Chess instead of shooter
IOC makes a fool of itself with Olympic e-sports idea
By Michael Bauer
6/22/2023, 6:09 p.m
The International Olympic Committee deals with e-sports and gives the whole thing a huge platform with a week of events. Actually a big moment for the gaming world. Instead, the idea threatens to fail in advance – of all things because of Olympic statutes.
With popular video games such as “Counter-Strike”, “League of Legends” or “Fortnite”, e-sports have experienced a boom in the last ten years. Live tournaments fill stadiums and attract millions of online viewers. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) now wants to give competitive video games a large platform for the first time, after the organization officially recognized the division as a sport in 2017. However, the implementation at the “Olympic Esports Week” (June 23 to 25) in Singapore in no way reflects what is actually behind e-sports. Rather, the IOC is already allowing Olympic sports to be held in digital form.
The selection of video games in which gamers are supposed to compete in Singapore is hard to understand. Some are designed to simulate well-known sports, such as “Virtual Tennis” or the sailing game “Virtual Regatta”. In “Tic Tac Bow” the IOC presents a mobile game as archery. In the App Store, the less than impressive implementation does not achieve two out of five stars in the ratings. Hardly a figurehead for a booming e-sports industry. In addition to other disciplines such as chess, racing cycling, taekwondo and baseball, the virtual reality dance game “Let’s Dance” has also made it into the ranks. The only real competitive title that should satisfy the e-sports world is the racing simulation “Gran Turismo” – both the visuals and the game mechanics are olympic here.
“The list is disappointing and shameful”
And yes, with “Fortnite” there is one of the really big titles in the squad, but not in the popular “Battle Royal” mode, in which the gamers gradually eliminate each other until only one remains. This change is because the IOC does not allow games that go against Olympic values. In other words, depictions of violence are taboo. Given the development at the Olympic level, this is of course a massive problem. Because in almost all mainstream esports games, teams shoot at or attack each other – a fundamental concept of competitive gaming that runs completely counter to the philosophy of the Olympics.
The IOC doesn’t really want to get involved in e-sports either. Industry representatives also notice this. “For the average esports fan, getting into the Olympics should have been a moment of triumph, a step forward for the community,” Matt Woods of esports agency AFK told The Guardian. The list of games was “disappointing” and “shameful”. “Rather than working with existing game publishers or established tournaments, the Olympic Committee seems to have instead decided to use this event as a marketing tool for new, ill-conceived and unlicensed mobile games.”
Consolation “Exhibition Show Matches”?
In order not to scare off the gaming community completely, a program with more popular video games was put together during the week. The beating simulation “Street Fighter”, the Autoball variant “Rocket League” or “NBA2K23” are under the heading “Exhibition Show Matches”. The name alone should make you sit up and take notice. Anyone who has ever seen an “exhibition match” in boxing knows: It’s about nothing, the protagonists should look good, the spectators are offered a small show, beyond a real competition.
The IOC has raised the big stage.
(Photo: IOC)
The IOC defends its game ensemble. Sporting director Kit McConnell told AFP that the selection was made to support virtual sports. “For this reason, we initially focused on virtual and simulated sports games in the competition series,” he said. He added that the games selected had to be accessible and had no technical barriers to access. To do this, gender equality had to be guaranteed, which “is often not the case in the field of competitive games”.
However, the topic of equality is more a matter of interpretation in the IOC. At the last Games in China, a country criticized for human rights violations, the issue was ignored. Even official sponsors have been reluctant to make critical comments given the power of the committee. The IOC likes to have full control over its events. It’s the same in e-sports. Since the popular competitive game titles belong to the developers and publishers as intellectual property, the IOC would have to make new deals and probably give up some of its control.
Medals are not planned for the “Olympic Esports Week” anyway. While there are no concrete plans to eventually award gold, silver and bronze to esports athletes, the response to the event in Singapore could be indicative of whether that will be possible in the future. With the IOC’s approach, however, it will be difficult to address a large audience.