In the last couple of years, esports in the Olympic Games has been a huge topic of discussion. Like most considerations, there are always some people for it and others totally against it. The co-president of the Paris Olympic bid committee announced that the 2024 Olympic Games might include esports titles.

However, International Olympic Committee president had this to say on the topic, by stating:

“We want to promote non-discrimination, non-violence, and peace among people,” Bach told the South China Morning Post. “This doesn’t match with video games, which are about violence, explosions, and killing. And there we have to draw a clear line.”

Are Esports too Violent for the Olympic Games?

All of us esports enthusiast, fans, and players have to think about certain criteria when it comes to esports in the Olympic Games. Are games like CS:GO, League of Legends and Dota 2 too violent to be considered a part of the Olympics?

How can something virtual be more violent than for instance, boxing? People are throwing punches at each other for over 20 minutes, and the crowd is enjoying it. And in the end, if someone gets knocked out, the entire arena would go crazy, because someone lost conscientiousness. Even though Thomas Bach is a president of IOC, I personally think he is wrong in this one.

MUTUAL AGREEMENT:

Even though some may find blood and bad language among the main reasons why esports players should not be able to fight for a medal in the Olympic Games, there is an easy fix for this. If we take

CS:GO as an example, viewers will see a lot of blood, since it is a first-person shooter game. I do not think that Valve would have any trouble disabling blood for the Olympic Games. Not only that, they could make numerous different small adjustments to the graphics, without affecting players abilities. The main reason for removing blood, in my opinion, would be because of viewer discretion. There are a lot of young kids watching the Olympic Games, and some of them would find blood very aggressive, but this is only an example of how to esports could be altered to accommodate an Olympic committee. e

ATHLETES ARE ATHLETES, NO MATTER THE GAME

Anyone willing to put the time into mastering a game, should be considered equally to players from other games. Just like soccer professionals, there are also professional esports players. If we take Astralis as an example, they practice 5-6 hours per day, as a team. Furthermore, they practice their individual skills on daily basis as well. This adds up to an incredible amount of play time. This amount of practice requires them to work out in order to stay in shape, and to help create a bond between themselves, to help them perform like any other professional team.

What is different between Astralis and any other soccer professional? There is not any. They are both striving to be the best, putting a lot of hours into practice, and they barely have time for anything else. Being the best at something takes time, dedication, and a lot of ups and downs. As you can see from the text above, professionals are professionals, no matter what. A lot of people who are against esports at the Olympic Games will say how easy it is to play video games. It is not easy at all. There are over 10.000 hours spent in certain games, and that should be respected if someone went that far to be the best.

ESPORTS EVENTS ARE ALWAYS SOLD OUT

If we take League of Legends, 2014 World Finals as an example, we could clearly see how popular the game is, especially for the Asian region. Sang-am World Cup Stadium, located in Seoul, was sold out, an enormous number of 45.000 fans were watching the event live. Furthermore, online viewership was over 30 million, a lot more viewers then an average tennis match is able to attract. Secondly, ESL One Dota 2, took place in Commerzbank Arena, Frankfurt, a tournament which was sold out for every single day, and it had a total of 12.500 seats.

If someone says that eSports would not be as watched as other sports in the Olympic Games, that is a lie. In 2018, eSports viewership numbers are through the roof. CS:GO Faceit London Major 2018, attracted more viewers than Superbowl finals. That means a lot because certain titles are becoming more popular than common sports.

SPONSORS

At the moment, eSports are attracting a lot of popular sponsors. Even car companies, such as Hyundai and Audi are sponsoring certain tournaments. Furthermore, a lot of famous clothing companies are producing jerseys for eSports teams. For instance, CSGO team North, is sponsored by Adidas, and Astralis is sponsored by Jack&Jones. There are also aeronautics companies involved in the eSports genre, such as Airbus.

If eSports protestors think that there would be no money if eSports make it to the big stage, the Olympic Games, it would be another lie.

The most popular events in the Asian region are sponsored by famous banks and digital payment providers, such as Entropay. If eSports titles are to start taking part at the next Olympic Games, could you imagine how big of a boom that would be? The biggest investors and sponsors would probably swarm professional teams, players and overall games. We would see bigger prize pools, higher quality content on every tournament and a lot of other positive stuff.

CONCLUSION

If a certain player decided to commit himself to a game, in order to be the best, he will have no free time, barely any friends, he would not go out on regular basis, but he would train to improve.

Why would someone take his chance to represent his country? I think that everyone who is training constantly deserves to represent his country, to make his family proud. Most of the parents are not supportive when it comes to video games, I know that for a fact. However, if eSports makes it to the Olympic Games in 2024, I personally think that parents would support their children a lot more, because who knows, maybe their youngster would be presented with a gold medal in Olympic Games.