Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Hi. I'm Michael Costa. And
Speaker 1: before I started covering the news on cable TV, I
Speaker 1: was a successful professional athlete. What sport tennis? Duh? I
Speaker 1: was writing eight hundred sixty four in the world, So
Speaker 1: I was a natural to investigate the newest sport sweeping
Speaker 1: the nation, video games. Competitive video gaming known as e
Speaker 1: sports is booming. There's even a training center with five
Speaker 1: training rooms and six locker rooms. The Olympics are considering
Speaker 1: addie sports. I went to California to a so called
Speaker 1: training center in someone's garage to talk with these athletes
Speaker 1: about why video games isn't a sport. What the hell
Speaker 1: is this? This was the alien Ware training facility for
Speaker 1: e sports team Liquid, complete with scrimmage stations, a war room,
Speaker 1: pr department, a team coach, and even an in house chef.
Speaker 1: The team star, whose name is Taco, was acquired from
Speaker 1: Brazil's top team. This is our real sport. You call
Speaker 1: yourself an athlete? Yes, of course, they compete, we go
Speaker 1: to tournaments, we travel a lot, We've got some money.
Speaker 1: What is an East sport athlete? Mr? Taco? Do every day?
Speaker 1: Just practice? Yeah? I have a former professional tennis player.
Speaker 1: That's what I would call a real sport. There was
Speaker 1: an opponent and you would relish the opportunity to defeat
Speaker 1: them with your racket. What do you actually have to
Speaker 1: show for what you're doing? And come on, I have
Speaker 1: a real strong finger finger, Yes, this finger. I killed
Speaker 1: at least one million people. That fingers killed one million
Speaker 1: people at least. Taco was referring to his kills and
Speaker 1: counter strike, a game where guys shoot other guys before
Speaker 1: a bomb goes off. Apparently, how is this a sport?
Speaker 1: Won the ann Arbor Junior Open at eleven years old.
Speaker 1: How hard it gonna be to pound on these dorks?
Speaker 1: What are you staring at? Huh? Whoop your ass? Next
Speaker 1: to the left? To the left, to the left, and
Speaker 1: they get Oh Jesus Christ, I shot him four times,
Speaker 1: he shoots me once and I die. These games were
Speaker 1: clearly rigged against more muscular athletes. Jesus, how do I
Speaker 1: keep dying? Taco? But who's paying for these cucks to
Speaker 1: sit around all day and mash buttons? Apparently guys like
Speaker 1: three time NBA champion Rick Fox, owner of e sports
Speaker 1: franchise Echo Fox. What are you doing with these nerds? Man,
Speaker 1: you're a real athlete, and so are they. What the
Speaker 1: ship are you talking about? Me and you? We played
Speaker 1: real sports. You know, you can see our balls in
Speaker 1: our pants when we played. Were an athlete? Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I played professional tennis. I was ranked eight hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty four in the world. You win, you win a
Speaker 1: couple of tournaments. No, I didn't win the tournaments. But
Speaker 1: how much money did you make in your crew? You
Speaker 1: may eleven thousand dollars about but there's a there's a
Speaker 1: whole system, and I was, you know, right in their
Speaker 1: plan as a pro ath in our error. I think
Speaker 1: there was no shame around pursuing a career, uh in
Speaker 1: professional sports, because you can get a scholarship to college, which,
Speaker 1: by the way, you can get as any sport player.
Speaker 1: Now there's a number of colleges that are building the
Speaker 1: sports arenas on their campuses. This is all great, but
Speaker 1: let's get down to brass tacks here. How much do
Speaker 1: these athletes make. Probably the best top lander in the
Speaker 1: world in one of our games, he makes probably eight
Speaker 1: on a what And while players like Taco made over
Speaker 1: eight hundred k last year, other top gamers earned upwards
Speaker 1: of four million dollars, and thanks to advertising and sponsorships,
Speaker 1: revenues will top one point four billion dollars this year.
Speaker 1: What point four billion? Are you kidding me? But what
Speaker 1: really makes it legit is Vegas sports books take bets
Speaker 1: on it. So I did what anyone would do, sold
Speaker 1: my dog for three thousand bucks and put it all
Speaker 1: on Team lick with at the Barkley Center. I'll buy
Speaker 1: him back after I win Amsterdam, London, Cologne, Montreal. I
Speaker 1: don't get a ship. You're a Brooklyn now, baby. This
Speaker 1: is the Barclay Center. This is where champions play and
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Nets. We're gonna heal as a team or
Speaker 1: we're gonna die as individuals. That I make myself clear.
Speaker 1: Come on, all right, ignore all that and when we
Speaker 1: just follow the game, bunt, let's go, guys. It was
Speaker 1: time for Team Liquid to win in the semifinals and
Speaker 1: make me some money. See let's go, baby, let's yoe.
Speaker 1: He definitely felt like a real sport. These gaming gladiators
Speaker 1: were ready for battle. Ladies and gentlemen to morwentfore we wait,
Speaker 1: team full team with quick boxes, cam bit, click your mouth.
Speaker 1: They flexed their fingers, they clicked their buttons. They adjusted
Speaker 1: their head sense. Hello on cleck roight leck d Come,
Speaker 1: let's start the waves starting I'm here wants the stairs.
Speaker 1: They fought to outmaneuver, evade, and shoot their opponents heads off,
Speaker 1: and just when it looked like Team Liquid was on
Speaker 1: the ropes, they rapped the next ground final steam like
Speaker 1: quick hella, why why our video games a sport? Who cares?
Speaker 1: I'm rich? Time to try to buy my dog back?
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