The Olympics being on brings the world’s attention to the international scene for a multitude of traditional sports. This brings many opportunities to highlight talent as well as test the athlete’s talents out against other competitors. Is there a need for an Esports Olympics? Or is this just another instance where fans want to have a parallel event for esports purely because traditional sports has one?
Is it the validation of being recognized as a parallel to traditional sports, which makes fans push for an esport Olympics?
Fans get to see, in many cases, tournaments that do integrate multiple regions. League of Legends Worlds would have to be one of the biggest titles that bring together the different regions to compete for the ultimate prize. Though this is not the absolute best of each region playing for the country they represent, but instead of organizations within the regions that are fighting to dominate the competition.
Blizzard’s Overwatch World Cup was the closest to an Olympic format with committees picking the best players and coaches from each region to represent the countries in qualifiers and then playoffs.
In many cases esports have tried to copy what has worked for traditional sports. This can be seen in the structure and even merchandise like jerseys. This could be because investors have seen the success in the business model that traditional sports have run and want to replicate that. Take what has worked and recreate it. That makes sense, except until it doesn’t.
Courtesy of the Overwatch League
Esports are not traditional sports. Many people use the measuring stick of traditional sports as success because that is the close thing to esports. Esports deserve to be treated as their own entity. This means having it be judged against itself when it comes to growth. But would an esport Olympics-esque event help the plight of esports?
What esports craves is the validation that it is a sport. An event that is like the Olympics would put esports on a platform that could reach more people. Right now League of Legends Worlds is a huge event with tens of thousands who watch it. But it is still only of this niche esport population that is on Twitch. This exposure could open up more opportunities for teams as well as marketing for the games.
This could also be beneficial to esport players that have to do mandatory military service. The 2022 Asian Games does enact this allowing a Korean esport player to be able to get out of their military service. Currently if a Korean athlete wins a medal at the Olympics they are able to get out of their mandatory military service. Even people or groups that have done a lot for South Korea, such as BTS, still will have to do their military service. Therefore having an opportunity for esport athletes to be able to win a ticket out of their military service would be very beneficial to the esport community.
No one owns skiing. There is no owner of ice skating. These traditional sports are neutral with the participants showing their skill within already defined rule sets. This is not true for esports. There is an entity that owns the game that esport players play. They are at the mercy of the company that makes the game or the tournament. The community has heard of CDL pro players being fined for playing other sponsored games on their personal channels. Certain talent are unable to work certain games because of their contact with other games. It gets messy with multiple titles.
There are multiple issues that come up with any esport tournament that would of course still be present, especially if it was a multi-game tournament. That in itself of what games would be present could be a bag of worms for the organizers. There is not a set list of games like there is for sports. Esport titles come and go with a variety of types such as mobile, FPS, moba, tactical, fighting, on PC, console, and mobile that picking a few titles could pose discord in the gaming community.
If the Olympics (IOC) integrated esports it would not be until Los Angeles in 2028. The IOC has made moves with the Olympic Virtual Series (OVS). As the IOC continues to explore the esport world, the community will see the path that is taken for an esport version of an Olympics. Hopefully, those who are organizing it will take a fresh look at the format to make sure that it highlights the unique elements of esports and not just a copy-paste of the traditional sport Olympic Games.
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