A few days ago, IOC President Bach revealed in his speech at the opening ceremony of the 141st Session of the IOC that the IOC is considering the creation of an Olympic Games that belongs to e-sports.
It's a milestone for the esports industry – but there's a question mark over whether everything will go as smoothly as expected.
E-sports became an official sport of the Hangzhou Asian Games.
Embrace virtual sports
Once upon a time, the IOC's attitude towards esports was quite negative.
In 2018, after the introduction of e-sports as a performance event at the Asian Games in Jakarta, IOC President Bach also publicly stated that e-sports games involve violence, violate Olympic values, and will not be accepted by the Olympic Games.
However, as the influence of esports continues to climb around the world, the IOC's attitude has begun to loosen in recent years, especially after entering 2023, between the Olympic Games and esports, the two sides seem to have found a way to embrace - virtual sports.
In June, when the first Olympic Esports Week was held in Singapore, which also featured the Olympic Esports Series featuring more than 110 players from 64 countries and territories, Bach expressed concern and support for the development of virtual sports.
In September, the IOC announced the creation of an esports committee, saying that the establishment of the committee will mainly revolve around supporting the development of virtual Olympic sports.
Virtual sports can be considered a relatively niche branch of esports, because of its proximity to traditional sports (take the series at Esports Week as an example, 11 sports include chess, shooting, archery, sailing coast, sailing offshore, baseball, tennis, cycling, motorsports, taekwondo and dance), more like the exploration of traditional sports in the field of electronics, and can also be considered a test move for the Olympic Games to e-sports.
With this series of foreshadowing, when the e-sports Olympic Games will be put on the agenda, it will be a surprise for the e-sports industry, but whether it can meet expectations is still confusing.
The International Olympic Committee hosts Olympic Esports Week.
The "red line" of the Olympics
At present, Bach said in his speech that there are currently about 3 billion people in the world who play video games, of which more than 500 million people are particularly interested in e-sports, including virtual sports and simulation sports, and most of them are young people under the age of 34... This seems to easily answer the IOC's changing attitude towards esports.
Regarding the "red line" that he once talked about, Bach also elaborated as follows, "In the field of esports, values have always been the red line that we will not compromise. In keeping with Olympic values, a leading publisher in the industry redesigned one of their hit games — so players could shoot at targets, not people. ”
Bach's hit game was Fortnite, which featured in the inaugural Olympic Esports Week if the competition mode was adjusted.
In fact, a similar story also happened at the just-concluded Hangzhou Asian Games, and "Peace Elite Asian Games Version" also changed the conventional battle mode in the past, using target racing to determine the gold medal.
In view of this, after integrating the various measures and statements of the IOC, the following information can be roughly captured:
The IOC needs esports, but the fact that esports events are dubbed "Olympic" does not mean that some mainstream esports can be easily entered, need to be screened under the guidance of Olympic values, or actively adjusted like Fortnite.
The IOC would prefer to start anew
Now make a big guess that once the first Esports Olympiad is held, it is likely to replicate the Olympic Esports Week and focus on virtual sports. If so, the stimulation of the mainstream esports market is equivalent to quenching thirst, and the strength is limited.
Another speculative detail is that the IOC seems to prefer to create a separate "esports Olympics" from scratch rather than directly include some esports that meet the criteria into the Summer or Winter Olympics, which shows that the IOC still maintains a certain cautious attitude on the road to adopting esports.
Taking the E-sports Olympic Games as the entry point is like a buffer zone, which can not only effectively leverage the traffic and commercial sponsorship of the e-sports sector, but also move according to the situation on this basis.
From the introduction of e-sports as a performance event at the Jakarta Asian Games to the official e-sports competition of the Hangzhou Asian Games, the integration of e-sports with large-scale traditional sports events has not had any negative impact, on the contrary, it is a successful example for the Games and the industry.
Symbolism is greater than practical significance
Of course, it must be noted that after more than a century, the Olympic Games are constantly seeking new opportunities, and the most direct way is to introduce the sports that are currently more popular with young people into the Olympic Games.
For example, the Paris Olympics added breakdancing, rock climbing and surfing, and Los Angeles added flag football and lacrosse.
As the common language of Generation Z around the world, e-sports is increasingly influential, which the IOC sees in its eyes, from the initial indifference to the willingness to contact and now considering the creation of an Olympic event in the name of e-sports, the change is not undeniable.
For the esports industry and esports practitioners, no matter when the "Esports Olympics" will be held and what kind of appearance it will look like at that time, it should be viewed positively.
To a certain extent, when the word "E-sports Olympic Games" appears, it already represents that e-sports has gained recognition in mainstream society, and its symbolic significance is greater than its practical significance.