The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is kicking off the first edition of Olympic Esport Week on Thursday 22 June. This event, which takes place until Sunday at the Suntec Convention Center in Singapore, is dedicated to the practice of competitive video games and virtual sports. Olympic rings oblige, the showcase of this meeting is above all its competitive component, called Olympic Series of e-sport.
Nine sports-related games were chosen: Fortnite (shooting), Just Dance (dancing), Gran Turismo (car racing), Chess.com (chess), Zwift (cycling), Virtual Regatta (sailing), Tic Tac Bow (archery), Tennis Clash and WBSC eBaseball. The IOC faced a barrage of criticism regarding the absence of flagship disciplines, as well as the presence of little-known mobile games, when the program was formalized in March.
“As in the name ‘Olympic Esport Week’, there is the term ‘esports’, the esports communities would like to see competitions from ‘League of Legends’, ‘Counter-Strike’, ‘Valorant’ (…). They are disappointed and have the impression that there is a form of instrumentalization of e-sport by the Olympic movement”, analyzes Nicolas Besombes, teacher-researcher in science and techniques of physical and sports activities (Staps) at Paris-Cité University and specialist in e-sport.
another formula
“I can understand some reactions, responds to Le Monde Vincent Pereira, the IOC’s e-sports manager. But we have a global mission which is really to help the Olympic movement to develop. That’s why we only chose sports simulations or hybrid games with physical activity. The violence of some shooting games also prevents them from being part of the event. “Games in which you can kill someone are not aligned with the Olympic values,” he said.
The IOC therefore required that, for each title offered, a video game publisher partner with an international federation. Another formula that contrasts with the usual model of e-sport, in which it is generally the creators of the games who organize their own competition. While some alliances will not surprise anyone, such as that of Virtual Regatta with the World Sailing Federation, others question: the mobile game Tennis Clash, for example, packed with microtransactions, is not a top-tier tennis simulation.
“The objective is not to make the audience mass but to encourage mass participation among athletes, analyzes Nicolas Besombes. The IOC is quite well aware that by competing on “Tic Tac Bow”, it is not going to affect “League of Legends” fans. The young people nevertheless remain the first in the line of fire. “For twenty-five years, the IOC has observed a lack of interest among young urban generations in the Western world for sports that belong to the world before,” explains Patrick Clastres, historian at the University of Lausanne, specialist in the IOC. . To seduce them, they have already integrated new sports and new events, such as BMX and breaking… It is this audience that is targeted with e-sport. »
“Anchor an annual event”
In fact, “encouraging the development of virtual sports” is one of the resolutions of the IOC roadmap for the period 2020-2025. Video game events have already been organized on the sidelines of the Pyeongchang 2018 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, but their scale and impact have been weak.
Olympic Esports Week is on a whole different scale: 134 e-athletes from sixty-four countries are expected in Singapore, where only the finals of each tournament will take place, the qualification phases having already ended. conducted online. Thirty hours of live video streaming is planned across the site and social media, as well as associated streamer channels. Participation in the various events was open to everyone except Fortnite: only some of the best global players of Epic Games’ ultra-popular franchise were invited to compete in a game mode designed for the occasion . No Olympic title or medal will be issued, as the event is not related to the Olympics.
Finally, apart from the competition, friendly matches or demonstrations of other titles are planned, such as the fighting game Street Fighter 6, the basketball simulation NBA 2K or the famous ball game with Rocket League cars. On the latter, a friendly meeting between two renowned e-sports teams, Karmine Corp and Gen. G Esports, was also formalized on Tuesday.
“The ambition is to anchor an annual event. Today, we already have advanced discussions with France on the possibility of the second edition of Olympic Esport Week in 2024, and with other host countries for 2025 and 2026,” says Vincent Pereira. However, France has not yet officially committed. The impact of this first edition, for which the budget has not been revealed, should determine the sustainability of the Olympic e-sports week.
