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StarCraft II Gamer Receives US Pro-Athlete Visa
dotarray writes "The world's first professional StarCraft II gamer has been granted a five-year pro athlete visa for the United States, making Kim 'viOLet' Dong Hwan the first of his kind. viOLet was one of the first gamers to apply for the P-1A visa when they were introduced in July. The new paperwork doesn't mean that he can live permanently in the U.S., but it does mean he'll be treated like other (more traditional) athletes, able to easily enter the country temporarily to participate in tournaments."
It's a trap!
No sig today...
Genuinely curious. Does this sort of thing apply to chess, poker, and other "less-traditional sports"?
LOL EVERYONE WHO PLAYS VIDEO GAMES IS FAT LOL AND EATS DO RIDE LOL
The guy looks to be in damn good shape, better shape than most Americans. He gets paid to smash letters on a keyboard just like a huge employment sector already has been for decades. Just because it can be more enjoyable means it needs a stigma attached to it?
Perhaps the envy will wear off of you one day.
So, is Doritoes going to start putting professional gamers on their bags like Wheaties does with ball players on theor cereal? Are we goning to be seeing fat kids with Cokes and Doritoes yelling, "I'm in training! I have t eat this way!"
Ummm...Fat?
https://www.google.nl/search?q=Kim+'viOLet'+Dong+Hwan&espv=216&es_sm=119&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ
something like this?
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Because many competitive tournament visitors are atheletes, the State Department website designer chose to follow the vernacular to call it an "athletic visa". The US immigration code from the Immigration and Nationization Act of 1965 refers to "alien athletes, artists, and entertainers, and their spouses and children." The Starcraft gamer was issued a "P1" visa according to TFA which applies to "individual or team athletes, or members of an entertainment group (P-1B) that are internationally recognized. A maximum of 25,000 P visas are issued annually."[wikipedia] The whole article plays on a reader-friendly title for a government a web page. .
In other words, P1 is the same for Gary Kasparov or Jet Li. It's designed to keep USA employers from issuing "track and field" competitions to pick grapes, without impeding Hollywood or Olympic events.
Gently reply
Your definition of "professional" doesn't match everyone else's.
Your argument is specious. While lack of physical activity may contribute to obesity, there is nothing to say all people who are not physically active are obese. Indeed, he may very well be going to the gym 3 hours a day. We have no way of knowing from him being a professional video game player
And yes most video game players ARE overweight. It's one of the MAJOR causes of obesity in our US society.
Citation or it did not happen. I accept that a large amount of obese people play video games and watch television, they also drive a car. News Flash: Driving a car instead of biking to work may make you fat: most drivers ARE overweight.
I am pretty sure that he is from SOUTH Korea.
If you read up on these guys, the amount of discipline they demonstrate is amazing: daily 8- or 10-hour training sessions just to keep their reaction times high enough, never mind developing new strategy or approaches to the game. With that kind of mindset I'd be unsurprised if they were all fitness obsessives.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Diving a car is a risk factor for obesity; professional race drivers are not obese.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Video games like Tetris and StarCraft are proprietary. This means one entity has the state-backed power to prevent any particular person from playing a sport. It's not like being "banned from baseball" where a player can join another league, as the game's publisher has the power to shut a league down by asserting the publisher's exclusive right to perform the game publicly. These companies also have veto power over implementations of a "sport". It's as if The Tennis Company could sue a city for putting up an unlicensed tennis court in a public park. So I don't see how a proprietary activity deserves international recognition in the same way as, say, something free like Chess or Go.
League of Legends was actually the first game to have a pro issued a sports visa. To quote a friend "They're recognised as athletes for visa purposes because they come into the country and compete and then leave again so as far as immigration is concerned that's the one that fits them best. Unfortunately the vast majority of posters are too stupid to understand that and the topic turns to shit." source http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=421180
He just tested positive for Red Bul,l taurine, Monster Energy drink, and NoDoz. Banned.
After he went to Russia to play a match?
Well if you are going to be a professional gamer, being fat may be at a disadvantage. When you need your arms to twitch and type and move a pointer at split second speed, you can't have your arms bogged down by an extra Kilogram of fat.
Now for the average gamer. You could be 300kg and still play the game decently. However if you are professionally and need to beat times by split seconds then you better be in better shape, as well if you are going to be playing all the time, you need some endurance.
Now gammers if they are so involved in the game that they are not eating, I bet they can stay fairly thin.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Now he just needs to whore himself out to Red Bull and he'll be set for life! It's the American dream!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?