Maybe you’ve had this argument before, and hardcore gamers and advocators for gaming love to boast about how video games should be a sport, but this idea of E-Sports comes with some serious flaws. It wasn't long ago I spent many teenage years devoted to World of Warcraft and let me be the first to tell you how real sports take a much different type of skill set. Yes, being good at gaming requires competitiveness, practice, energy and skill, these traits alone don't make gaming a sport. The attributes and skills required to be a gamer have little to do with the actual body, especially in comparison to something like soccer, basketball or hockey.

Let me begin, video games are not a sport because they take little physical competency and have almost no risk of injury. For argument’s sake, a gamer might experience arthritis, hand cramps, dry eyes and maybe a hurt ego, but there is practically no chance of getting seriously hurt while gaming.

Learner's dictionary defines a sport as “a contest or game in which people do certain physical activities according to a specific set of rules and compete against each other”. Sport can be interpreted in many ways and we should consider the historical context that sports have roots in, especially given how sports were invented long before the lightbulb and your gaming console. It is a new age where electronic activities have become popular, competitive and require skill, and though these are important elements of sports it does not mean that the fundamental physicality of “sport” should be ignored and hijacked by the digital age. Now if you wish to change the definition of “sport” to something more all-encompassing you're going to need to first ask yourself if activities like poker, darts, foosball, pool and others like them are sports? Or maybe they are just games, but hell why draw the line? Why not just let anything go, right? Maybe we will start making gardening a sport too, or how about knitting? What's the harm?

No. Video games are not a sport. Video games are fun, competitive and require skills, but they miss the most important part of a sport and that is how it is a physically active competition done with the body.