Is LAN Gaming A Sport?

    What qualifies as a game? A game has rules, goals, challenge, strategy, chance, interaction and a winner. There is no particular purpose in a game, as in the end result doesn’t produce anything of monetary value. The participants do it for fun. There can be tournaments, ladders and leagues. There may or may not be physical activity involved. There is always some sort of physical object that is used. LAN gaming as a game qualifies in all these areas. The rules and goals are set by the server administrator and agreed upon by all players. The players form strategies to defeat their opponent, including jumping and crouching to avoid deadly projectiles but even the best players in the world get beat at some point. LAN games are played in all different scenarios; there are small LAN parties with no real direction all the way up to large tournaments that determine the best players in the world. All players play because they enjoy it, there is no money to be made from playing that is unless you become one of the elite players in the world that get sponsors or win very big tournaments. Of course when payment is evolved it is no longer a game which leads me to my next point; LAN gaming as a sport.

    What qualifies as a sport? A sport has almost every quality that a game has so what makes it different? We say that basketball is a game but we also call it a sport. The difference is that there is profit to be made just by playing. LAN gamers play for fun and this can be seen at all levels from the smallest meetings to the largest tournaments but the moment they are paid for playing they have just crossed the barrier into the wide world of sports.

    So which do I consider LAN gaming to be? I think it is both. The reason is the same reason I consider basketball both a game and a sport. People play it in the smallest settings to the largest settings with all sorts of variations in rules, goals and strategies but it all comes back to making a profit. Have you ever heard the rule in math a rectangle is a square but a square is not a rectangle? Well this is the case here. Even though a profit is being made the things that make it a game still apply.