is for a bunch of big, dumb grunts to be running around a field trying to score a ball into an enemy's zone.

 

[bman94]

I agree with her. Some of those events could result in serious injury and I wouldn't want to be compared to video games either if I was an athlete.

 

[Off-Kilter]

Well I agree with her.

.

 

[RobNBanks]

lol why she mad tho?

because she doesnt have one

 

[Nanashrew]

hey remember when the x-games used to get laughed at by real athletes for like decades because they were basically a bunch of venice beach rejects

I remember! Took some years before anyone acknowledged that things like skateboarding and others were accepted. Then people also finally learned that stuff like skateboarding could be just as physically and mentally exhausting just like any other sport.

 

[IceBringer]

Yea I agree with her. But lol at those medals. Those things are ugly. The bigger outrage is Shaun White not being invited this year.

 

[NewGame]

belongs on a plebs second hand lamborghini

 

[Dryk]

E-sports emphasize mental exertion rather than physical; doesn't make them any less worthy of being sports. They're just as competitive.

I can't believe we're in 2016 and people still believe the stereotype that the prerequisite for being considered a sport is for a bunch of big, dumb grunts to be running around a field trying to score a ball into an enemy's zone.

Most definitions of sport require physical dexterity or skill. Under those definitions shooters still count though because real-time execution matters.

 

[Skux]

And why should esports players even care about the X Games? They're making plenty of money and getting recognition in their own tournaments already.

 

[eznark]

When did the xgames start taking themselves seriously?

 

[Nere]

From which car did they stole those plates?

 

[Pristine_Condition]

She's right. And it's stupid to pretend that there is even some kind of equivalence in athletics here.

Especially the X-Games stuff. In a lot of the X-Games events, if you fuck up, you are probably going to the hospital. X-Games athletes have even suffered fatal injuries.

You fuck up a move in Halo and the worst you can expect is someone calling you a bunch of ethnic, gender, or GLBT slurs on XBox Live.

 

[Pop]

Especially the X-Games stuff. In a lot of the X-Games events, if you fuck up, you are probably going to the hospital. X-Games athletes have even suffered fatal injuries.

You fuck up a move in Halo and the worst you can expect is someone calling you a bunch of ethnic, gender, or homosexual slurs on XBox Live.

Or lose out on thousands of dollars...

 

[Consumer]

Most definitions of sport require physical dexterity or skill. Under those definitions shooters still count though because real-time execution matters.

My point exactly. I wouldn't call something like Chess a sport, but games like LoL, CoD, Halo, RL, & Dota can easily be considered sports.

 

[RedAssedApe]

mathletes around the world crying.

 

[Zomba13]

Or lose out on thousands of dollars...

Which still isn't getting physically injured (or killed).

 

[Elandyll]

I agree with her in the sense that it doesn't matter if they were just winning "a" gold medal for a Halo competition that would just happen to be occurring during the X Games at the same location.

But an X-Game medal? Nah. Not even close.

 

[Majima Everywhere System]

Do people who play video games at a professional level call themselves athletes?

I know a competive smash player that is doing 15 minute 5ks. I bet he does.

 

[newsguy]

You fuck up a move in Halo and the worst you can expect is someone calling you a bunch of ethnic, gender, or homosexual slurs on XBox Live.

Call me emo, but I'll take a trip to the ICU over emotional scars. Those are permanent. *in the arms of the angel plays softly in the background.*

 

[Arby 'n' the Chief]

Well too bad Leskinen EG deserves the hell out of those golden license plates, though I do love that Snip3down replied to her with this LOL

 

[Griss]

I prefer esports to x-games stuff but esports still has no business being there imo.

I'll never accept esports as being an activity that belongs in the same bracket as something that involves full-body dexterity or athleticism. I'm not saying I'll never accept it as a cool, interesting, worthy pursuit, just that I'll never accept that it belongs in the same definition as traditional sports.

 

[Pristine_Condition]

Or lose out on thousands of dollars...

You can lose billions of dollars on the stock market. But nobody is calling a hedge fund manager an athlete.

 

[Fracas]

stay mad nerd

 

[The Real Napsta]

Who is Kristi Leskinen?

 

[newsguy]

Who is Kristi Leskinen?

You ain't Xtreme bruh