Featured Dump Misc. Dump 

NHL is first sport to crackdown on excessive playing of video game ‘Fortnite’

sports dumpster

With gaming reaching extreme levels and massive popularity it now (not surprisingly) has filtered into professional sports. With this gaming rush, some NHL teams are apparently worried about the popular video game “Fortnite” becoming too much of a distraction for players.

According to hockey writer Rick Westhead, some junior hockey players have been advised to scrub their social media accounts of “Fortnite” references because some NHL clubs view the game as detrimental to players’ focus. The game is apparently viewed as a “major distraction/obsession” by some teams.






This report comes a few months after Jeff Marek of Sportsnet reported that a top draft pick from a “very, very prominent NHL team” was ruining his shot at an NHL career due to a serious video game addiction.

“On video games – and I’m not gonna say the player’s name. I really doubt he’s going to make it to the NHL, and it’s because of a video game addiction,” Marek said on his 31 Thoughts podcast with Elliotte Friedman. “To the point where his general manager told me — his junior general manager told me — that they’ve had him go to counseling over it. Because he’ll play until all hours of the night and into the morning and then he’ll have no energy the next day. Like, he’ll be a write-off. And it is that bad. He has … this compulsion for playing video games till all hours. I swore upon … that I wouldn’t say the player’s name, but it’s unfortunate.

“I mean, he’s a recent first-round draft pick for a very, very prominent NHL team, will probably never play in the NHL because of a video game addiction.”



It’s also not the first time that “Fortnite”, which is arguably the most popular video game on the planet right now, has come up as a possible negative thing for athletes this year, even a major pro athlete.

Earlier this year, Red Sox pitcher David Price was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome in May, costing him a scheduled start on the mound. It was reported that his many hours logged on “Fortnite” may have led to the diagnosis. Though it was never confirmed that the game is actually what caused the issue, Price did say he’d stop playing it at the ballpark because the diagnosis became a “distraction.”