ESPN 2 Showcases Some eSports, Twitter Erupts in Nerd-Hate

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This past Sunday, ESPN 2 showed off over two hours of Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm game, and this apparently did not make “traditional” sports fans happy.

For those who aren’t familiar with ESPN – they’re predominantly a physical sports network, i.e. basketball, American football, etc. While this isn’t the first time we’ve seen video games on a sports network, a 2+ hour block of a video game on national television is nothing to snuff at.


This, sadly, did not make some people happy. “ESPN 2 is reporting on the pinnacle of athletic competition right now,” wrote one Twitter user. “Are we now calling video games a sport? Is that why this is on ESPN 2?? That’ll help America’s obesity problem,” wrote another user.

It got so popular of a discussion that #ESPN2 was trending for awhile.

The MOBA scene has exploded in popularity, creating an almost entirely new culture of professional and even casual players that revel in the competitive nature of this sort of games.

It’s worth mentioning this block of gaming is part of an ongoing, Blizzard-sponsored tournament called “Heroes of the Storm Dorm,” where the winners get a full scholarship for the remainder of their time in college.

So what do you guys think? Are eSports really getting that big and do you consider video games a “sport”? In case you missed it – our own Carl Batchelor wrote an editorial regarding gaming as a hobby, a sport, and of course – the merits of trash talking.n

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Owner and Publisher at Niche Gamer and Nicchiban. Outlaw fighting for a better game industry.


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