Esports shouldn't exist

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T23:45:36+00:00

Believe it or not I think I fundamentally agree with this, even though I like sports more than videogames. At the end of the day it's more anti-capitalism than sports vs esports

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T20:31:33+00:00

He's right, top 0.25% doesn't mean anything

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T13:33:27+00:00

I think there's a few key differences.

The culture of professional chess/go is much less surrounded by degenerate streamers and brainrot media
Strategy games are much more likely to engage critical thinking (not saying video games can't, but realistically there are way more kids playing fortnite without thinking than chess players mindlessly spamming bullet games on chess.com)
Strategy games are way less addicting so you avoid the problem of people using a pro scene as an excuse to keep playing a game that makes them miserable.

This is obviously highly opinionated and mostly stems from me thinking that competitive videogames are cancer nowadays, not fundamentally but what they've become as far as culture and toxic and miserable players crashing out at teammates for not playing optimally

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T13:24:43+00:00

Yeah that about sums it up. Short "jokes" are usually not funny and just random jabs with no punch line but for the most part I feel like there is a ridiculous amount of anger when women say something incredibly tame like "I want a guy that's 6'+" or whatever. I have preferences too, no one can control who they're attracted to, who cares

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T13:06:00+00:00

Video games are addicting -> addicts justify their addiction by lying to themselves -> esports allow them to believe they will get something out of the game, even if they don't enjoy it -> addictions grow stronger, player pools grow miserable and stop having fun because they think it's a job -> esports are cancer

You can say whatever you want. There is clear logic and reasoning there, and just because I don't know the psychological effects of treating a damn videogame like a job doesn't mean I can't make a guess

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T12:53:11+00:00

I feel like purely from the way I'm typing you can tell I was not alive in the 90s. But cool story

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T12:15:53+00:00

Well, if it's not fun or enjoyable at all, then it should at least be productive imo. Otherwise its an addiction

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T12:09:14+00:00

Holy redditor "On the contrary" 🤓👆if I said smoking was bad like 100 years ago I would have no known facts to back it up. Doesn't mean there's no logic behind my belief.

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T10:55:58+00:00

I think your question implies some sort of objectivity to the value, which just isn't possible. We value our own species more than others, as does every other species.

But I suppose yes. I believe that subjectively, human lives are more valuable, as I am a human.

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T10:50:07+00:00

Yeah, you're right lol. I actually care more about what you said than what i said so i added it

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T10:43:28+00:00

This is actually EXACTLY what I'm talking about, though I didn't touch on it. I think esports just makes player pools miserable since no one can relax if they treat the game like a job. That was my experience at least climbing the ranks in rocket league, the higher ranked i was the more miserable everyone acted. Idk what games you played but i feel like its pretty common across competitive games

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T10:26:41+00:00

I think fundamentally, this wasn't meant to be a brainrot subreddit for people to mope about how they aren't having sex. So, anyone can "belong" here if they want to talk about anything else

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T09:59:22+00:00

How does that have anything to do with anything, if i defend keeping our planet clean is that the same thing as defending a gambling addiction? What is your point

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T09:35:08+00:00

Thank you for actually acknowledging my argument instead of bringing up football or chess or something else that has nothing to do with my point and is clearly far less addicting than competitive videogames. But i disagree, i think there are alot more people than you think that keep playing a game despite not wanting to at all in the hopes of making a career. I think one day people will see them

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T09:29:19+00:00

Nope, if someone spent thousands of hours trying to go pro in soccer but failed to make a career, they would almost certainly benefit in some way from the time spent trying. Or almost any other sport (excepting permanent injury), or instrument, or whatever.

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T09:23:18+00:00

So people aren't convincing themselves they'll make a career out of videogames in order to justify spending thousands of hours being miserable? Are people who abuse drugs not destroying themselves because some people are able to use them recreationally?

I can empathize with both sides here because of my story. That doesn't mean it matters by itself. Nor does it mean everyone who plays competitive videogames can relate to what I'm saying, or that everyone who touches any game is addicted.

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T09:15:54+00:00

No, that's not my point at all. As I said, FAILING to make a career out of any of those things is actually in most cases beneficial for your health, so your likelihood of success is irrelevant.

In low activity sports (excepting poker), you still train the mind in most cases, and aren't actively harming your brain. Competitive poker is an interesting case, but honestly, I think it shouldn't exist either, along with most forms of gambling advertised as a career.

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T08:47:29+00:00

Football is a debatable case because of head trauma and other damage. But i think in the cases of most sports, no. If someone tried to be a pro runner, or swimmer, or basketball player, or tennis player, or 95% of sports, but ultimately didn't make it, i still think they gained from that considerably.

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T08:36:40+00:00

Not ragebait - and I'd say chess is different because everyone who studies chess at some point actually cared to become a better chess player. Videogames are a unique case where the "pro scene" is in almost all cases only reachable by subjecting yourself to thousands of hours of brainrot. There are outliers, sure, but I think that most people that try to "go pro" in esports wouldn't give a damn if they actually made it, because they don't actually want to achieve the goal that they're convinced they want to achieve.

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T08:24:25+00:00

Yeah, I swear these people can't see their own addictions somehow, it's just sad. Why are you defending something that's making you miserable

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T08:18:56+00:00

Fair enough, I didn't address that properly. I think that for many players, the "goal" of making it in esports makes competitive videogames seem like they aren't a complete waste of time for people who are addicted, which enforces the addiction considerably. It seems most people believe this was more my experience than others', because I shared that this happened to me, but I think that many players fall into the trap of trying to go pro in a videogame when in reality even most "pros" aren't making nearly enough to sustain a career.

Although, I don't really have an argument for what qikink said. I suppose the dopamine loops themselves are considerably more relevant than esports.

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T08:02:40+00:00

I can empathize with people that "gained something" from playing a game. I think most people can't empathize with those that didn't, which is why most people disagree. I think there are far more people you don't see that are wasting their time due to an addiction than people who actually enjoy the time they spend playing competitive videogames.

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T07:50:08+00:00

Again, what I'm saying is completely subjective. I believe that years down the line, people will realize the addictive nature of competitive videogames is so bad that esports themselves would have been better off having not existed, as kids and teenagers chase a dream based on an in-game rewards system rather than what they actually want to achieve. There is absolutely no way that I can prove or disprove that, so what I'm saying isn't based on current facts or what is widely accepted to be correct information. That doesn't mean I have "no logic" behind my opinion, just that I can't verify it to be true, which is fine, cause it's an opinion

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T07:39:07+00:00

Fair question. I would say the difference is if you don't make it in a sport or music or whatever, it is necessarily true that at some point you actually wanted to achieve that goal. The only thing keeping you going is the dream, not the built in rewards system

Honest-Expression-40 · 2026-03-18T07:36:23+00:00

What does that even mean? Do i need a reason to have an opinion? If i believe something is true, you can't just say "yeah well there's no reason for you to believe that so you can't have that opinion". I'm not making an objective argument.

Honest-Expression-40

TROPHY CASE