A few days ago, the International Olympic Committee announced the "2020+5 Agenda" on its official website and submitted it to the IOC plenary meeting for deliberation. The agenda pointed out some of the reform directions of the International Olympic Movement in the next few years.
Among them, the expression "encourage the development of virtual sports and strengthen contact with the video game community" has re-discussed the topic of "e-sports entering the Olympics".
Data map: "League of Legends" E-sports Goddess Challenge Finals.
Photo by Zhong Xinwang issued by China News Agency Photo source: CNSPHOTO
On this topic, a reporter from Chinanews.com conducted an exclusive interview with Wang Guoji, the Chinese member of the International E-Sports Federation and the executive chairman of the National E-Sports Joint Conference. He also expressed his views on issues of interest to the outside world.
"Global E-sports Comprehensive Event"
At the end of 2019, the International E-Sports Federation (GEF) was established, which is regarded as a big step for "e-sports entering Olympics."
Affected by the epidemic, last year GEF mainly carried out basic work, including establishing contacts with international organizations and individual event organizations, and recruiting sports organizations from all continents, national and regional e-sports organizations, video game manufacturers, e-sports promotion operators, etc. to become members, etc. .
Wang Guoji revealed that the first global e-sports comprehensive event organized by GEF is expected to settle in China this year.
The scene of the GEF global press conference.
Image source: GEF official.
In fact, there is no shortage of global e-sports in the field of professional e-sports.
For example, in the League of Legends Global Finals held in Shanghai last year, related topics have remained very hot on social media.
Most of the more popular events of this type are single events, and the organization of the events is dominated by game manufacturers.
The comprehensive events in the GEF plan are quite different from this.
"It can set up several major categories, not only Tencent, NetEase, Perfect World (games), including Japan, South Korea, the United States, everyone can participate in and compete on the same stage as the Olympic Games." Wang Guoji said.
In his opinion, in addition to official competition events, some performance events can also be set up, "This will become a comprehensive sports meeting."
Among the difficulties of "e-sports entering the Olympics", one of them is that most of the e-sports competitions are dominated and organized by game manufacturers, and the game logic and organizational rules of e-sports and traditional Olympic sports are different.
Data map: The 2020 League of Legends global finals championship battle ended in Shanghai.
In the end, the DWG team from South Korea's LCK division defeated the SN team from China's LPL division with a score of 3:1, and won the 2020 League of Legends global finals world championship.
The picture shows the South Korean DWG team members lifting the championship trophy.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Yin Liqin
Wang Guoji told reporters that several large domestic cities with better development of e-sports have expressed their desire to host the event.
"In the future, in addition to traditional e-sports events organized by manufacturers, comprehensive virtual sports events led by international organizations and third-party organizations will gradually increase. Starting this year, global e-sports events and traditional sports events online and offline will echo each other. A new e-sports ecology is gradually taking shape."
Virtual sports and video games
In the "2020+5 Agenda" of the International Olympic Committee, the "virtual sports" mentioned is easily reminiscent of games such as "virtual F1".
Wang Guoji introduced that at present, traditional sports simulators are one of the sports projects that GEF focuses on promoting.
The so-called simulator is to simulate the scenes and forms of traditional sports events in an electronic device.
Virtual F1 race.
Image source: F1 official video screenshot.
Take virtual racing sports as an example. In the simulator, the players can manipulate the steering wheel and various buttons like on the field, and the equipped visual simulation equipment will simulate the real field environment.
Compared with real motorsports, such a virtual mode is obviously more economical and safer, and the entry barrier is greatly reduced.
"This is aerobic exercise, muscle exercise, physical energy consumption, it will be healthier." Wang Guoji said.
Does this mean that the more familiar League of Legends, DOTA2 and other projects will be difficult to enter the Olympic Games?
Wang Guoji revealed that he had repeatedly discussed the topic of “e-sports entering the Olympics” with Mr. Wei Jizhong, the vice chairman of the International E-sports Federation and the life honorary vice chairman of the Olympic Council of Asia. The healthy development of competitive sports.
Data map: The 2020 League of Legends global finals championship battle ended in Shanghai.
In the end, the DWG team from South Korea's LCK division defeated the SN team from China's LPL division with a score of 3:1, and won the 2020 League of Legends global finals world championship.
The picture shows the SN team (right) and the DWG team standing on the final stage.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Yin Liqin
Vice Chairman Wei Jizhong believes that due to the development of the epidemic in the past two years, traditional sports have been greatly affected and many offline games cannot be played. This has made the International Olympic Committee more and more aware of the advantages of e-sports.
This is one of the reasons why the IOC's attitude towards e-sports is becoming more and more open.
Wang Guoji said that the two have the same views on the concept of virtual sports-"We believe that (the concept of virtual sports) is not to be confused with video games, and the meaning is broader. Virtual sports should include gaming e-sports, of course, In the future, it may be mainly e-sports simulating healthy sports." Wang Guoji said.
E-sports entry into the Olympics, difficult or easy
In 2018, e-sports as a performance event entered the Jakarta Asian Games; and in the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, e-sports will be unveiled as an official event.
But when e-sports can enter the Olympics is a topic of greater concern.
Data map: The Chinese team stood on the highest podium of the Asian Games King's Glory Performance Project.
Image source: Osports All Sports Photo Agency
In Wang Guoji's view, "e-sports entering the Olympics" still has some problems to overcome.
"From online to offline, e-sports events have very high requirements for various technologies and supporting facilities, and compared with the technical requirements of traditional sports events, there is little commonality between the two. Therefore, how to compare with traditional sports events? A "competition" at a sports meeting requires a process of practice and exploration."
In addition, there are strict regulations on the scale of the Olympic Games and the number of participants. The entry of e-sports may squeeze out some traditional sports, which is also one of the problems.
At present, there are a large number of traditional sports that have not entered the Olympic Games, and it takes a certain process for "e-sports to enter the Olympics".
"Third, the epidemic is a challenge to the traditional offline Olympics. Will the reform of the Olympics in the future be reduced in scale, and will some necessary adjustments be made? This may be the difficulty of e-sports entering the Olympics."
Data map: A woman walks through the 2020 Tokyo Olympics poster.
But Wang Guoji is optimistic about the integration of the Olympic Games and e-sports.
"Traditional Olympics are now facing issues such as attention, participation, and decline in commercial value. After the introduction of e-sports, one is to attract young people, and the other is to change its methods and enrich its form, which is important for the future development of the Olympics. A strong push."
Although it is not yet possible to give a specific timetable for e-sports entering the Olympics, he believes that after the impact of the epidemic, the combination of the Olympics and the Internet is an inevitable trend.
"Sometimes people say'e-sports into the Olympics', and in the future it may also be'the Olympics'." (Author Wang Hao)