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The gaming industry may be on the rise, after the recent generated more money than movies and North American sports combined, but the enthusiasm for esports has ebbed and flowed. Now, however, competitive gaming is set to get a jolt of recognition: the International Olympic Committee has just Olympic Esports Gamesthe first is planned for 2025 in Saudi Arabia.
Further complicating the picture for the IOC are the violent themes prevalent in many video games and the political climate in Saudi Arabia, which is hostile to LGBTQ+ people.
The IOC has not yet decided on the exact location and dates or, more importantly, which video game titles the esports athletes will compete in. Historically, professional esports competitions have typically been title-specific tournaments, including major international efforts like the League of Legends World Championship and Dota International.
Over the past few decades, many esports leagues have emerged and disappeared, from America’s Major League Gaming (acquired by Activision Blizzard and now owned by Microsoft) to publisher-sponsored organizations like Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch League.
Major professional gaming competitions are mainly promoted by game publishers and esports leagues, but the IOC is exploring esports since 2017culminating in the 2023 Singapore Esports Week Olympics and a subsequent request to study the establishment of formal Esports Olympic Games.
The IOC Esports Commission said in a press release on Tuesday that it “has devised a project that responds to the interests of the esports community while respecting the Olympic values. This applies in particular to the game titles on the programme, the promotion of gender equality and the involvement of the young audience, who embrace esports.”
Esports revives the Olympics
Appealing to younger fans is a priority for the IOC, which has led it to adopt new event categories in recent Olympics. In 2020, the traditional Games added surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing, while breaking (formerly known as breakdancing) will debut at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The IOC has looked to esports as the traditional sports audience ages — a MarketWatch report In 2017, it was noted that the average NBA viewer was in their early 40s, while the average NFL and MLB viewer was in their early 50s.
But even as the IOC Esports Commission was formed to explore how to integrate competitive gaming into the Olympics, questions arose about whether the marriage would work. Many of the top esports titles are violent first-person shooters, which flies in the face of the Olympic values of peaceful competition — the IOC bluntly stated a year ago that games from the Counter-Strike and Call of Duty series would never be included in Olympic esports, according to The Jakarta Post. While the IOC formalizes the Olympic Esports Games, the debate over whether virtual competition is a sport seems to be ending. Locking esports into its own event, separate from the traditional Olympics, sends a complicated message.
The most relevant question is whether gamers will flock to esports if the Olympics are held, or whether they will simply continue to watch tournaments and competitions set up by the gaming industry and esports enthusiasts.
“Years ago I said, ‘The Olympics need esports more than esports needs the Olympics,’ and I still stand by that statement,” said Rod Breslau, an esports and gaming consultant.
“There’s no denying, though, that esports is officially in the Olympics, and even creating its own games, is another important step in establishing competitive gaming as a ‘real thing’ for the mainstream,” Breslau added. “Video games in the Olympics is an affirmation for an entire generation of kids who grew up playing Street Fighter, Quake or StarCraft.”
Esports Olympic Games in Saudi Arabia
Tuesday’s announcement focused on Saudi Arabia’s role in hosting the first eSports Olympics, a move the country’s spokespeople said was a natural extension of Saudi Arabia’s support for traditional sports and efforts to reach young athletes.
“Our commitment to esports is simply a reflection of the world our young people live in,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal, Minister of Sport and Chairman of the Saudi Arabian Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said in the press release. “We now all have the chance to write new Olympic history together, the chance to inspire new dreams and new aspirations for literally millions of athletes around the world.”
According to Princess Reema Bandar Al-Saud, who sits on the board of directors of the Saudi Arabian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and chairs the Women’s Committee, Saudi Arabia has 23.5 million gamers, almost half of whom are women.
Saudi Arabia has been ramping up its investment in esports in recent years, culminating in the 2024 Esports World Cup, which kicked off on July 3 and runs until August 25. But the event has been divisive, with players, streamers and fans protesting and boycotting the championship. according to the BBC, due to hostility towards LGBTQ+ people in the country, where homosexual acts are punishable by death.
Earlier this year, activist groups protested the United Nations for appointing Saudi Arabia to lead the UN Commission on Women’s Rights, citing the kingdom’s “appalling” record in the matter, The Guardian reported. reportedAlthough Saudi Arabia’s authorities have attempted reforms in recent years, such as the Personal Status Law of 2022, Amnesty International criticised the legislation for enshrining ‘gender discrimination in every aspect of family life’.
The IOC defended its decision to partner with Saudi Arabia to host the first Olympic Esports Games. The IOC said the country’s National Olympic Committee supports the Olympic Charter and that the IOC will work with the committee to “ensure that the event is organised in a sustainable manner and that international standards are respected in the context of the event,” according to a statement attributed to an IOC spokesperson.
The IOC Esports Committee noted Saudi Arabia’s recent efforts to boost sports participation among its population, including significant growth among women, from girls playing in school soccer leagues to nearly 30 women’s national teams.
“With regard to LGBTQ+ players — within the context of the Olympic Esports Games and in line with the Olympic Charter, there will be no discrimination against any player based on gender or sexuality,” the IOC spokesperson said. “We will work with our Olympic Esports Games partners to ensure that all athletes/players feel welcome and can participate safely in our events.”
There are other concerns about Saudi Arabia’s massive investment in esports: through acquisitions, the kingdom owns about 40% of the total esports market, according to a recent report. report by The New York Times, making it difficult for anyone in the industry to not work with or for the country. This has led to questions about whether the Olympic Esports Games would exist without Saudi Arabia’s investment.
“If the IOC really believed in its principles, they would have created esports games without the Saudi partnership, and this news would have been much more widely accepted,” esports analyst Breslau said. “As it stands, the Olympics are now complicit in esportswashing.”
World Politics and the Olympic Games
Some sections of the esports and gaming communities may protest again and even skip the inaugural Olympic Esports Games being held in Saudi Arabia, but boycotting the Olympics on moral and political grounds is a tradition that dates back to their modern resumption in the early 20th century, as this timeline from the Associated Press illustrates. Nations defeated in the world wars were banned from the 1920 and 1948 Olympics, and Cold War tensions led to alternating abstentions until the U.S. led 60 nations in boycotting the 1980 Moscow Games over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, followed by a Soviet boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
Athletes from countries involved in wars condemned by the international community will be allowed to compete as neutral athletes and without a flag. For example, competitors from Russia and Belarus, countries that have been invading and waging war in Ukraine for more than two years, will be allowed to compete in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
The most notable and long-standing absence was that of South Africa. According to AP, this country was banned from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics because of its apartheid system, which was based on racial discrimination. The country did not return until 1992, when referendums preceded the end of that government-imposed social system.
At this early stage, it is unclear how substantial protests against the Esports Olympics in Saudi Arabia would be. During the 2024 Esports World Cup held in the country, some competitors were present while staging their own, quieter protests. Esports organization Team Liquid sent its members to compete, and they wore their official rainbow Pride jerseys to show their support for the LGBTQ+ community on stage. Team Liquid co-CEO Steve Arhancet posted an extensive explanation about X (formerly Twitter) ahead of the tournament, about the organization’s decision and his own decision as a gay man to attend and hopefully spark conversations that can bring about gradual change.
“Progress lies in engagement, not isolation,” Arhancet wrote on X. “Progress won’t happen quickly and setbacks are inevitable, but in the meantime, we at Team Liquid believe the best way to create change is to engage others and show them that progress is possible.”
