The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced details of the Olympic Esports Series 2023, sparking a debate in the community around the choice of its game line-up.
The Olympic Esports Series 2023 is underway with qualification rounds. The main event will take place at Singapore’s Suntec Centre from June 22nd to 25th 2023, as previously announced in the IOC’s Olympic Esports Week 2023 announcement last November.
The series is described by the IOC as ‘a global virtual and simulated sports competition created by the IOC and in collaboration with International Federations (IFs) and game publishers’.
It follows the 2021 series, which took place ahead of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, and the IOC says ‘attracted over 250,000 participants from across 100 countries to take part’.
What are the games in the Olympic Esports Series 2023?
The ‘initially confirmed’ featured games across nine sports are:
- Archery (World Archery Federation, Tic Tac Bow)
- Baseball (World Baseball Softball Confederation, WBSC eBaseball: Power Pros)
- Chess (International Chess Federation, Chess.com)
- Cycling (UCI, Zwift)
- Dance (World DanceSport Federation, JustDance)
- Motor Sport (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, Gran Turismo)
- Sailing (World Sailing, Virtual Regatta)
- Taekwondo (World Taekwondo, Virtual Taekwondo)
- Tennis (International Tennis Federation, Tennis Clash)
The game line-up, while not entirely surprising given the IOC’s love of focusing on ‘virtual sports’ like virtual sailing and cycling, has got the esports community questioning it nonetheless, and debating around why there is a lack of core esports, and the IOC’s aims in esports.
Esports community reacts to Olympic Esports Series 2023 game announcement
The IOC’s Olympic Esports Series 2023 games announcement tweet currently has 3,000+ quote tweets and 6m+ views.
Many questioned the line-up and the thought process and people behind it, others posted memes and sarcastic comments about archery and sailing being incredible esports, while others tried to hold a more positive outlook that the IOC are attempting something gaming-related.
OG’s CSGO coach Casper Due said in response to the announcement tweet:
Esports personality Goldenboy addressed the IOC, saying: “Look my peeps. Love the passion. Keep that energy. But consult individuals with experience in the space to help source out the games if you’re going to go down this route. Make good decisions and show that you actually care and you might get more positive support for this.”
British Esports host Frankie Ward (who’s just been announced as the BAFTA Games Awards host this year), commented: “These aren’t established esports, with the exception of Gran Turismo and to some extent, Just Dance. Esports IFs are typically made up of business people who aren’t involved in the gaming side of things and this shows. Maybe don’t call it esports, but a virtual event.
Frankie added in this thread:
Matt Woods, CEO of talent agency AFK Creators, said: “Outside of chess and sim racing, the Olympic Esports Committee are completely out of touch with what gaming and esports fans care about and want to see. I’m not sure who advised them that virtual archery would draw an audience but it seems one step forward two giant leaps back to me.”
Nathan Edmonds, UK esports social media maestro and head of social media for Hotdrop, and a man who reported a drop in matches after adding League of Legends to Tinder as a ‘passion’, was positive, saying: “Lol let’s give them a chance at least, interested to see how it plays out.”
LCS personality and content creator at FlyQuest, Ovilee May, added: “Everyone that’s upset about the officially announced Olympic Esports Series games are overlooking the fact that there is now a world where Amouranth could win a gold medal in Just Dance for the USA. You need to look at the big picture here.”
Mark McCready, esports lecturer for Glasgow Clyde College and New College Lanarkshire, said:
“Definitely a step in the right direction to legitimising the industry and providing national team opportunities! Keeping an open-mind, doesn’t need to be perfect and these things will always have their critics.”
Mark McCready, Esports lecturer
Mark ‘Grandy’ Bishop, organiser of LAN Madness, responded to Mark’s tweet, saying: “So I loaded up the tennis one – the tutorial introduces you to the basic game mechanics, followed by lootbox mechanics. And after the next few games it asks you if you want to do a minigame that feels awfully like a gambling machine. Where’s due diligence?”
The reaction is also a reminder of past comments made by esports consultant Rod Breslau and former host Paul Chaloner, who have said in the past that ‘the Olympics needs esports more than esports needs the Olympics’.
What the IOC and games developers said about the announcement
Here are some additional comments from press releases below.
David Lappartient, Chair of the IOC Esports Liaison Group, said: “The Olympic Movement brings people together in peaceful competition. The Olympic Esports Series 2023 is a continuation of that, with the ambition of creating more spaces to play for both players and fans of elite competition.
“We look forward to witnessing some of the world’s best compete on the global stage, as well as exploring together shared opportunities and lessons – across health and wellbeing, training and innovation.”
“Just Dance has one of the most enthusiastic, bright, and dedicated communities in the world and we’re excited to see our players shine and compete this summer in Singapore to become the first ever Olympic Esports Series winner in the Dance category,” added Zeynep Gençağa, Senior Director, Head of Regions of Esports and Competitive Gaming at Ubisoft.
“With a track record of several editions of the Just Dance World Cup, our franchise has proved its potential for thrilling competitiveness and entertainment.”
Zeynep Gençağa, Ubisoft
“We’re humbled to bring back Just Dance to its competitive roots in such a high fashion by teaming up with the World DanceSport Federation for the Olympic Esports Series 2023.”
Konami Digital Entertainment Representative Director, President Hideki Hayakawa, commented: “We are delighted to be able to contribute to the promotion of baseball through our participation in IOC’s Olympic Esports Series. Konami is always a proud supporter of development within the WBSC eBaseball community. By collaborating with the WBSC in their vision to raise the influence of eBaseball and baseball and softball community globally, Konami will continue to promote and support the sustainable development of eBaseball with the WBSC.”
Related article: UK Home Nations win 11 medals at inaugural Commonwealth Esports Championships in Birmingham
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
