All Your Medal Are Belong to Us

60 Minutes recently aired a segment on a young man known in his business as "Fatal1ty". His business? Playing videogames.

Johnathan Wendell has earned checks as large as $150,000 for his tournament victories, and he continues to train for upcoming events by plugging away at his PC for at least eight hours every day. When he's not scoring prize money, he draws income from endorsement deals through various related computer companies. Johnathan has also been something of a prodigy in billiards and tennis, and he accredits his success in videogames to the same skill set of concentration and timing employed by those other pursuits.

The 60 Minutes segment exhibits Fatal1ty and other examples of how videogaming may become eerily recognizable as a competitive sport. Other highlights include a competing team of Counter Strike gamers, all lined up at their monitors, who have a man in a necktie pacing at their backs and barking commands. He's their coach.

Meanwhile in Asia, gaming is already a spectator sport -- an anthropological oddity worthy of National Geographic's attention. Question is, Where does it go from here?

Some enthusiasts elicit exasperated whispers of "Olympics".

Marksmanship is a Olympic sport, true, which these folks cite as justification for the inclusion of gaming. Now, shooting a rifle may not be a marathon run, but it does involves much more of one's body than just eyes and the muscles in one's hands. The image of a paunchy, beer-swilling hunter may come to mind, but what I said is still true.

Honestly now, videogaming's no more a legitimate candidate for... Olympicity... than chess, which has again been officially rejected for 2008 in Beijing, as were all other designated "mind sports".

And suppose my generation one day gets drunk on power and videogaming does get ushered in as an Olympic sport? Which game, precisely, will be the battleground? What genre, even? Personally, I'd lobby for Guitar Hero, but that's leaving out Fighting games (Soul Caliber, Smash Bros.), Sports games (Madden), Shooter games (Call of Duty, Halo), Racing games (Gran Turismo, Need For Speed), and Strategy games (Starcraft, Command and Conquer), to name a few that attract serious gamers to tournaments both locally and internationally.

Also, should gamers become Olympic athletes, they would then be subject to mandatory drug testing. Kiss that gold medal goodbye, KronikHustla420.

I like the idea of internationally competitive gaming, But "cyber athletes? In the Olympic Games?

It's a pipe dream. One gaping enough to fit an Italian plumber, in fact.