It’s hard to sustain any long-lasting laughter at the idea that eSports carry any serious injuries or that it’s something to ridicule since it has generated over a billion dollars since it came into being. But the idea of very serious injuries being incurred by those that sit at a gaming console for 12 hours or more a day is, well, it’s still laughable. Collapsed lungs, blood clots, injuries to feet, fingers, and everything you can think of seem to be possible in a sport where the contestants BARELY MOVE. Jennifer Jolly of USA Today would likely disagree, but the injuries that are suffered from eSports seem as though they might be remedied by simply getting up every once in a while, stretching, and unplugging for just a bit. It’s true that humans weren’t meant to sit in one spot for a prolonged period of time, and despite whatever time it might take away from the console and the game, it would be a very real remedy to simply sitting down, slumping close to a screen, and taking in caffeine and energy drinks that are designed to give quick highs without any real sustained energy boost. In case anyone reading didn’t get that, GET UP AND MOVE AROUND.
The rise of eSports has been something that a lot of people are still looking at askance since despite the money that’s been generated by it the ‘sport’ still gains a lot of criticism since despite what people want to say about the technological era, real sports still consist of some physical exertion. You might want to argue that the injuries in eSports are very real, and it’s true, they are, but unfortunately they’re not brought on by any real exertion on the part of the contestants. In the NFL, MLB, NHL, MLS, and many other actual sports associations, injuries tend to occur when an athlete is active, up and running, plowing into another athlete, or at the very least is performing a function that takes more than hand to eye coordination and the ability to sit on your butt and strain your eyes for hours on end. In other words, athletes tend to get up and move from time to time, and as a result their injuries seem a little more legit simply because they come as a result of actually using your body in the manner that is considered to be normal for a human being. Those that play eSports, sorry but I won’t call them athletes, develop injuries gradually, over time, simply because they remain sedentary for far too long and don’t seem to be nearly active enough to suffer the kind of injuries that are experienced by actual athletes.
In case you didn’t get that, remaining sedentary can cause injuries, but largely because the individual DOESN’T MOVE, doesn’t exercise, doesn’t do much of anything to prevent the kind of injuries that tend to build up over a period of time and can be quite serious once the snowball effect finally comes into play. Am I saying they’re not skilled? Not at all, the hand to eye coordination and the many different actions they perform during gameplay is kind of impressive really, but the act of getting up and moving around from time to time, especially during training, seems like it might pay off in the long run. Even professional athletes that get up and hit the field or the ice or the court tend to get up and move around from time to time so that they’re more flexible and aren’t bound to be injured since their bodies aren’t ready to perform as they need them to. That’s common sense really, no matter if people don’t want to believe it in the effort to show that ‘eSports injuries ARE real’. Of course they’re real, the human body is meant to move around so that it can function the way it needs to.
The argument might be that it would take too much time away from the monitor, but in truth if you’re playing games, and that’s what it is, don’t kid yourself, for half the day, then what are you doing for the other half? Luke Plunkett of Kotaku might want to argue with this, but even with sleep factored in you can’t deny that there’s at least some time in there that can be allotted for PHYSICAL training that can help to minimize injuries and allow the gamers to continue playing without increasing risk of injury. There are also devices that can help a person’s posture, to help stabilize their hands, wrists, and any other part of the body they might need to work on. Injuries aren’t faked, that much is obvious, but at the same time those playing eSports are in a much better position to be proactive when it comes to preventing the types of injuries that might occur. You’re playing video games for crying out loud, not training for the Olympics, take care of yourself and then worry about the game.
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