As society continues its spiral into an abyss of ridiculousness, glorifying what was once considered bad or wrong becomes increasingly common and an end to the madness is nowhere in sight.
For an example straight out of the “you can’t make this stuff up” files, check this out.
Playing video games has become a competitive sport at the college level. The term for it is Esports, and the University of Missouri is diving in thumbs first by joining the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) and becoming one of the largest universities in the U.S. to offer an Esports program.
Yep, you got it; young people – particularly high school students – can now be rewarded big-time for wasting hours upon hours in the basement playing video games. There will even be scholarship funds made available to top gaming recruits, and Mizzou has already proudly announced its first recruit.
Go E-Tigers!
A report on the rise of Esports claims it’s the fastest growing sport, reaching a global audience of about 500 million fans. Maybe, but I’d like to point out that lots of people also eat snails, climb to the top of high mountains and get out of their cars to feed bears by hand.
But wow, as amazing as it might seem, “gaming” has apparently broken through the barriers of respect and “gamers” are now going to be looked upon as role models.
It’s worth noting that Mizzou is taking this quite seriously. The E-Tigers will apparently practice and host matches in a 5,000 square foot facility on the Columbia campus, which is reportedly one of the largest university gaming facilities in the nation.
Um, there’s a bigger one somewhere?
You know what all this means. Parents will have to get tough with their kids to make sure they don’t shirk their gaming training.
I can see it now, a teenage boy wants to take the dog for a hike in the forest on a warm spring day. But dad has other ideas.
“You better get in that basement and sit in front of that screen! You can’t expect to be worthy of a scholarship if you don’t put in the time and effort the next kid will!”
It also means colleges will probably have to expand their athletic department medical staff. Surely, no school wishing to have a viable Esports program could be without a Carpal tunnel specialist, and it stands to reason that a massage therapist would need to be ready to – at a moment’s notice – deliver hand and wrist massages worthy of a nationally prominent Esports gamer.
So, will we soon see CBS or ESPN run the NACE match of the week and season-ending playoff tournament? For that matter, when is Esports season?
And will there be an Associated Press Esports top-25 each week during the season? Will there be Esports season ticket holders? Maybe even an Esports Hall of Fame?
And what about technological advances? I guess a good Esports team head coach will have to be ready to make adjustments as new games, techniques and electronic gadgetry enter the picture.
My mind is boggled by the whole concept.
Now, I realize my parents viewed some of the “new stuff” my generation got involved with as “way out there,” so to speak, and I’m at the point in life where I accept that I’m old-fashioned. But college Esports?
I never dreamed of such a thing.
But then, I guess there are college cornhole teams, too, so what do I know? Good grief, reality is sometimes so unreal.
Doug Davison is a writer, photographer and newsroom assistant for the Houston Herald.
Email: ddavison@houstonherald.com.