Good god, no. Next thing will be: should gamers be in the Olympics?

No way, you can't really be professional about a video game like you can be professional in other activities. Gaming is supposed to be a time waster, a distraction. Not anything serious, certainly not comparable to a sport

Nah I wouldn't say so. You can definitely use the word professional since they're the best at what they do, but I don't think you can use the word athlete unless it involves physical exertion beyond moving your thumbs and fingers around quickly.

what the fuck is athletic about gaming?

The professional distinction is pretty irrelevant as well. I know it's in there because this supposedly legitimizes an individual's status within a competitive field in which few can be paid to play a game, but this only speaks for the level of relative skill involved.

Very few consider video gaming to be a sport. Even saying "Video games are sports" sounds ridiculous to anyone not trying to legitimize their hobby/habit by placing it in the same category as an almost universally socially accepted activity like sports.

There are children with athletic skills who play various sports at a high enough level that they are athletes, regardless of the fact that they don't play for money or probably have little or no aspirations to play their sport professionally in the future.

It would be a hard sell for anyone to say that their young kid or nephew, or the child down the block is quite an athlete because he is on various nationally ranked boards for Call of Duty, Street Fighter, or any video game for that matter. The statement is ridiculous.

Because someone is good enough to be playing for purse money in a competition or land sponsorships doesn't magically elevate them to athlete status.

Professional gamer. What's wrong with that? It doesn't carry the same status as professional athlete; so what? Because of that we have a small minority who want to start calling themselves athletes with respect to their gaming?

Put it in perspective.

I voted no. athlete means sports/being physical. those gamers probably have strong thumbs,but that's about it. LMAO!!!!!

I was an all state RB in high school but I'm an average gamer. The skill sets aren't relatable so I vote no.

No, plain and simple. I don't care what kind of "training" they go through. But the e-sport events themselves have increasingly become more and more like sporting events, with big stages and post-game analyses and the like.

Woah woah woah, why shouldn't we consider golfers and in particular drivers to be atheletes? Have you seen how fit you need to be to drive an F1 car? It's really quite something!

On topic, it's pretty much been said but no, pro gamers aren't atheletes in my eyes. You don't need to be physically fit to do it, nor is there any real "training" involved in my eyes. Yeah, you may be skilled to do it, but it's different from being athletic.

sorry, was i not getting my message through clear enough as you seem unsure as to what i was saying... 

let me rephrase that... people who would even consider themselves as "cool" or demand "respect" because they play video games "professionally" and people who think tha these people are "cool" or demand "respect" should be dragged to the streets, tied to the light posts, beaten with a stick and kicked in the nuts and sprinkled with lemon juice and salt and thrown in the dumpster after which they can crawl to their parents basements and cry themseleves to sleep...

there are things that can be considered as sports or professional competitions and video games are not one of those and should never be considred as one of those EVER!

...like that news i read once upon a time where this kid decided to quit school so that he can focus on practicing his "toy guitar" on guitar heroes so that he can go "pro"...WTF?! I wouldn't have issues if he quit school to focus on playing a "real guitar" to start or get in a band and play music for a living. But guitar heroes? come on!! major lameness to the highest order.