Professional Videogamers Are Working Out (wsj.com) 58
Hoping to avoid injuries, gamers get physical training; squat jumps, ginger smoothies and yoga. From a report: Esports, the world of professional videogaming, is looking more and more like other sports, with big sponsors, prize money, fan bases -- and player injuries. In response, teams are educating players on ergonomics, hiring personal chefs and sending gamers to the gym [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled]. Sweden's Ninjas in Pyjamas, one of esports' most accomplished teams, distributes an illustrated fitness guide to players with nearly two dozen recommended "core" exercises like burpees, Superman lifts and squat jumps. It has also instituted a "no pizza" rule before morning matches and mandated teams take pregame walks.
Before matches, hand-warming packets are doled out to its two dozen players. "If you have warm hands, you reduce the risk of injury versus cold hands," says Hicham Chahine, Ninjas' chief executive. The potential for injuries -- most frequently in the wrists, hands and fingers -- is rising due to the popularity of the $900 million esports universe. With new leagues and a proliferation of competitions, for some games, tournaments are popping up nearly every other week. "Everyone is susceptible to injuries in everything that is done to an extreme," says Veli-Matti Karhulahti, of Finland's University of Turku, who along with co-author Tuomas Kari, has published peer-reviewed research on physical activity in esports.
South Korean team KT Rolster hired a nutritionist two years ago who dictates breakfast, lunch and dinner. Brown rice was substituted for white rice. Players craving fast food or instant ramen must now make a special request to do so, says Jeong Je-seung, KT Rolster's coach and a former professional gamer. In his playing days, Mr. Jeong says low salaries meant "if you could eat three times a day as an esports player back then it was enough." Top players can now earn millions of dollars annually in prize money and sponsorships. The 2018 world championship for "Dota 2," a game where teams raid opponents' bases, carried a purse of nearly $25 million.
Before matches, hand-warming packets are doled out to its two dozen players. "If you have warm hands, you reduce the risk of injury versus cold hands," says Hicham Chahine, Ninjas' chief executive. The potential for injuries -- most frequently in the wrists, hands and fingers -- is rising due to the popularity of the $900 million esports universe. With new leagues and a proliferation of competitions, for some games, tournaments are popping up nearly every other week. "Everyone is susceptible to injuries in everything that is done to an extreme," says Veli-Matti Karhulahti, of Finland's University of Turku, who along with co-author Tuomas Kari, has published peer-reviewed research on physical activity in esports.
South Korean team KT Rolster hired a nutritionist two years ago who dictates breakfast, lunch and dinner. Brown rice was substituted for white rice. Players craving fast food or instant ramen must now make a special request to do so, says Jeong Je-seung, KT Rolster's coach and a former professional gamer. In his playing days, Mr. Jeong says low salaries meant "if you could eat three times a day as an esports player back then it was enough." Top players can now earn millions of dollars annually in prize money and sponsorships. The 2018 world championship for "Dota 2," a game where teams raid opponents' bases, carried a purse of nearly $25 million.
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Majora's Mask was actually the first Zelda game I did not complete; after getting about halfway through and resetting the world I don't KNOW how many times I realized ... I wasn't saving anyone. Nothing I did mattered. It was a sad day, honestly.
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Video games used to be fun alternatives to the sportsball my peers were up to in school. Hours, maybe days were invested in things like Ultima, Monkey Island, Space/King's Quest, etc.
Now you have 30 million FPSs, each one sucks. RPGs are FPSs with experience bars, and RTSs move at the speed of light. I want the old days back, days that were less about competition and more about fun.
Esports! Computer Science. (Score:2)
Yeah even my kids think the E-sports term is such a new-speak falsehood. Of course physicist like ot remark that any discpline of science that actually has the word science in the title, isn't really science. (e.g physics and chemistry don't need to be called science, but for some reason "computer science" needs to state it's aspirations in it's name".)
Somehow the term Computer Engineering just wasn't good enough? What's to be embarrassed about engineering?
And likewise Esports is not sports. Sports is n
Grab a Warm Soda (Score:3)
If you have warm hands, you reduce the risk of injury versus cold hands
I bet the soda companies are displeased. 'Grab an ice-cold Dew' has to be replaced with 'slurp an ice-cold Dew through a straw without touching it'.
No pizza before morning practice seems odd, they're not specifically prohibiting pizza for breakfast. Also I guess pizza is popular in Sweden?
I wonder if the article talks about RSI, but can't find out because it's paywalled.
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Cold leftover pizza as breakfast is a american idea that we picked up in sweden but we also have america-based pizza chains serving it in the morning.
I always found lukewarm pizza was best for breakfast. Gets the cheese just warm enough to be stretchy and not crack in half when you take a bite. Cold pizza is best for a quick snack (preferably thin crust, cold thicker crust is too chewy).
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Also I guess pizza is popular in Sweden?
Is there any country where pizza isn't popular?
I guess the main difference with Swedish pizza is that it is more or less an edible plate.
Take whatever dinner you like and put in on circular bread: Pizza!
You can probably get a "pizza" where half the topping is steak and bbq-sauce and the other half is bananas and pineapple if you want to have both the main course and the dessert on the same plate.
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Not in California, straws are banned.
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If you have warm hands, you reduce the risk of injury versus cold hands
I bet the soda companies are displeased.
That's why they remembered to pretend that drinking "smoothies" is a type of "work out;" most of the soda companies sell smoothies that are basically milk shakes with extra sugar and fake fat.
Best deterrent against dementia and decreasing ... (Score:5, Interesting)
... brain performance: Physical excersize.
This isn't all that new an insight. Anecdotal point-in-case: I just went surfing for a week (first time, lessons). Surfing meaning - for beginners - swallowing 10-20 liters of seawater and lugging a triple-e class freighter into the ocean while big waves keep coming at you and the huge surfboard you're trying to control only to paddle like your life depends on it and then be so exchausted you can't even stand up for the remaining 1.5 seconds of whitewater when the instructor says so. ... I lost 4 kg of weight in less than a week, maxed my cardio-vascular system out and learned about new muscles I never felt before. They're still hurting.
On the plus side I feel as awesome as I haven't felt in years and coding is easyer and more fun than it has been in a long time.
Going to pick up Yoga again. And I'm not quite done with the surfing thing either. :-)
Bottom line: If you want to perform as a computer person, regular physical excersize (at least 3x a week!) is a must.
My 2 eurocents.
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I can vouch for this. I used to be mostly sedentary, then I started walking everywhere. I mean EVERYWHERE. I'm on a low income, so skipping the bus fare saves a lot in the long run for me. (Helps I'm in a city where many things are available mere kilometres away.) Avoiding sidewalks and being able to take nature trails partially downtown is a big bonus, because concrete will always kill your feet in the long run no matter what shoes you're wearing.
Also climb the stairs of my mid-rise to the 10th floor f
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Protip: the first place you go surfing shouldn't be Portugal.
makes sense (Score:2)
way before it was labelled "e-sports" I regularly went for a jog to help keep my concentration up during our hour-long online simracing events (mostly Grand Prix Legends back then, now rFactor2).
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It also can improve your mood and alertness (dopamine release), reduce stress, reduce the risk of getting prostate problems. Just don't overdo it - or you'll get hairy palms!
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When I was a kid I would do laps around the arcade, checking under each machine for lost tokens.
DS (Score:1)
I seem to recall complaints about holding the DS or 3DS with one hand hurting people's wrists at one point. A guy talked about how he ended up in a wrist brace from one of the games.
All I could think is maybe it'd work better if they lifted something heavier than a cheese burger a few times.
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I seem to recall complaints about holding the DS or 3DS with one hand hurting people's wrists at one point. A guy talked about how he ended up in a wrist brace from one of the games.
Nintendo won the award for least ergonomic controller from the very beginning. Well, that's not strictly true. The Master System had an equally non-ergonomic controller. It wasn't until the 16 bit era that it became clear that part of Nintendo's mission was to destroy the hands of young gamers. Sega went ergonomic and Nintendo just rounded the corners slightly more than they did on the top-loading NES and called it a day. And every system since has had garbage ergo.
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Oddly I always found the gamecube controller very comfortable. I didn't like the controller as much as other systems.... but at least it felt comfortable?
Least ergonomic should go to some of those old systems before the NES. Like the Colecovision I think? There was one where you had a knob you had to turn on the controller. I remember another that was basically the keypad for a phone and you had to put a sticker over it depending on the game you were playing. Fun times in the past.
Oh please! (Score:2)
GMAFB!
News for nerds, indeed.
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Money softens the blow.
This is not a surprise (Score:2)
This is not a surprise. People often make jokes about sports where it seems like you don't need to be in shape: golfing, bowling, curling, etc. But, when you look at the participants at the professional or international level, they are almost always quite fit and have nutrition and exercise regimens.
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Chess, too. Endurance is a major factor at the professional level. The people who can win tournaments have to be able to still think clearly even after their bodies are totally exhausted. That requires lots of cardio training. Most people don't expect this to be true, since they're not doing cardio while competing, but it makes the difference between swimming in confusion, or staying focused, once you're running on stored energy. You can't eat heavy enough to prevent running on stored energy, because heavy
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Your jealousy is showing.
Common Sense (Score:2)
Paywall restrictions? (Score:2)
Tried to RTFA but couldn't, due to paywall. So why is this news on Slashdot in the first place, if there are no other sources?