On Flag Football, Frisbee and Esports
Illustration by Eduard Jude Jamolin
Flag football, Frisbee and esports events in the celebration of USC Days were unrecognized by the USC administration. Despite the USC Supreme Student Council partnering with student organizations to organize such sporting events, USC has stressed that the focus of USC Days will only be the events it recognizes as official.
Two years ago, an accident has happened causing USC to cover for financial assistance during one of the games of the flag football event. This has been cited as the reason for its unrecognition this academic year’s USC Days. However, we must realize that no sporting event has zero risk of injuries. It is only unfortunate that it had to happen to a somewhat obscure sport — not to basketball, volleyball and the like. We cannot expect a similar response should a severe accident happen to such sporting events.
Even then, in college and even in senior high school, we are — or should be — mature enough to learn that pain is part of growth. If something does not challenge us, it does not change us for the better. It is this same knowledge that drives our athletes to celebrate the limits of the human body and to bring in a legacy of pride. After all, if USC is indeed sincere in its concern for its students, we have the new tuition fee to cover for insurance.
For esports events, the concern of the USC administration is that students might opt to watch such games more than the ones they chose to be official. It is quite queer for USC to dictate what its students want during a week supposedly meant to celebrate their talents. No one talent is above the rest.
Even if we shift the conversation to sports, esports has grown over the past two decades to be full-fledged competitions on an international scale, with policies and sanctions by ruling bodies. Esports events already fulfill what it means to be a sport. Only the refusal of an older generation to recognize a new avenue of talent from a younger generation hinders this in our university.
If USC Days is truly a celebration of the Carolinian spirit, then all areas that can serve as a platform for each student’s passion must be seen as equals. So long as the opposite continues, no torch — no legacy, no Carolinian spirit — will truly blaze.
