Ghana video-gaming qualifiers begin (Is gaming a sport?)

February 9th, 2010 | by: Gary | Comments (0)

Is video gaming a sport? Is it, really? Some people think so and others say ‘of course not‘. Whatever. Ghana has certainly embraced the gaming culture for many many years – I certainly have – but now it’s being taken to a higher level.

It is estimated that $11.7 billion worth of video games were sold in 2008 worldwide. That’s almost the entire amount the whole of Ghana’s economy earned in that same year. So you wonder, why do the youth of Ghana play so many video games and yet we haven’t made any money at all from it?

All you see are young boys in street corner game centers and shacks playing their favorite console games like Xbox, PS3, Nintendo and so on. But last Saturday, a group of young entrepreneurs started what might just be the light at the beginning of Ghana’s video games revolution tunnel.

Alisxta Innovation put together the first ever National Qualifiers for video gaming in Ghana and the winner will play in the Electronic Sports World Cup 2010 (ESWC) in May at the Disney-Land in Paris, France.

My interest,- and this site of course – is in the football and it was just great to see the guys slugging it out like their lives depended on scoring the winning goal of FIFA 10.

According to Qwesi Amissah of Alisxta, the aim of the tournament series is to “use technology to bridge the gap between the Youth and National Development by cultivating their talents and competitive spirit. Our desire is to develop a professional E-sport environment which will cater for the future and well being of our players.”

Sounds good to me – anything to keep the kids off the streets and drugs.

Over a hundred enthusiastic young men thronged the Spintex Road for the first qualifier. Subsequent ones will be at Busy Internet (13 March and 17 April), University of Ghana (27 March). Alisxta also got help from the guys at Setmat, Vibe fm and LANTOUCH. Cool, really.

Games that are on to be slugged out include FIFA 10, Need For Speed Shift, Counter Strike, Virtua Tennis, Trackmania, Warcraft III, Street Fighter and so on. So. I ask you, is video gaming a sport and should it be recognized as such?

Do you consider video gaming a sport?(online surveys)