The proposed standards include running, core exercises, and push-ups. Experts greeted this initiative with skeptical smiles.
A new federal standard dictates that a male novice esports athlete must complete a 30-meter sprint in no more than 5.8 seconds, perform at least 12 push-ups, and achieve a minimum of 31 trunk lifts from a supine position within a minute. Requirements for women are slightly less demanding. The standard also incorporates norms for reaction speed and mouse click tests.
Experts and individuals involved in training esports players and developing related programs acknowledge that physical conditioning is a growing trend in esports. Top-tier teams already hire fitness coaches and masseuses independently of any official standards, closely monitoring their players` health. However, while important, a candidate`s physical fitness is far from the deciding factor when evaluating them for a team, explains Kirill Novokshchenov, publisher of «Cyber» media:
«No top esports team, no reputable club competing at high levels and paying decent salaries, would ever reject a player simply because they don`t meet certain physical standards. The click-per-minute standard defined is quite low – even we could pass it without issue. Top esports players likely have a rate 2 to 2.5 times higher.»
According to sources, the athletes themselves might only bother taking these Ministry of Sport tests as a joke. This is especially true given the standards are uniformly applied, whereas different esports disciplines require vastly different skill sets. For instance, reaction speed and click rate are critical for shooter games but hold almost no significance for strategy games.
On the other hand, since esports is recognized as a sport, having standards is a logical consequence, suggests Pavel Golubev, head of the Association for the Development of Esports Infrastructure:
«Esports is a recognized sport within the Russian Federation. Any recognized sport has requirements associated with it. Accordingly, such a document should exist. Will it affect the independent, high-profile esports we see on television – international competitions, world championships, and so on? I think, most likely, it won`t. It pertains to the official structure within the Russian Computer Sports Federation and its competitions.»
Such official competitions do exist, including international tournaments where participants represent their country with associated obligations. However, according to experts consulted, the popularity and prize pools of these events are incomparable to those tournaments where organizers are concerned neither with national flags nor the physical condition of esports players. Critics argue that the existence of these new standards in Russia will primarily necessitate bureaucratic overhead: personnel to organize tests, certified trainers, equipped facilities, and other administrative formalities.
