Competitive gaming has evolved far from a hobby and is on the cusp of being recognized the world over as a real sporting event. Even to the extent that some countries are relaxing visa requirements so that competitors are able to enter with greater ease for events.

What would better recognition of that status than to be added to the Olympic Games?

With an active audience of over 320 million viewers annually, eSports is rapidly becoming somewhat of a phenomenon and a very profitable one at that!

Esports is estimated to net about $1 billion dollars a year and that figure alone has caught a lot of people's attention.

The only problem?

Digital violence doesn't align with the values of the Olympic Games.

In order for eSports to be allowed into the centuries-old sporting competition, games that are not centered around killing an opponent are the only ones that can be played. This decision has raised a very relevant question, and that is:

Why is simulated violence unacceptable while real violence is already part of the Olympic games?

Boxing, for example, is an incredibly brutal sport and has been on the Olympic docket since 1904. The ultimate goal is to physically beat your opponent so severely that they surrender, collapse, or are rendered unconscious be it from injury or exhaustion. Though much of it is judged on form, technique, and blows that make contact, an ideal game would end with a clear knockout.

There are other sports, such as wrestling, karate, judo and contact sports such as rugby (recently removed) that could arguably be considered violent.

And in line with simulated violence, we have fencing. Which, even though competitors are padded and shielded from injury, they are scored by what would be lethal blows without this gear.

Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee argues that boxing, fencing, taekwondo and other 'violent or combative' sports in the Olympics are the more civilized expressions of traditional fighting, as evidenced by this quote.

"Of course every combat sport has its origins in a real fight among people, but sport is the civilized expression about this. If you have egames where it’s about killing somebody, this cannot be brought into line with our Olympic values."

Now I pose the following; if sporting violence is the more civilized expression, due to having control over the environment, or more safety measures for the athletes and so on. A digital environment for simulated (anything) would lower the risk to competitors to virtually nothing. Perhaps some RSI or eyestrain, but in terms of potential injury, next to nothing.

Taken one step further, a simulated battlefield would be the more civilized expression of warfare which has been a 'competitive sport' for I believe longer than the Olympics has been a thing.

If you cannot disassociate yourself from the fact that the objects on the screen in the digital space you are competing in, is not reality. Then you should perhaps turn off the tv and take a breather. I find it hard to believe that showing competitors in a street fighter or xmen game would induce as much violent behaviour as showing a boxing match, or MMA fight.

A "middle ground" suggestion has been made that eSports games that are representing actual sports are the ones that should be highlighted. Such as Pro Evolution Soccer, NHL Hockey or Madden. Which really makes you wonder, how much of the active streaming audience is going to tune in to watch people play sports-related video games that are far less popular than their fantasy or FPS counterparts?

Also, why would you want to watch one sport in real time and another simulated? Seems redundant.

So far three games were demonstrated at Jakarta-Palembang: League of Legends (LoL) and Arena of Valor/Honor of Kings along with other "real" sports based games.

There has been a good shift from game software developers away from the traditional fps/rts/moba scene towards more sports orientated games over the last year in terms of releases and market share, so we can see that the competitive arena does have a large sporting following! If the triple AAA developers are bringing out more true-to-real life simulation games then I can see that only improving our chances at being a recognized Olympic sport!!

Either way, be it through playing games that align with the Olympic core values, or the panel conceding to allow simulated violence, this a huge step towards eSports recognition!

Stay tuned for more similar content and e-sports!!

Have a fantastic day,

@SammoSK