‘League of Legends’ is a Sport Now, Because Mark Cuban Said So

ESports, huh? I've never been quite convinced. Sure, it's a big freaking deal, with multimillion dollar prizes and sponsorships and tournaments in fancy-ass locales worldwide, but a sport? Are sweaty fat guys (/Korean geniuses wearing the thickest glasses you ever saw) talking shit to each other betwixt rounds of Street Fighter athletes? I'm going to call that a gray area at best, right there.

But hey, that's just me. Getting my snark on as ever. You learn to ignore me and not take any offense. If the gaming ninjas of the world want to call themselves sportsmen, who am I to argue? You have at it, ladies and gents.

What eSports needs is a little PR boost. Endorsement from a celebrity, perhaps. Someone who knows their shit and can sell us on the whole idea. But he wasn't in, so here's Mark Cuban weighing in on the subject instead.

Cuban, businessman, author, TV star and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, played League of Legends against Intel bigwig Brian Krzanich for charity this weekend. He was transformed by the experience, as Destructoid reports.

‘I'm a noob, I'm still getting into it, but I love it. It is like playing five dimensional Chess against the world; it is one of the smartest games I've ever played, you gotta have dexterity, you gotta be quick. This is a real sport. People are going to figure it out really, really quick,' quoth he.

Apparently, three matches of League are all it takes to turn you on to the whole eSports concept. Though there is a caveat: you have to be, like Cuban himself, ‘f**king smart' to pick it up so quickly.