Told a friend about Scourm. He asked me if a card games topic was present on the platform. Like how you have NFL, WWE or Scorum.
I told him they already had poker. He went on to specify the other card games like Magic The Gathering.
Because it was over text I scratched my head before I responded.
Thinking to myself;
Are Card Games A Sport?
I told him I'd look into it. And I did, I messaged a mod in the Telegram group who said they'd pass it along to their devs.
But he got me to start pondering the rationale.
That felt very Plato sounding in nature.
<grammarly-btn>What is Sport?
I researched it and found tons of conflicting information. Some determine sport as organized play, others as physical activity that benefits the player and some think it has to be done outdoors.
These three definitions feel arbitrary and only lead to more questions.
So is basketball or football played in a closed stadium like "Jerry world" in Dallas not a sport because it isn't played in the forest? Must I throw footballs in orange groves to say I'm a Florida athlete?
Physical activity. How do we measure this? If Poker is recognized as a sport and you sit at a table for hours on end flipping cards and throwing chips. Is that not physical enough? Or do we not use that to call Poker a sport, when it is televised on ESPN? How does a game where you sit for hours on end, drink gamble and smoke good for you? Still sounds like fun but it still skewers that one definition.
Organized play. This one feels closer to the heart of sport. Random kids playing tag no. But once they implement rules like what bases are and who's "it" then their tag becomes a basic sport in my eyes.
And also, in my research, I found that only 100 countries identify Chess as a sport NOT including the UK. Who deem it as just a board game.
So I have decided to combine all sports and see what they have in common.
They have players.
Rules.
Preferred location/setting. (Some just need a specialized table like poker or ping-pong.)
Professional teams.
And lastly in sync with what I said above. The professional teams have tournaments and championships to declare winners, sell tickets and make money off the sport.
My favorite statistic is more people watched the League of Legends championship then the Superbowl. And no one here is denying that a video game like a MOBA is not a sport.
So I have come to the conclusion. If there can be championships and tournaments then it is a sport.
Then I realized.
Settlers of Catan, Monopoly, MTG, and Hearthstone they all have championships!
So Board Games and Card Games are a sport!
Let's dig deeper.
And compare Chess and MTG. The former has a section here on Scorum.
Both have rules and imaginary parameters.
I can't have my pieces leave the board and attack their king from behind. Likewise on Magic the Gathering. I can't attack my opponent's life total by physically moving the card off the table to deal damage around his creatures ready to "block" mine.
They both have championships and pro players.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/content/pro-tour-magic-event-types-events
That's right. MTG has a pro circuit with people who are their own free agents basically and choose what events they want to attend.
It also can be expanded more than other sports.
For example, Chess NEEDS a checkered board, all the pieces, and only two players.
MTG can have games of 9+ players going against each other, can be played anywhere there's a flat surface, and all they need to bring is their deck of cards.
Which is a whole other element. In games like Golf, players buy their own equipment that goes to their standards and has to select the best club for the situation.
Likewise, an MTG player in sanctioned tournaments needs to actually own the card they want. So they have to go out and buy it or trade with another player. When was the last time you saw someone trade a wedge for a 9-iron?
So not only do they need to possess the skill to put together a deck with all the cards they want that is legal for the format and balance it so they have enough in-game energy to summon the cards. They also have to act and react to an opponent who has a group of cards in his hand they cannot see.
There are specialized cards that can "counter" an opponent and force their spell to go to the graveyard aka send the card to a dead zone that is unable to be used by the player unless they have an ability/card that can bring it back.
So players will have to figure out if they can or cannot play a card with fear of being countered. Along with having the creature gets destroyed or exiled which keeps it basically banned from that game. My favorite, there are cards that let you take control of your opponent's creature so you can smack his life total around with it.
Tons of complexity.
As I have showcased. Board Games and Card Games have championships like all other organized sports and have elements from other sports like the equipment element like gold clubs and most importantly have a legion of fans that would LOVE to post on Scorum under their own topic. Why not increase adoption by letting Pros write about their favorite strategies, card dynamics and creating their OWN game events via Scorum.
Call it "Board & Card Games".
Perhaps we can one day have a card tournament for SCR in prizes?
What's that you don't want to travel?
If only there was a mobile card game faster than Hearthstone that lets you create tournaments with prizes. Hmmm.
For those who weren't sure that question was served with a massive side of foreshadowing.
So to the developers and all other readers. Let's create a new topic for Board & Card Games!
And if you are interested in my foreshadowed idea. I need your support to get gears moving. More to come.
Anyways.
Vote for @primetimesports as your witness!!!
How do you vote for witnesses on Scorum? It can be a little tricky but you can check out this post from @jotmax
https://scorum.com/en-us/scorum/@jotmax/know-your-active-witnesses-delegate-and-how-to-vote-them
Unfortunately, Polarity is only available for Windows and if you are familiar with the cli_wallet, then you can vote for our witness through there but other than that, you'll have to wait for that feature to be added on Scorum or a separate app frontend to be developed.
@swolesome had made an introduction of our witness on his blog with a little podcast that he does. Go check it out!
Special Thanks to @liuke96player of the Golden Thunder curation initiative for making us their preferred Witness!!!
Amazing curator and a better friend!
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