The latest instalment of the iconic football video game franchise, FIFA15, is hitting the shelves in Australia, and hype is at an all-time high. This edition is the first specifically designed for the next-generation of consoles.
The franchise has sold over 100 million copies worldwide since its inception in December 1993, and countless football fans, budding managers, uninterested but sociable housemates, and semi-professional procrastinators have spent their best years virtually recreating scenes of sporting glory.
You’d be pretty lucky to find a PlayStation or Xbox owner who didn’t have a copy of at least one version of the FIFA game. It’s a badge, of sorts.
It shows the world that yes, although I might be a gamer, I like sports. I may be borderline overweight and horribly uncoordinated, but here is a sport at which I will beat just about anyone.
It’s a badge that a staggering amount of people wear proudly. Every 90 minutes there are half a million FIFA matches being played worldwide. That’s at least 250,000 people around the world playing FIFA14, at any given time.
With numbers this size, a sense of competition, a desire to be the best, is a natural outcome.
Gamers can compete online against anyone in the world, in randomly selected, rated, or invite-initiated matches. Results are kept track of, and in a very real sense, gamers are ranked and rated.
FIFA14’s internal ranking system (viewable here)
However, external from the EA leaderboards, FIFA fans are assembling; players are organising their own competitions, battling one another for the top spot, and monetising their passion.
Most notably in the Western world, hardcore gaming organisation Major League Gaming, also known for their hilarious ‘MLG’ tagged Youtube videos, are forming their own leagues and tournaments,with actual prize money.
In the Eastern world, gaming is going fully professional, South Korea in particular. Universities in South Korea are now accepting gamers as student athletes for scholarship purposes. The best professional South Korean gamers can earn nearly US$500,000 in a country with an average annual income of US$16,000.
In saying all of this, there is a strong case for gamers to be recognised as athletes, and here’s why.
There is a strong sense of competition
Whether internally within the EA Sports leaderboard system or in externally organised competitions (such as MLGs), players will try their hardest to win. Seriously, you should hear some of the things that 10-year-old British kids say to me when I (very occasionally) score against them. People take this seriously.
Gamers exhibit extraordinary fine-motor control
The good ones do, anyway. To excel at any video game, you need skills that you can only gain by putting in the hard yards, playing until your eyes bleed.
Tactics, tactics, tactics.
You’re not going to beat a possession-focused 4-3-3 Barcelona set up with a 4-4-2 Manchester City side set up to swing in the crosses for Aguero to head in. It just doesn’t work that way. You’ve gotta know your craft.
“But you’ve got to use your body to be an athlete!”
Try telling that to a Nascar driver. For that matter, tell it to Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor, the best darts player in history. He uses little more than his right hand to play his ‘sport’, yet people are happy to acknowledge his status as a sportsman (and rightfully so).
Let’s have a quick look at some of the finest e-athletes (e-thletes?) plying their trade, shall we?
Magic.
Heart-stopping action.
Watching “XxNoobzLoLzxX” pop a Cruyff turn, stepover and nail a 40-yard bomb to the top corner excites me way too much. But hey, I’m an athlete in training and Fifa 15 is my training ground.
I should be getting inspired by this stuff.
From now on, whenever I’m ‘wasting my best years’ or should be ‘helping with the housework’, I’ll just say, “Honey, I hear you, but I’m in training. I’m trying to provide for our future”.
Let’s just hope my girlfriend doesn’t read this article.
Jack Russell
Roar Guru
Who's saying Phil Taylor is an athlete? I reckon his idea of exercise is lifting a pint one handed.
Slane
Guest
You are pressing buttons which correspond to an programmed action. In that regard it's almost more akin to playing an instrument than playing a sport. If you press a certain combination of keys your piano will make beautiful music. If you press a certain combination of buttons your FIFA will make beautiful goals. Is it the fact that you are competing against another individual that makes something a sport? I'm not sure it is.
Nicholas Hartman
Roar Guru
Pro Evolution Soccer at its peak (2004ish) is better than the FIFAs I've played (basically, every edition except 15). EA also spends way too much time on making the game 'real' (eg having a manager sign a book animation when signing a player, real club chants) which makes it pedantic and frustrating, considering how they could've spent that time making the gameplay better.
HarryBalding
Roar Guru
Hi Evan, thanks for weighing in. Golf is a sport in every possible sense of the word, as are archery, curling and lawn bowls. Interesting stat re: champion golfer's ages. However, my 81-old grandpa can still smoke me on the golf course, despite only being able to hit the ball around 130-140m!
Evan Morgan Grahame
Expert
Ridiculous to discount golf. Obviously you haven't seen the condition McIlroy, currently the world's best golfer, is in, or how fit Tiger Woods was at his peak. Golf is incredibly hard on the body at the top level, particularly the back, knees and hips. That's why it's rare for golfers over 45 to win majors, in fact only 33 of the last 410 major championships have been won by a player in his 40s. http://www.independent.ie/sport/golf/how-rory-mcilroy-muscled-his-way-to-the-top-26839628.html
HarryBalding
Roar Guru
Mate I think you should have written this piece, not me!
MD
Guest
Other games could be called sports, sure, but FIFA is as casual as they come.
bryan
Guest
Definition of sport: "an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment." Some sports: Sprinting: The guy/girl who is naturally born with fast twitch fibers and does a bucketload bit of training... To be honest, there really isn't much skill involved. As a famous coach once said, speed cannot be taught. Shooting: The guy/Girl who has a very steady hand, a good eye, and a hell of a lot of practice. Some event are even prone. Again, very little in the way of tactics. Swimming: Big feet, Big hands, long arms, and a massive amount of training. A surprising amount of technique, but no strategy. E-Sports. there is a huge variety, but to be highly competitive, you do need a few things: Encyclopedic knowledge of the game: Especially important for RTS and MOBA, but required for every type of game. Does a 3/2 marine beat 3x3/3Lings? Encyclopedic knowledge of the Map: This is not the simple cheat sheet players are given before playing at specific MLB grounds, but a huge array of knowledge of placements, movements and ranges. Massively important for RTS games, but even FPS need to know everything to the millimeter. "If I crotch just here, and throw that grenade just there, it will land right there" Teamwork/Communication: Hugely important for FPS, MOBA and other games. Unless you have played at a high level, you just don't understand. For example, in rugby, defense communication is key. But all it requires is you saying "I got 14" In an e-sport, it is a hugely tactical battle occurring continuously. This is not a simple excerise Tactics: I know the NFL has some crazy tactics, and cricket can place fields. Rugby union can choose a kicking game or a running game. These tactics update continuously, and are hard to spot from the outside. But compare that to an e-sport. Quite simply, you expect the rule book to be changed every 3-4 months with an update, new maps, new skills or whatever. Millions of people are working on their tactics everyday, and new tactics can be improved upon on a daily basis, especially with gaming forums. To stay at the forefront, you really do need to spend massive hours to stay there. Physical attributes: This is were most people think e-sports fall down but I tend to disagree. In the end, there are a lot of sports that require only 1 god given attribute, like sprinting. Hell, there NFL is broken down to such a state that there is a guy who is on the field for 3 kicks a game. That's it. No running or anything, just kick a ball. E-sports require suberb hand-eye co-ordination. I'm talking crazy levels. Top level Starcraft players average 300 actions a minute, average, with maximums at over 800. Doing this, combined with tactical and strategic decisions, over a 30 minute match is bloody hard work. Play upwards of 10-15 days in a day, and suddenly nutrition and other things are important. Anyway, before you judge the physical requirements of a game, Play starcraft, get to Gold, and try and raise your APM to 150, and you will realise very very quickly that it is a hell of a lot more taxing than a lot of sports.
HarryBalding
Roar Guru
I think you've got way off of your original topic there, TM. We weren't talking about top-level sport, we were talking about “Any sport”, and whether or not to be called a sport, in your words, the player of that sport was of prime age, of peak physical condition, and had an expiry date. I.e., in order to be called a sport, the person playing it had to be able to described as an 'athlete'. If you don't want to call eGaming a sport, that's fine. Understandable, even. But your claims as outlined above make much less sense that describing FIFA15 as a sport. Maybe you should write a piece on 'what sports need to accomplish in order to be called a sport.' I'd definitely read it. Probably wouldn't agree with it though.
nordster
Guest
Yeah there is some games that i can respect the competitive gamer culture more than others. Especially anything requiring aiming ability and such. I am failing badly at Destiny right now but the extent of my shooter experience is GTA so no surprise there! The planet scapes are beautiful though...and i am going thru a Robert Heinlein phase too. The day they merge a football manager esque career mode into fifa is the day i never leave my house, and officially merge with the borg;) There were actually these kids in japan in late 90s i think it was who would be holed up in their rooms playing winning eleven 24/7. It became a whole social phenomenon over there. The parents would just like wait on them and go with it. Maybe thats why ea sports wont upgrade career mode properly, fearing the social costs to our already jellyfish brained culture :)
The Minister
Guest
Of course we're comparing the top echelons of every sport. Fat Dave getting dressed up in white and moving around the court like a turtle doesn't make him an athlete either but at the top level you need to be an athlete to play tennis. For my definition of fitness, you can look that up yourself, it's the description you'll find in a dictionary. In the case of lawn bowls, if a 75 year old granny can underhand roll a bowl down a green without breaking into a sweat it would not make that a yard stick for peak physical condition. To conclude, in sports you need to be in top physical condition to compete at the top level. In gaming you don't. Nice try though. ;-)
The Minister
Guest
No disdain on my part. I just wanted to pop a few balloons here with some people who think using your thumb and index finger will get you a ticket into the sporting hall of fame....whether chess,darts,marbles or e-gaming.
HarryBalding
Roar Guru
You don't have to be an athlete to play a sport, haha. 'Athlete' has connotations of high levels of physical fitness and performance, but you don't need to have either of those to play a sport. Think Fat Dave down at the local tennis comp. Not a fit specimen, is over 50, but are you telling me that because he's not an 'athlete', he's not playing a sport? Also, what do you define as fitness? The ability to underhand-roll a bowl onto a bowling green requires your arm, hand and wrist be fit enough to hold and roll a ball, and for your heart not to burst while doing it. I may seem a bit pedantic by picking on your arguments here mate but I really don't think they stand up.
Kane Cassidy
Roar Guru
I'm a huge advocate of competitive gaming, it's been happening for a very long time with games like Chess and Darts so why not games like League of Legends, Call of Duty and of course FIFA? I wish Football Manager was professional, maybe I could actually get paid for achievements like this. http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/3332972979379337424/05E19244A2197E9814F665BECBD96F27E0F6DE30/ My best placing in a challenge, 6th out of 10,000 people, it's a weird feeling being literally one of the best, I'm hoping to continue this and get high placings on every challenge in FM15, maybe I'll get some recognition.
nordster
Guest
You think so? Hmmmm. The success rate of hal players leaving to play against more higher rated ovr leagues is not that good on the whole. Most of them come back after enjoying some time as a train on squad member. Its probably about right, if u remove the cheerleading sensitivity effect of local fans;)
Kane Cassidy
Roar Guru
I don't think it should be considered a sport, but competitive FIFA and general video gaming is just the next step in a long line of games going professional. The fact that bowling and darts aren't played outdoor in a physical environment hasn't hampered their growth in Australia, why should this be different, competitive FIFA will flourish even with your aparrent disdain.
The Minister
Guest
Let's look at the word athlete for example. Athletes come in different shapes and sizes depending on whether their sport is a short distance or long distance event or on what degree of strength is required whether team sport or individual. What it all comes down to is IF a "sport" doesn't require an iota of physical fitness to succeed in it is it a sport and can we call the participants athletes? A lot of people tend to blur the line there but if someone tries to call his game a sport but can't call himself an athelete then it's not a sport in my book. It was the ancient greeks who gave us the word athlete. I have a fair idea of what they had in mind.
Kyle Stewart
Roar Pro
esports are not sports While on the topic of fifa, i hate how ea underrates the a-league every year
HarryBalding
Roar Guru
I think you'd have a pretty tough time convincing anyone that "Any “sport” where the “athelete” doesn’t have a shelf life and where 60 year olds can compete with 20 year olds are not sports anymore but games and leisure activities." What do you base that on? Surely if there is an element of using your body (or a part of it), an element of competition, and rules to the game, then that makes it a sport. I think you are commenting on 'competitive sport', rather than just 'sport'.
The Minister
Guest
What point are you trying to make? The argument was whether e-gaming should be considered a sport. And....?