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Virtual sport: with the Olympic Esport Series, the IOC continues to grope

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Virtual sport: with the Olympic Esport Series, the IOC continues to grope

This Thursday, the International Olympic Committee announced the holding of a new week of competition dedicated to video games, which will be held in Singapore in June, as it had done on the sidelines of the Tokyo Games two years earlier. Previously called “Olympic Virtual Series”, it will now be called “Olympic Esport Series”. Although it abandons the flagship titles of esports, such as League of Legends et Counter-Striketo prefer virtual sports simulations, requiring a more “traditional” physical effort but much less popular.

The CIO randomly clicks

From June 22 to 25, following an open online qualification process, the IOC will therefore organize grand finals on games that are all attached to an international sports federation: Zwift (cycling), Just Dance (danse), Grand Touring (sport automobile), Virtual Regatta (sail), Chess (chess), WBSC eBaseball : Power Pros (baseball), Virtual Taekwondo (taekwondo), Tennis Clash (tennis) and Tic Tac Bow (archery).

To reach a younger audience and raise their awareness of sport, the IOC is therefore choosing for the moment to “virtualize” traditional sport, even if it means relying on disciplines with very low audiences, by using classic competition patterns. and by collaborating with federations that she knows by heart. An assumed choice, but which completely neglects what current esports really is: a scene apart, with immensely popular games already well established.

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Paris planned for 2024

However, the door is not fully closed to certain esports behemoths, which could integrate the Olympic Esports Week (within which the OES are held) in the future. Discussions are ongoing with games like Rocket League or Street Fighterto include them in the Singapore event, as had already been done in Tokyo in 2021.

During the presentation, the IOC finally raised the idea of ​​annualizing the OES. The next edition could be held in Paris, on the sidelines of the 2024 Olympics, without the exact program being known yet. The French Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, has in any case clearly declared herself a candidate.

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