The International Olympic Committee is planning to hold the first Olympic E-sports Games——
The Esports Olympics are coming?
A few days ago, the 2024 Gangwon Winter Youth Olympic Games concluded in South Korea. During the games, a statement by International Olympic Committee President Bach attracted widespread attention - he revealed in an interview that the International Olympic Committee is considering hosting the first Olympic e-sports games in 2025 or 2026 at the latest.
Regarding the competition format and time of the first e-sports Olympics, Bach admitted that it has not been completely determined yet. "We are not 100 percent sure (of the tournament format and timing) yet, but research is making significant progress. So, I think we could consider hosting the first Olympic eSports Games in 2025 or 2026 at the latest."
In October 2023, Bach revealed during his speech at the opening ceremony of the 141st Plenary Session of the International Olympic Committee that the International Olympic Committee was considering creating an Olympic Games belonging to e-sports. Bach said that the e-sports Olympics may follow the format of the Olympic E-sports Week in June 2023. "This means that on the one hand, there are virtual sports, which refers to the combination of e-sports and physical activities; on the other hand, some of the most popular electronic games will be introduced, but the premise is that these electronic games must comply with Olympic values."
Esports’ road to the Olympics has not been smooth sailing. Just a few years ago, the International Olympic Committee's attitude towards esports was quite negative.
In 2018, after the Jakarta Asian Games introduced e-sports as a performance event, International Olympic Committee President Bach publicly stated that e-sports games involve violence and are contrary to Olympic values and will not be accepted by the Olympic Games.
However, as the influence of e-sports continues to rise around the world, the International Olympic Committee's attitude has begun to loosen in recent years, especially after entering 2023, between the Olympics and e-sports, the two sides seem to have found a way to embrace - —Virtual sports.
In June last year, the first Olympic Esports Week was held in Singapore, during which the Olympic Esports Series was also held with the participation of more than 110 players from 64 countries and regions. At that time, Bach expressed his concern and support for the development of virtual sports.
In September last year, the International Olympic Committee announced the establishment of an e-sports committee and stated that the establishment of the committee would mainly focus on supporting the development of virtual Olympic sports.
Virtual sports can be considered a relatively niche branch of e-sports due to its proximity to traditional sports (taking the series at E-sports Week as an example, the 11 events include chess, shooting, archery, sailing, Sailing and offshore, baseball, tennis, cycling, motorsports, taekwondo and dance) are more like the exploration of traditional sports in the electronic field, and can also be considered a test move for the Olympics to move towards e-sports.
At present, Bach mentioned in his speech that there are currently about 3 billion people playing video games in the world, of which more than 500 million people are particularly interested in e-sports, including virtual sports and simulated sports, and most of them are under the age of 34. Young people... This is why the International Olympic Committee's attitude towards e-sports has changed so much.
Regarding the "violence involved" he once talked about, Bach also elaborated as follows, "In the field of e-sports, values have always been a red line that we will not compromise. In order to comply with Olympic values, a leading publisher in the industry has banned one of their popular games Redesign it so players can shoot targets, not people."
The popular game Bach mentioned was Fortnite, which was featured in the first Olympic Esports Week, provided the competitive format was adjusted. In fact, a similar story happened at last year's Hangzhou Asian Games. "Peace Elite Asian Games Version" also changed the conventional battle mode in the past, using target shooting and racing to determine the gold medal.
In view of this, after taking into account the various measures and statements of the International Olympic Committee, we can roughly capture the International Olympic Committee’s attitude towards e-sports: The International Olympic Committee needs e-sports, but e-sports events are given the title of “Olympic” Finally, it does not mean that some mainstream e-sports projects can easily enter the market. They need to be screened under the guidance of Olympic values, or take the initiative to make changes like "Fortnite".
At last year’s Hangzhou Asian Games, e-sports became an official event and gained huge attention. In the 7 competition events, the Chinese team won 4 golds and 1 bronze, ranking first in the e-sports gold medal list and medal list. The successful hosting of the Hangzhou Asian Games shows that effective attempts have been made to integrate e-sports with large-scale traditional sports events. For all e-sports practitioners, the Asian Games is an excellent opportunity - to bring e-sports with a more positive image in front of a "more popular public".
Unlike the Intercontinental Games, which are directly established as official competition events, the International Olympic Committee seems to be more willing to create a separate "e-sports Olympics" from scratch, rather than directly including some e-sports events that meet the standards into the Summer or Winter Olympics. It can also be seen from this that the International Olympic Committee still maintains a certain degree of caution in accepting e-sports. Taking the E-sports Olympics as the entry point is like a buffer zone, which can not only effectively leverage the traffic and commercial sponsorship of the e-sports sector, but also move according to the situation on this basis.
After more than a century, the Olympic Games are constantly seeking new opportunities to attract more audiences. The most direct way is to introduce events that are more popular among young people into the Olympic Games. For example, the 2024 Paris Olympics will add four new events including break dancing, rock climbing and surfing, and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will add flag football and lacrosse.
As the influence of e-sports increases day by day, the International Olympic Committee is also taking notice. From initial indifference to willingness to contact, to now considering creating a separate Olympic event in the name of e-sports, the change is huge. (Worker Daily)