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Esports Olympics? Is it Needed?
Publish Date: February 10, 2022
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The Olympics being on brings the world’s attention to the international scene for a multitude of traditional sports. This brings many opportunities to highlight talent as well as test the athlete’s talents out against other competitors. Is there a need for an Esports Olympics? Or is this just another instance where fans want to have a parallel event for esports purely because traditional sports has one?
Is an Esport Olympics needed?
Is it the validation of being recognized as a parallel to traditional sports, which makes fans push for an esport Olympics?
Fans get to see, in many cases, tournaments that do integrate multiple regions. League of Legends Worlds would have to be one of the biggest titles that bring together the different regions to compete for the ultimate prize. Though this is not the absolute best of each region playing for the country they represent, but instead of organizations within the regions that are fighting to dominate the competition.
Blizzard’s Overwatch World Cup was the closest to an Olympic format with committees picking the best players and coaches from each region to represent the countries in qualifiers and then playoffs.
In many cases esports have tried to copy what has worked for traditional sports. This can be seen in the structure and even merchandise like jerseys. This could be because investors have seen the success in the business model that traditional sports have run and want to replicate that. Take what has worked and recreate it. That makes sense, except until it doesn’t.
Courtesy of the Overwatch League
Esports are not traditional sports. Many people use the measuring stick of traditional sports as success because that is the close thing to esports. Esports deserve to be treated as their own entity. This means having it be judged against itself when it comes to growth. But would an esport Olympics-esque event help the plight of esports?