The squats and leg lifts were harder than they looked, and after a few sets, Alfonso Aguirre Rodriguez placed his hands on his knees and attempted to compose himself.

深蹲和抬腿動作比看起來要困難，做了幾組後，阿方索．艾吉瑞．羅德里蓋茲把手放在膝蓋上，試著讓自己放鬆。

In November, Aguirre, a 24-year-old professional video game player from Spain, joined the five-man roster of Origen, a League of Legends team that competes in the game’s top European league. The players — all signed in late fall — were told at the time that the team might be run a bit differently from what they were accustomed to.

24歲的艾吉瑞是西班牙的電子競技（電競）職業選手，去年11月加入五人組成的奧里根戰隊，這是一支在電玩「英雄聯盟」歐洲頂尖聯盟中競賽的隊伍。該隊選手－全於去年秋季末尾簽約加入－當時即被告知，這支隊伍的運作方式也許會和他們習慣的有些不同。

Now here they were, five young men who make their living sitting almost completely still in front of desktop computers, sweating through an hourlong workout in a cramped gym.

現在，眼前就是這麼五個靠著坐在桌上電腦前幾乎全不移動來維生的年輕男子，他們正在一間狹窄的健身房裡汗流浹背地鍛鍊一小時。

“I think I’m going to puke my oatmeal,” said Aguirre, who is known in the gaming community as Mithy. “I’m dying.”

「我覺得我快把燕麥片吐出來了。」艾吉瑞說，他在電玩社群中被喚作米西。「我快死了。」

Some years ago, traditional sports leagues were revolutionized by young analysts wielding computers. The way things had always been done, it turned out, was not always the best way to do things. Now echoes of that transformation have arrived in the growing world of professional e-sports, where gamers are being shepherded toward a new frontier, oddly, by the old, corporeal wisdom of traditional sports.

數年前，傳統運動聯盟被使用電腦的年輕分析家給顛覆了。事實證明，人們一向用來做事情的方法，並非永遠是最好的方法。現在這項轉變的迴響已觸及成長中的職競世界，說也奇怪，選手們竟被傳統運動的古老、肉體智慧引向新的領域。

The debate about whether competitive gamers can be considered athletes may never end. In the meantime, though, gamers are increasingly acting like them.

關於電競選手能否被視為運動員的爭論，恐怕永遠不會停止。而於此同時，玩家的作為卻越來越像運動員了。

Origen is one of two teams owned by Rfrsh Entertainment, an e-sports company based in Copenhagen. Two years ago, the organization hired Kasper Hvidt, a former captain of Denmark’s national handball team, to be its sporting director. Hvidt, 43, had no previous exposure to gaming. But that was the point.

奧里根是以哥本哈根為據點的電競公司「更新娛樂」旗下兩支隊伍之一，兩年前，這家公司雇用丹麥手球國家隊前隊長卡斯伯．赫維特為運動總監。43歲的赫維特以前不曾接觸過電玩，但這正是重點。

E-sports in recent years have crept into the mainstream, attracting new fans, new sponsors and new investment. The top professionals now make six-figure salaries and earn even more with endorsements and prize money. And yet, Hvidt observed, their approach to performance remained amateurish.

近年電競已打入主流，吸引新粉絲、新贊助商和新投資。頂尖職業選手現在可賺進六位數薪水，而且靠代言和競賽獎金還能賺更多。不過赫維特說，選手優化表現的方法仍然很不專業。

Eating right, sleeping right, exercising, cleaning up for sponsors — these ideas have undergirded traditional sports for generations. In e-sports, they are regarded as almost radical.

吃得對、睡得好、做運動、為贊助商打理好門面－這些想法數個世代以來支撐著傳統運動。但在電競界，卻被視為近乎激進。

“They don’t look at themselves as physical human beings,” said Hvidt, who won the European handball championship with Denmark in 2008.

「他們並未視自己為活生生的人類。」2008年帶領丹麥隊贏得歐洲手球錦標賽冠軍的赫維特說。

“It’s common sense, in a way. But with them, it was not.”

「這多少可算是常識了，對他們來說卻並非如此。」

《說文解字看新聞》

電子競技（electronic sports，可寫為e-sports或esports）指用電子遊戲進行競賽，近年來逐漸被視為正式運動項目，玩家的地位也升級成選手，頂尖職業選手更是身價不凡。

知名的電競遊戲以對戰類為主流，例如文中提到的英雄聯盟、星海爭霸（Starcraft）、爐石戰記（Hearthstone）、以及被暱稱為「吃雞」的絕地求生（PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds）等。

既然被視為運動項目，電競也引入贊助商制度，合作廠商提供選手裝備及訓練經費，換取品牌曝光。常見的贊助形式有title sponsor（冠名贊助），不但出資比率最高，且品牌名會出現在賽事名稱、選手服裝或電視畫面一角。此外還有official sponsor（官方贊助），例如Visa是爐石戰記2019世界總決賽的官方贊助商，有權使用賽事影像做行銷。

本文介紹電競選手接受傳統運動訓練，以鍛鍊肌肉及加強體能，文章一開頭就提到squat（深蹲）和leg lift（抬腿），這兩個動作都著重鍛鍊下半身肌肉，且不需設備就可訓練。sit-up（仰臥起坐）和push-up（伏地挺身）也是常見的徒手訓練法，近幾年相當流行的還有plank（棒式），可鍛鍊核心肌群。