The Athletics of Gaming

            I am writing in response to the 6 August 2012 article by John D. Sutter, CNN entitled "Should pro gamers be considered athletes? "This is a topic that is very controversial. What is the definition of an athlete in the first place? An athlete is someone who is proficient in sports and other physical activities by Google's definition. However, that is not all that it takes to be an athlete, physical abilities are important but mental health and mental fortitude is also a big part of playing a sport in an athlete. Electronic sports have become huge and will continue to grow and to me I would consider them to be athletes.
             Like this article mentioned, these pro gamers still do many of the things that athletes do. They are required to lift weights, run and swim in South Korea as pro gamers. They practice hours like athletes to perfect or make their skills better. A typical pro gamer in South Korea practices up to an extreme of twenty hours a day, way more than an athlete involved in a sport like football or basketball. Practicing for twelve hours a day and in some days twenty hours playing a game would get really old real quick, even if it is a game that you absolutely love. That takes extreme passion and extreme love for competition and for the game to practice twelve plus hours a day. A pro gamers' life in Korea at the top level of competition is basically nonexistent. You sleep for about six to eight hours go workout for an hour and then practice the rest of your day for twelve plus hours.
             There is a high level of competition in a variety of games today, in Call Of Duty, Starcraft II, League Of Legends, and so on. All these titles have thousands of fans following the competition and supporting their favorite teams and watching them compete. They compete for prize pools some competitions only a couple thousand, but some prize pools for championships can get up to a whopping one million dollars.