Will esports enter the Olympics in the future?, The First Olympic Esports Week Opens International Olympic Committee | Esports | Olympics
The first Olympic Esports Week opened in Singapore on the evening of June 22nd. International Olympic Committee President Bach and Singapore President Halima delivered speeches at the event, calling on athletes to showcase Olympic values through virtual events.
In the four-day competition, more than 110 international players will focus on virtual sports, including 10 events including dance, archery, shooting, baseball, chess, cycling, racing, sailing, tennis, and taekwondo.
The on-site audience can not only experience the excitement of the Olympic esports series finals and watch the performance matches, but also try the latest games in the free experience area.
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Esports entering the Olympics? This competition may become the starting point
Olympic Esports Week is the first offline event under the International Olympic Committee to be named "e-sports". Although the 10 events set up are more focused on virtual sports rather than traditional e-sports, the hosting of this event is undoubtedly an important signal of the International Olympic Committee's embrace of esports.
Compared to esports events such as League of Legends, Honor of Kings, and Peace Elite at the Hangzhou Asian Games, the first Olympic esports week was set very cautiously. The ten official competition games were equivalent to virtual archery, baseball, chess, cycling, dance, racing, sailing, archery, taekwondo, and tennis competitions.
These ten games were developed by the International Olympic Committee, International Federations of Sport, and game developers based on real sports rules and scenes, using virtual reality technology to achieve an immersive sports experience. Taking virtual taekwondo competitions as an example, Chinese taekwondo Olympic champion Wu Jingyu is also invited to participate. She will use a head mounted VR device and a sensing device on her body to engage in one-on-one non-contact matches with opponents in the virtual world, without worrying about real risks and injuries.
In addition to the finals of the ten games, Olympic Esports Week will also showcase the latest technologies, hold special seminars, and other game performance competitions.
International Olympic Committee President Bach stated that the inaugural Olympic Esports Week is an important milestone in demonstrating our ambition to support virtual sports in the Olympic movement. Chester King, Vice President of the International Esports Federation and CEO of the UK Esports Corporation, also described the competition as a "very wise first step" and a "beneficial attempt to incorporate esports into the Olympics.".