Fans of e-sports seem to be little enthusiastic about Beuth’s plans to eradicate the term “e-sports.”
Do you want to get an impression of e-sports yourself? Not entirely accurate but surely entertaining is the simulation eSports Life.
Another Twitter user writes:
Hohhohh… This guy makes me angry. “Is this playing in front of the TV really sports?” You can see that Peter Beuth has a different understanding of education than I do. Education is also being engaged with topics before expressing such radical opinions about them.
Fans of e-sports seem to be little enthusiastic about Beuth’s plans to eradicate the term “e-sports.”
Do you want to get an impression of e-sports yourself? Not entirely accurate but surely entertaining is the simulation eSports Life.
There is always controversy surrounding e-sports, especially in Germany. After the plans to establish e-sports, the Interior Minister of Hesse now vehemently opposes the term “e-sports.” The CDU minister wants to “eradicate” e-sports.
Hesse’s Interior Minister against e-sports: The Interior Minister of Hesse, Peter Beuth (CDU), has explicitly spoken out against e-sports during a speech at the Darmstadt Turn and Sports Congress. According to Beuth, the term should be more distinctly separated from traditional sports.
“We need to eradicate this term”
Strong reaction: There have been ongoing discussions about e-sports in Germany for some time. Recently, the Olympics spoke against e-sports. Only sports games should be labeled as such, anything else is considered “e-gaming.”
Peter Beuth has even sharper words against e-sports. Beuth: “E-sports has nothing to do with sports. We need to eradicate this term.”
Beuth also acts against e-sports itself aside from the terminology. He describes the promotion of e-sports decided by the Grand Coalition as “catastrophic.”
At the beginning of 2018, the federal government convened the “AG Digital”, which is supposed to deal with promoting e-sports. Among the plans of the working group is also to grant club and association rights to e-sport organizations.
Separation of e and sports: Beuth further elaborates on the reasons he believes argue against the recognition of e-sports in his speech.
For him, e-sports is simply not a sport:
E-sports players are not athletes, I remain conservative on this. And this community in e-sports is not what millions of children do. Rather, they sit alone in front of the console and perhaps have a gaming partner who is sitting somewhere on the planet. […] I do not want to allow my son to say to me: “I am doing sports,” when he is sitting in front of FIFA 19 playing Barcelona against Madrid.
“A wedge in the dialogue” The president of the eSports Federation Germany, Hans Jagnow, responded on Twitter:
This inappropriate wording from Peter Beuth has nothing to do with a factual debate. This rhetoric drives a wedge into the dialogue with sports. Unbelievable!
Prominent figures such as Uli Hoeneß have publicly spoken out against e-sports. However, the reaction to Beuth’s comments is notably more agitated.
Criticism of Beuth: Beuth is currently receiving a lot of ridicule on Twitter for his critique. One user was even “astonished” about “how many politicians hope that older conservatives will vote for them and that younger people do not go to vote or read something like this.”
Another Twitter user writes:
Hohhohh… This guy makes me angry. “Is this playing in front of the TV really sports?” You can see that Peter Beuth has a different understanding of education than I do. Education is also being engaged with topics before expressing such radical opinions about them.
Fans of e-sports seem to be little enthusiastic about Beuth’s plans to eradicate the term “e-sports.”
Do you want to get an impression of e-sports yourself? Not entirely accurate but surely entertaining is the simulation eSports Life.
