First 'StarCraft 2' player officially recognized as an athlete by U.S. government

The Daily Dot ^ | 12/11/2013 | Patrick Howell O'Neill

[Domandred]

I've playing in some tourneys. Some of these pros seem like they have their computers wired directly into their heads.

[FreedomStar3028]

Ya, Starcraft 2 is hard. Not joking either.

[vladimir998]

Oh, for crying out loud. . .

[driftdiver]

In South Korea they have tournaments and hundreds of people watch the guys play.

Its kinda nuts.

[Domandred]

It’s getting that way here in the US. But in South Korea some pro gamers are household names complete with commercial endorsements like any of our football/basketball players.

[barmag25]

This is kinda like playing FarmVille on Facebook and then applying for farm subsidies.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Barry might want to check with Donovan McNabb on this. He’s the athlete “expert”.

[KC_Lion]

I call Dibs on Taeyeon.

[GeronL]

weird

Apparently South Korea has a cable channel or something devoted to professional gaming

[ClearCase_guy]

“I just wish the damn thing came with an instruction manual. For all we know we could be upsettin’ the entire space-time continuum!”

[GeronL]

Apparently being nicknamed “Violet” in Korea doesn’t mean they think you are gay

[FreedomStar3028]

It’s nothing like that, Starcraft and Starcraft 2 take very very high levels of concentration, hand eye co-ordination, finesse, intelligence and HOURS AND HOURS of training to play at a semi - pro level. Probably more than a professional football player. eSports should certainly be recognized for scholarships and visas. More academic than slamming into guys and playing grab ass in the shower.

[GeronL]

I don’t think we should allow dibs. lol

[Pearls Before Swine]

I find this very amusing.

One of my sons got pretty good at Starcraft. He said that he was almost as good as a 12 year old Korean. He said it’s a national sport, complete with special media coverage.

[KC_Lion]

Yeah, they say Sunny is too tomboyish because she can handle some light Farm work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtglEZZ7UiU

Geez!

[Viennacon]

That’s your immigration services at work.

[Wayne07]

more than hundreds come to watch - look at this pic from the finals in 2010:

[FreedomStar3028]

I’ve played thousands upon thousands of hours of Starcraft, Starcraft: Brood War, and Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty. These korean pros would make me look like an NFL linebacker playing a little league player. You either have it or you don’t.

[GeronL]

Sunny is cool! Some of those girls have probably never had to do “real work” before (outside of the bidness, you know what I mean, I know they practice all day and into the night sometimes)

[GeronL]

I was wrong, South Korea has 2, 2!, channels devoted to all things video game and gaming.

Ongamenet and MBCgame

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ongamenet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBC_Game