Chelyabinsk parents send their children to eSports without coercion

What is an athlete in our philistine view? Tracksuit, sports equipment, gym, start, finish, pedestal with flowers, cups and medals… It seems that the person sitting at the table at the computer does not fit into this image at all. However, the world has changed and today the incredible is quite obvious.

“Computer sports” is a well-established term. It has its own starts, finishes, podiums and cups. And there is also a huge amount of attention from large corporations who look at games and their winners not only in terms of the opportunity to promote their images, but also as an opportunity to prepare for some kind of technological breakthrough and a chance to earn big money.

Ivan Pospelov, coach and vice-president of the regional branch of the Russian Computer Sports Federation, visited the studio of the stream show “In the Morning” on Granada TV. Together with him, the hosts tried to figure out how to raise a cybersportsman from a child, not a gamer.

Computer games are a topic to which society is ambiguous. The main fear is that “shooters” from the screen can be thrown into the real world through psychologically immature heads and mentally unbalanced characters. There have already been precedents for this, so caution is completely justified. However, experts urge not to exaggerate. However, here, it is worth noting that it is not necessary to thicken them only when it comes to official computer sports.

“We give games to children exclusively according to their age limit,” says Ivan Pospelov, who is one of the organizers of a free eSports school in the Traktorozavodsky district of Chelyabinsk. – 12-year-olds came – they only play games for 12-year-olds. And under this qualification in games there is neither violence nor bloody shooters, but there is a lot of positively entertaining, informative and interesting. The child, playing with them, uses his abilities, knowledge, receives new ones and develops … “

Although shooters (a genre of games based on combat, in Russia they are usually called shooters), South Ural small cybersportsmen also pass (they are present in the programs of almost all competitions). However, again, in accordance with the age limit, they are made as pixelated as possible, without any relish of the consequences of the shot. This is most likely to be compared with a shooting range with moving targets.

“There is no resemblance to real weapons, real combat,” explains Ivan Pospelov. “However, they also have a keyboard, a mouse, they aim, they walk around the game, they engage in tactical 3D combat.”

It is interesting that, as in the case of classical sports, parents sometimes bring children into e-sports. Dads, for example, see the news that one or another of our teams with South Ural guys in the composition won some cool computer competitions, and they light up with the thought – let the child not play aimlessly at the home computer. Around the same time, we are seeing upsurges of interest in gymnastics, hockey, and figure skating after bright performances, so esports is really a sport in this regard.

Unlike an ordinary athlete, where the talent of a cybermaster will shoot, it is almost impossible to discern at the very beginning. “He can appear from nothing,” says Ivan Pospelov. – They include a child in some kind of game and suddenly see that in just a couple of hours, for example, he begins to perform drone flights coolly. Another child shows remarkable abilities for analytics, which allow him to easily pass strategies. On the whole, it seems to me that the most important thing for a child to grow into a good e-sports player is the presence of creative thinking in him. In order for the child to “show up”, we give him the opportunity to try himself in different games. At the same time, you need to understand that in eSports, as in any other sport, no matter how talented you are, you will not achieve much without perseverance.”

The popularity of esports among young people is understandable. As Ivan Pospelov says, in real life we ​​cannot fly dragons, participate in epic battles between fairy-tale creatures, the reality on the screen allows us to be above our physical human capabilities. It captures, makes computer sports desirable. Our hero doubts that he will eventually take away the popularity of ordinary sports based on real strength, endurance and dexterity. “It does not interfere. In addition, there is a combination of e-sports and regular sports, the expert says. “For example, when players play hockey, holding joysticks in their hands, and then go to replay the same match on real ice.”

Finally, we note that Chelyabinsk is one of the notable “flags” on the map of computer sports today. It has its own federation, significant competitions are held, cybersportsmen successfully perform in the country and abroad. And the appearance of a free school for training young cybersportsmen suggests that development will continue further.