Olympic Esports Series

Traditional esports titles such as Counter-Strike, Dota, League of Legends, and Valorant have been considered to be too violent for inclusion in an Olympic-style esports competition.[4] An Olympic Summit was held in October 2017 to consider the possible adoption of esports by the Olympic Movement,[5] with a further IOC Esports Forum held in July 2018.[6] However, the lack of a single international federation to govern esports, a requirement for a sport to be recognised as an Olympic sport, along with the issue of violence in games, meant the IOC would not consider adding esports to the Olympic Games.[7]

Other sporting events, such as the Asian Games held by the Olympic Council of Asia and the Southeast Asian Games, recognise esports as a medal event. It was first added to a major Games at the 2007 Asian Indoor Games, and will become a full medal event of the Asian Games starting with the 2022 Asian Games held in 2023.[8]

After the COVID-19 pandemic led to the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics to 2021, the inaugural IOC-backed esports event, known as the Olympic Virtual Series, was announced for 2021.[9] Sports included in that were baseball, cycling, motorsport, rowing, and sailing[10] – four of which would return as part of the Olympic Esports Series in 2023.

A second Olympic Virtual Series was planned for 2022,[11] but did not take place, instead being replaced by the Olympic Esports Series.

Events and trophy winners of the 2021 Olympic Virtual Series

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Baseball home run derby	Ryohei Osaka  Japan	Yusuke Tominaga  Japan	Hiroki Horiike  Japan
Baseball tournament finals	Syoma Mori  Japan	Yoshinori Kato  Japan	Yosuke Fujimoto  Japan
Cycling ultimate chase race[lower-alpha 2][13]	Alistair Brownlee  Great Britain	Lucy Charles-Barclay  Great Britain	John Kariuki  Kenya
Motorsport	Valerio Gallo  Italy	Mikail Hizal  Germany	Baptiste Beauvois  France
Rowing	Colombia
Sailing inshore - nacra 17	Arthur Farley  Great Britain	Bart Lambriex  Netherlands	Joan Cardona  Spain
Sailing inshore - ILCA dinghy	Kaan Mazlumca  Turkey	Filippo Lanfranchi  Italy	Gaéten de Kat  France
Sailing inshore - 49er	Lukas Mohr  Denmark	Arthur Farley  Great Britain	Tangi Le Golf  France
Sailing offshore	Erik Danielsson  Sweden	Christopher Powers  United States	Luiz Carlos Bonetti  Brazil

2023 Olympic Esports Week

Host city	Singapore, Singapore
Motto	Play Beyond Possible
Organisers	International Olympic Committee, Singapore National Olympic Council
Edition	1st
Athletes	131[14] from 57 nations[lower-alpha 3]
Events	10[lower-alpha 3] in 10 sports, plus 6 exhibition events across 5 video game titles
Opening	June 22, 2023 (2023-06-22)
Closing	June 25, 2023 (2023-06-25)
Opened by	President of Singapore Halimah Yacob
Main venue	Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre
Website	olympics.com/en/esports/olympic-esports-series/

In November 2022, the IOC announced the inaugural Olympic Esports Week would be held in Singapore in June 2023, to include the in-person live finals of the 2023 Olympic Esports Series.[16] The initial nine game titles and sports were announced on 1 March 2023,[17] with a 10th event in shooting (Fortnite) added on 5 May.[18]

The first Olympic Esports Series finals were held in person from 23 to 25 June 2023 in Singapore at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre, as part of the inaugural Olympic Esports Week, which began a day earlier on 22 June with an opening ceremony.[19]

At the opening ceremony, both IOC president Thomas Bach and the President of Singapore, Halimah Yacob, appeared virtually by hologram,[14] with Halimah – who was actually on a state visit to Qatar[20] – declaring the Olympic Esports Week open in her virtual speech.[21]

Some 131 finalists[14] took part in the Olympic Esports Week, which consisted of 10 events in 10 Olympic sports, while trophies were also awarded in an 11th event which had been held completely online.[15] The sports involved were archery, baseball, chess, cycling, dance, motorsport, sailing, shooting, taekwondo, and tennis. The game chosen for each sport was put forward by each international sports federation in conjunction with the game's publisher, except for Fortnite in shooting where Epic Games disclaimed any involvement.[18]

Eight Olympians competed in the taekwondo event: Wu Jingyu from China, who ended up winning bronze; Rohullah Nikpai of Afghanistan; Leonardo Basile (Italy); Aaron Cook (Great Britain and Moldova); Carmen Marton of Australia; Yasmina Aziez from France; Hwang Kyung-seon of South Korea; and Nur Tatar of Turkey.[22]

Additionally, the chess event featured nine grandmasters and one female International Master: Aleksei Sarana, Maksim Chigaev, Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn, Aleksandr Rakhmanov, Oleksandr Bortnyk, Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, Bassem Amin, Tin Jingyao, Kevin Goh, and Irene Kharisma Sukandar.[23] This was the first IOC-sanctioned event at which Russian athletes – Chigaev and Rakhmanov – took part as "individual neutral athletes" (or AIN, from the French "athlètes individuels neutres"), as well as competing alongside a Ukrainian – Bortnyk,[24] following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee from the IOC.

The event reportedly drew 20,000 spectators to the Suntec Convention Centre over the four days.[2]

Events and trophy winners (2023)

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Archery	Jared Montgomery  United States	David Chan  United States	Kyosuke Takebayashi  Japan
Baseball[26]	Shoma Mori  Japan	Hiroki Horiike  Japan	Wang Chia-Ming  Chinese Taipei
Chess[27]	Aleksei Sarana  Serbia	Maksim Chigaev Individual neutral athlete	Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn  Vietnam
Cycling	Team Fuego  Martin Maertens (GER)  James Barnes (RSA)  Lou Bates (GBR)  Marlene Bjärehed (SWE)	Team Epic  Ben Hill (AUS)  Michał Kamiński (POL)  Jacquie Godbe (USA)  Charlotte Colclough (GBR)	Team Lava  Teppo Laurio (FIN)  Lionel Vujasin (BEL)  Alice Lethbridge (GBR)  Kong Lam (HKG)
Dance[28]	Dina Amandine Morisset  France	Joseph Cordero  United States	Antonino Pomilia  Italy
Motorsport[29]	Kylian Drumont  France	William Murdoch  Great Britain	Angel Inostroza  Chile
Sailing inshore[15]	Tim Carpentier  France	Cavan Fyans  Great Britain	Francisco Melo  Portugal
Sailing offshore[lower-alpha 4][15]	Baptiste Renaut  France	Xavier Coquard  France	Aurélie Martin  France
Shooting[27][30]	Lucas Malissa  Australia	Alexander Feyzjou  United States	Andrej Piratov  Latvia
Taekwondo[32]	Nigel Tan  Singapore	Natalie Tor  Singapore	Wu Jingyu  China
Tennis[27]	Anass Benghazi  France	He Shenghao  China	William Foster  Great Britain

The primary criticism when the Olympic Esports Series was announced was the IOC's choice of game titles,[36][37] with only Gran Turismo and Just Dance having significant global recognition and Power Pros within Japan. The list of nine initial titles was described by Polygon as "odd", although the IOC's explanation was that the games chosen aligned with the Olympic Values and were proposed by international sports governing bodies.[38]

Many involved with esports were unhappy with the game list, with The Guardian quoting a digital agency representative as saying: "Last week’s announcement left us feeling disappointed and, honestly, a little embarrassed. Instead of working with existing game publishers or well-established tournaments, it seems that the Olympic committee has instead decided to use this event as a marketing vehicle for brand-new, poorly thought out, unlicensed mobile games."[39] Gaming and esports website Dexerto reported on the online reaction, which saw esports fans responding negatively to the IOC's announcement on Twitter, describing the list of games as an "out-of-touch lineup".[40] Some of the criticism, from Western fans, was also directed at the fact that many of the games selected were mobile titles.[36]

However, there was some acceptance from the esports community over the IOC's reasoning for its game selection, including from Global Esports Federation vice-president Chester King, the chief executive of British Esports, who called it "a very sensible first approach" because "we've got to make sure all the stakeholders in the IOC accept it and like it".[37]

Additional criticism came after Fortnite was added to the game list for 2023, as the normal battle royale mode – featuring shooting at other characters – was removed in favour of a specially created format in which players would shoot targets instead.[41] In a video segment, IGN called it "the dumbest Olympic esport".[42]

After the conclusion of the first event, the lack of participation from African players was criticised, with an opinion piece in Kenya's Daily Nation questioning the decision of the IOC to use online qualifiers for the Olympic Esports Series, due to connectivity and stability issues in Africa which make staying connected to servers a "logistical challenge".[43]

Following the conclusion of the inaugural event in Singapore, the IOC's head of virtual sports and esports Vincent Pereira said that Paris, as the host city of the 2024 Summer Olympics, had priority to host an edition of the Olympic Esports Series in 2024 if it wished, but that interest had also been received from Singapore to repeat as hosts as well as from Seoul, South Korea; Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates; New York City; and Shenzhen, China.[44]

Despite criticism over excluding traditional esports titles deemed "too violent", the IOC also intends to keep first-person shooter games out of the Olympic Esports Series in the future, according to Pereira. Despite Fortnite having been included in the 2023 event in a specially modified format with targets, Pereira added the default format of Fortnite involving shooting other characters would not be considered.[33]

Future game additions could include Rocket League, the Street Fighter series, and the NBA 2K series, which all featured as exhibition events in 2023.[33]

However, the inclusion of esports as a sport at the main Olympic Games is not likely in the immediate future,[37] despite it having medal status at the Asian Games and Southeast Asian Games, as well as various esports World Championships being held for traditional sports, such as the Esailing World Championship, with the IOC's Pereira saying "they're two different worlds".[3]

• Olympic Esports