Mentioned in this article Games: League of Legends, Overwatch

Earlier this week, Reuters reported that the International e-Sports Federation (IeSF) was “deep in talks” with the organizers of the 2024 Paris Olympics. The story, which later found its way to BBC Sport and ESPN, said the discussions were aimed at getting esports in as a demonstration sport for the Summer Olympics, taking place six years from now.

Leopold Chung, acting secretary general for the IeSF, told Reuters “It won’t be possible to be an official discipline but to be a demonstration title within the Paris Olympics.”

The Esports Observer reached out and tried to clarify this quote. We’ve yet to receive a response, and therefore can’t elaborate on the IeSF’s plans or intentions with this announcement. However, there’s a significant amount of missing context to this story—something that has become quite common for most outlets attempting to cover esports’ burgeoning journey to Olympics recognition.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]It’s clear that corporations like Intel or Alibaba will have more say and sway on whether esports reaches the Olympics.[/perfectpullquote]

First, let’s explore what a “demonstration sport” actually is. In an Olympic context, the term describes any contest that is played not for medals, but for promotion. Such events were first introduced in the 1912 Summer Olympics, when Sweden wanted to showcase its Icelandic take on wrestling: glima. From then on, every Olympic committee awarded the Games has included at least one demonstration sport, with dozens—including basketball, volleyball, and taekwondo—eventually becoming full medal events.

Related Article: Esports Belongs in the Olympics, But Right Now It Is Far from Ready

So the hope is that putting competitive video gaming under this spotlight will set it on the track to full inclusion, right? The problem is that demonstration sports were suspended after the 1992 Olympics, due to the growing size of the program. There have been exceptions: a wushu competition was held at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but wasn’t part of the main competition. At the 2020 Tokyo games, nine new sports (including baseball, climbing, and skateboarding) will be included as medal events—albeit for that event only.

I would speculate that the IeSF’s use of the phrase here could be a reference to the Asian Games, which will, in fact, feature esports as a demonstration sport this year, and bump it up to a medal event in the 2022 competition. The Asian Games are organized by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), which lists esports under its list of sports, and is also partnered with both the IeSF and the Asian Electronic Sports Federation (AESF).

Undoubtedly, placing esports in the Asian Games will be a major stepping stone to any potential Olympic inclusion. The event is considered the second largest multi-sport event next to the Games themselves, and might set a precedent for which esports titles are best played side-by-side with traditional sports, and how they’re presented.

However, most reports miss out the fact that while the Asian Games are recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), no sport added to the Asian Games program is destined for Summer or Winter Games inclusion. As Ben Fischer, staff writer for SportsBusiness Journal noted, water skiing has been a part of every Pan Am Games since 1995, and still hasn’t made its way to the Olympics.

Also absent is any mention of the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) PyeongChang; an ESL/Intel-hosted StarCraft II tournament held prior to the Winter Olympics, with support from none other than the IOC. This was a demonstration sport in every sense of the now-defunct phrase, and was covered considerably by media at the time, but is already oddly forgotten.

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While esports’ young federations have a part to play in organizing, governing, and representing the sport in an Olympic event, it’s clear that corporations will have more say and sway on whether it actually happens. Intel and Alibaba both have nine-figure, global sponsorship deals with the IOC, and have large marketing teams in daily conversations with the IOC.

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The Asian Games are recognized by the IOC, but no sport added to its program is destined for Summer or Winter Games inclusion.[/perfectpullquote]

As full disclosure, I covered and spoke at the IeSF’s Global Executive Summit last year. Through the TEO Podcast, you can also hear my discussions with those involved with the federation’s athlete’s commission—one area where it’s doing good work to improve esports globally. However, this week’s news blindsided me, since France is not a listed nation under the IeSF, and as an international federation, it still lacks representation of the U.S. and other key regions.

The one key part of esports-Olympic history that every publication brings up, without fail, is the now-repeated comments by IOC chief Thomas Bach, who abhors the idea of any violent video game making its way into the Olympics. It’s been around seven months since he first made these remarks, and whilst nobody’s the wiser as to whether the cartoonish carnage of League of Legends or Overwatch ticks that box, it’s a clear reflection of how esports won’t be rushing into an Olympics program.

Seeing video games in the Olympics was once an unthinkable prospect, but now you can even find open bets, with odds of 4/1, that it will happen in 2024. That said, we should all be wary of reporting that fails to note the nuance on this subject.