So if I follow everyone all of you think that no student-athletes will choose to forgo "real sports" for "e-sports" and therefore this is not the beginning of anything?

 

There'd be some who did, sure. It would be a relatively small # though.

So if I follow everyone all of you think that no student-athletes will choose to forgo "real sports" for "e-sports" and therefore this is not the beginning of anything?

Yep. Pretty much the same as any other KHSAA activities. No one stops playing football or basketball and join archery or bass fishing because they enjoy hunting and fishing. I don’t think anyone will stop playing sports just because they enjoy video games.

Something to think about. It's kind of hard to get a concussion or an ACL injury playing e-sports. It's not going to be an issue at the beginning, but e-sports could start taking away from traditional sports further down the road, especially if parents start to figure out that this is an organized alternative.

Something to think about. It's kind of hard to get a concussion or an ACL injury playing e-sports. It's not going to be an issue at the beginning, but e-sports could start taking away from traditional sports further down the road, especially if parents start to figure out that this is an organized alternative.

 

Football is the only sport I can see it potentially taking kids away from, and for the reasons you mention. And I'm good with that since football is slowly dying anyways.

Something to think about. It's kind of hard to get a concussion or an ACL injury playing e-sports. It's not going to be an issue at the beginning, but e-sports could start taking away from traditional sports further down the road, especially if parents start to figure out that this is an organized alternative.

I think the majority of parents still understand the benefits of organized physical activities. I don’t see that ever changing.

Football is the only sport I can see it potentially taking kids away from, and for the reasons you mention. And I'm good with that since football is slowly dying anyways.

 

Football could be the first one, but others could follow. Soccer comes to mind. My friend's daughter, a goalie, has had several injuries hitting her head on the poles of the goal. We've all seen bad injuries in other sports too.

I think the majority of parents still understand the benefits of organized physical activities. I don’t see that ever changing.

 

My wife and I understood the benefits, but times are changing for today's parents. Lots of fear.

That's a major mass generalization. Not all gamers are nerds with no athletic ability.

 

Sorry...that wasn’t my point...notice those are your words not mine:-). My point was simply, I think you’re pulling from a different pool of kids. And sure, there may be a few that give up sports to be gamers, but for the most part, I don’t see kids giving up sports to game competitively. Those who are interested in high level gaming are already doing so and likely already putting in lots more time than your typical kid who’s practicing football 2 hours a day.

My wife and I understood the benefits, but times are changing for today's parents. Lots of fear.

I think that may be an overgeneralization.

I think that may be an overgeneralization.

 

I didn't say "everybody", but we've had threads here on BGP about the future of football. My son started playing football in the 7th grade with the Latonia Indians (a feeder system for Holy Cross). His life was changed for the better by being part of a team sport. That program doesn't exist anymore and Holy Cross is having trouble fielding a team at all. The numbers are not there. I'm not thinking this year or next year, but further down the line. As I said, times are changing.

I didn't say "everybody", but we've had threads here on BGP about the future of football. My son started playing football in the 7th grade with the Latonia Indians (a feeder system for Holy Cross). His life was changed for the better by being part of a team sport. That program doesn't exist anymore and Holy Cross is having trouble fielding a team at all. The numbers are not there. I'm not thinking this year or next year, but further down the line. As I said, times are changing.

I understand the football debate. But I just don’t think a noticeable number of parents will ever say let’s forego physical activity for our child and instead promote e sports. The benefits of playing sports especially as a child such and promoting a healthy, active lifestyle are way too valuable when it comes to setting the child up for the rest of his/her life. It may move away from football (although I do think football won’t go away in any of our lifetimes), but it’s not like football is the only sport kids can play.

Not the end of sports at all. The kids that this would appeal to aren’t playing any sports right now. The negative effect of video games in our society is WAY overstated.

Go find a little league baseball tournament this weekend and poll the kids playing and see how many of them are obsessed with Fortnite. I would almost bet you $100 that 100% of them play it. My son is the only kid his age (9 years old) that I know that doesn't, at least not at home, and that's because we won't get it for him. He can play it when at a friends house but other than that he doesn't. That said, this is no way the end of regular sports. That's a complete overreaction.

Go find a little league baseball tournament this weekend and poll the kids playing and see how many of them are obsessed with Fortnite. I would almost bet you $100 that 100% of them play it. My son is the only kid his age (9 years old) that I know that doesn't, at least not at home, and that's because we won't get it for him. He can play it when at a friends house but other than that he doesn't. That said, this is no way the end of regular sports. That's a complete overreaction.

 

I don’t disagree. I doubt there’s many kids who don’t play video games, and there’s probably a lot that are obsessed. How many of those kids at that tourney would quit baseball to play Fortnite? Probably very few.

From the unknown author:

 

"significant team vs. team strategy"

 

Add in a cool team coach, team uniforms, trips, scholarship opportunities, and who knows and then I think many of you may be underestimating the long term impact.

Really, the end of real sports came when soccer was sanctioned. It pulled too many kids away from the major sports, esp during the seasons that occur the same time of year as soccer. Others like lacrosse, etc have continued that.