So you want to get into e-sports, but you're worried that the myriad existing popular competitions can't match the grandeur and incorruptible respectability of something like the Olympic games. The UK government has a potential solution, today announcing the eGames as "an international gaming tournament where national pride is the prize."

That pride is apparently the only prize... the announcement makes it clear that "the eGames will be a medal only competition, with no prize money, but the opportunity to take home gold for your country." That might be a hard sell in a space that routinely attracts competitors with prize pools that can easily surpass $18 million, but it does line up with the lack of international prize money for Olympic athletes (local Olympic committees often give cash to gold medal winners, though).

The new eGames will be looking to bask in some reflected glory from the upcoming Rio Olympic Games, hosting its first competition as a two-day "pop up" in Rio during the Summer Olympics in August. Any nation will be welcome to field an "eTeam" (their term, not ours) in the eGames, but so far only four countries are confirmed as participants: Britain, Canada, Brazil, and the US.

There are still a ton of unanswered questions about the eGames initiative, particularly which games will be a part of the competition, which is only four months away at this point. Rock Paper Shotgun has an excellent list of other questions and concerns, including potential timing conflicts with Dota 2's upcoming International tournament and restrictions on minors that will ban some hot players from being eligible.

Regardless, it's interesting to see a national government getting behind e-sports competitions in such a big way and trying to formalize some friendly national competition in the process. Maybe someday soon games like Dota 2 will join such fine Olympic sports as Trampoline and Rhythmic Gymnastics in getting outsized interest from patriotic-but-confused sports fans once every four years.