Olympic Video Game Competition in Singapore Next Month
You read that right. Video games are becoming an Olympic event... Kinda.
Earlier this year, the International Olympic Committee announced the first ever Olympic Esports Series. Qualifiers kicked off back in March, and the finals will be held June 22-25 in Singapore.
I know this sounds crazy on the face of it, but I dug a little deeper, and it sounds... unique. There are multiple different events slated for this shindig, some of which correspond with events at the normal Olympics.
The events are:
Archery - Tic Tac Bow, mobile
Baseball - WBSC eBaseball: Power Pros, console
Chess - Chess.com
Cycling - Zwift, online with stationary bike
Dance - Just Dance, console with motion capture
Motor Sport - Gran Turismo(TM), console
Sailing - Virtual Regatta, mobile
Shooting - FortNite(TM), console
Taekwondo - VR with motion capture
Tennis - Tennis: Clash, mobile
I'll be honest, some of these confuse me, and I'm vaguely curious as to how they're going to go. Maybe it's just my confusion about having games for smartphones and tablets mentioned alongside the Olympics and not being part of a joke.
That said, I'm somewhat impressed at some of the details the IOC has released. Participation in the some of the events are by invitation only. The Sailing event has a 30-day endurance category, which has me curious to see how that works, considering we're talking about a mobile game. The Shooting event will feature a specially designed map to turn FortNite into a sport shooting competition instead of the chaotic battle royale it normally is.
Of course, don't forget that there will be four new sports at the 2024 Olympics in Paris: Skateboarding, Surfing, Sport Climbing, and Breaking (Breakdancing).