Is Competition "Christian"?

Is Competition "Christian"?

Before you give up on this topic half-way through reading, check out this link where Christian scholars develop an initial probing:

http://davefagg.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Perspectives-on-Compet...

I started thinking about this in depth by myself just this week, but in research I found that article useful.

I've been thinking recently about the moral nature of superfluous competition, as in games and sports. I know that competition extends to other spheres such as economics, sociology, etc., but a view of those gets messier as they are more necessary to survival. Let me distill my inquiry into a simple question:

Is harnessing prideful ambition via competition justifiable under any unnecessary circumstance?

So I'm not arguing against the extreme behavior in sports that many decry today, like college athletics scandals, fighting spectator parents, and steroid use. I'm questioning the very nature of induced competition. Let me give a small and simple example to show what I mean: a thumb war. By locking fingers, are we not agreeing to fight for supremacy over each other? Do we not win by making the other person fail? Do we not rejoice as we succeed as the other person fails? Is this Christian behavior? It might be done to further a bond, but is this a good goal accomplished by infusing prideful ambition into the mix?

Now take a regular sport, like soccer. Yes, many would make the case that of lots of positive ends are being achieved by playing: physical benefits, social benefits, character benefits, etc., but do positive ends justify a prideful ambition means? In fact, a player's chief aims might be to simply stay in shape and grow in relationships, or to even ultimately glorify the Lord, but am I not saying,

"I will run to these ends by putting the carrot stick of prideful accomplishment before myself." ?

Now, let me add a disclaimer here. I am not fully sold on this, but I find it worth thinking through. I have studied P.E. in college (among other things), worked as an Activities Director at two different Christian camps, played plenty of sports, received numerous sports awards, coached, and have been beaten in bowling by my grandma without crying, so this isn't a personal axe to grind against competition. I want to be an antagonist of sorts that represents a compelling view of this argument, not so much because I want to convince you of this position, but because in representing this position well, you can help me to find if there are holes in this thinking. I've thought of different arguments myself, but I want to be the antagonist for now.

And before you laugh the question away or offer mostly knee-jerk reactions like in a forum I found with a similar question here (I have no relation that I know of to the questioner)-
http://www.baptistboard.com/archive/index.php/t-10083.html - please think it through a little bit. I do find it interesting that the Bible explicitly says so very little if nothing (positively or negatively) about the role of games and sports in the life of His children. Paul does use athletics in metaphors, but I can't see (and neither can the scholarly article) how that necessarily equates with endorsement. The following article might not get to the crux of my topic here, but it could be found useful for further reading:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/february/3.20.html

Thanks.