The President of the International Olympic Association, Thomas Bach announced that esports of a violent nature have no place in the Olympics. The Olympics Association is amenable to the idea of adding esports to the Olympics. However, esports needs to adhere to the Olympics values which have no place for any violent exhibitions.

The Asian Games Jakarta 2018 introduced esports for the first time as a demonstration event. This event was preceded by several Olympics-Esports forums. There are active discussions which enable people to understand the world of esports.

We cannot have in the Olympic program a game which is promoting violence or discrimination. So-called killer games. They, from our point of view, are contradictory to the Olympic values and cannot, therefore, be accepted. Thomas Bach.

Olympic sports have violence deep in their culture

The Olympics already includes several disciplines of a violent nature. Sports such as Boxing, Fencing and Shooting definitely seem to have a tilt towards physical violence. While this is true for their origin, the sports themselves are not played in a violent manner. The Olympic charter stresses the need for a civilized display of competition if is the sports themselves have a very violent origin.

Of course, every combat sport has its origins in a real fight among people. But sport is the civilized expression about this. If you have ‘egames’ where it’s about killing somebody, this cannot be brought into line with our Olympic values. Thomas Bach.

Esports has several titles with a heavy focus on violence and ‘killing’ their opponents. FPS games such as CS: GO, PUBG, Fortnite feature first-person shooting elements., You can clearly see the guns in action as players attempt to take down as many opponents as they can.

MOBAs are not too different as they have a lot of blood usually on display within the game. The concept of the games in MOBA is sort of similar to FPS games. Players have to eliminate their opponents but using fantasy spells and abilities. This provides a very fantasy like element to MOBAs which is why we were able to witness League of Legends live at the Asian Games 2018.

It is always going to be a tough task for the FPS games to find a place at the Olympics. With the recently regular shootings in the United States, the prospect of having such violent games within the Olympics is slim.

Esports does not need validation from the Olympics

How important is a place in the Olympics for esports? Can esports gain recognition only via the Olympics?

The Answer is a resounding no. Esports has already arrived in the mainstream media. We are witnessing huge sponsorship deals as well as direct investments into esports. With Overwatch League signing broadcasting deals with mainstream media channels like ESPN and DisneyXD esports is already on primetime television. ESPN is also regularly tweeting out esports to its followers on social media.

Games such as Dota 2 and League of Legends are insanely popular in various parts of the world. Dota 2 has some of the highest numbers in esports and most of them come from China. With various markets ‘specialising’ in different games, esports is becoming a global entity.

Esports is more accessible than the Olympics

The esports structure is such that anyone with the skill and reflexes can become a top tier player. Factors like the player’s nationality, his geographic location have little impact on his ability to become a top tier player. Of course the final structure of forming a team is dependent on a lot more factors. But esports is mostly played online and this transcends national boundaries. Two players from two rival countries such as India and Pakistan can regularly play with each other and even form a potential team to compete. Since there are so many online tournaments readily available, a players talent is noticed much before anyone ever sees him on LAN.

The same cannot be said for the Olympics. Since the Olympics require participation from national bodies, the government has over-reaching control over their teams. Becoming a professional national player can be a very time-consuming process and the best players might not always be selected for their national teams.

The Olympics cannot keep up with esports

A common theme throughout esports history is the ever-changing face of esports. Over the past couple of decades, we have seen several changes to the top games as well as the release of several other titles. Games like Starcraft, Dota and Counter-Strike have seen different game versions regularly released in order to keep the balance of the game.

This aspect of esports, the balance patches, is a regular feature and will not go away at any point in its future. This is simply because of the digital nature and the variety of esports games. Developers constantly keep tinkering with aspects of the game that they feel is imbalanced or needs a tweak.

The Olympics committee is a huge organisation, one that works at a slower pace than the esports industry. While individual games and their updates might be in the developers’ jurisdiction, the Olympics takes a decision on new games to add.

For example, Fornite became the hot sensation in 2018. If esports were already in the Olympics, there would be much debate on whether to include Fortnite or no. This debate would not be resolved in time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. By the time of Fortnite’s inclusion in the 2024 Olympics, there would be a new game on the market and the cycle would continue. So even if Olympics were to include esports, it is extremely difficult for the organization to keep up with esports and the rapid changes.

The Olympics is Old, fails to reach the young crowd

The Olympics is old with an ever-increasing average viewership age. With Olympics losing its credibility amongst the youth especially as they flock to ‘newer games’, we have seen attempts to introduce new sports. But their implementation in the Olympics was a mess and overall it was a PR disaster. Snowboarding was introduced in 1998 as a means for the Olympics to reach out to the younger generation, but without adequate knowledge of the game’s ethos and its freewheeling nature, the Olympics only alienated a potential viewer base.

Media Age across the Olympics:

2002: 42 years

2008: 47 years

2012: 48 years

2014: 55 years

Source

Right now, Olympics is playing hide and seek with esports. The Olympics committee has set up various forums for active discussion on esports integration into the Olympics. Yet they consistently seem to be pushing back either via the ‘violence argument’ or the ‘sports argument’.

It is time for esports industry to present a unified front

The esports industry is a very fragmented industry. Despite ‘esports’ covering all the competitive video games in the industry, each title has its own ecosystem. Valve has two of the biggest games under its profile, yet we see little to no involvement from the developer. Despite this, the growth of CS: GO and Dota 2 point towards the massive interest in these games. This is in stark contrast to that of Overwatch League and LoL which are developer controlled leagues. They provide a set infrastructure and a fixed schedule for the teams.

The Esports industry has no unifying body. So when an organisation looks to invest in esports and gain a foothold, they have to take on the task of understanding every esport title individually. This is similar to that of regular sports, but every nations sporting structure has a unifying sports body. This body is an overseeing body which helps formulate decisions for the benefit of the players. There are countries like China which are already in the process of regulating esports and the number of new titles released per year. It is important to build the structure around esports as quickly as possible.

Contemplating the idea of an esports national championship

Esports does not need an inclusion in the Olympics. However, that does not mean that esports cannot organise its own national championships. It is a great way of having your country provide the support and the infrastructure to develop the next esports athletes. The success of the overwatch League already suggests that fans are not averse to supporting teams based out of a geographical location. If anything, this can only get newer players and viewers to support the game.

We already have WESG as a viable alternative for national competitions and pride. Alisports, the esports arm of Alibaba Group is the organisers of WESG.

The competition differs greatly from that of other commercial tournaments by following the Olympic standard, emphasizing on national pride, and encouraging fans to partake in the competition.

WESG