"Thought the idea was to do something about sedentary young people, not to encourage behavior!" writes one person in SVT Nyheter's comment field on Facebook.

"I will never see playing computer games as a sport," writes another.

Got the nod year after year

The Swedish e-sports federation has for years tried to become members, but has been rejected for various reasons. The last time it happened, it was because, according to RF, they had not been able to define which sports e-sports include.

Also this year, the Swedish Sports Agency wanted to see a rejection, partly because they considered that the competition rules are determined by the computer game manufacturers, rather than by the Swedish e-sports federation.

But as is well known, RF's annual general meeting voted against the board's recommendation and let in e-sports.

Does sport have to involve physical activity?

Among critics on social media, the lack of physical activity seems to be seen as the most important reason why e-sports should not be classified as a sport. And the National Encyclopedia's page on sports could prove them right, depending on how you interpret it:

"A definition established in the sports movement is 'physical activity that people perform in order to gain exercise and recreation or to achieve competition results'"

But the RF's definition is somewhat broader on this point. Here's how they write about the physical part:

"The physical element is of more than negligible importance for the activity itself, the performance and the result."

Boule and billiards

In its application, the Swedish e-sports federation has argued that physical performance is crucial in e-sports as well as boules, billiards and darts.

They cite chess as an example of a thought sport in which physical activity is not decisive.

The E-sports Federation gets support from the players that SVT News gets hold of inside Counter-Strike.

"You can compare it to golf. It's not very explosive either, but it's still a lot of technology and strategy," says Jonathan Thim with 10 years of experience in Counter-Strike.

How do the players themselves think about the criticism? Watch the survey inside Counter-Strike in the clip.