What if, in the near future, an athlete received an Olympic medal after a victory in a video game? The scenario is no longer science fiction. Latest evidence to date: the formalization, in mid-January, by Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, Minister of Sports, and his colleague in Digital, Jean-Noël Barrot, of France’s candidacy for the organization of the Olympic Esports Week in 2024, ahead of the Paris Games. This esport competition (short for electronic sport) will also be supervised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). A first edition is scheduled in Singapore from June 22 to 25. Before that promised to France, a year later.
The news brings two worlds closer together – esports and Olympism – which have been turning around for a few years. “The IOC has a strategic plan up to 2025, with around fifteen recommendations. One of them is to support the development of virtual sports and encourage relations with the gaming industry” , explains Vincent Pereira, the Frenchman at the head of the esports section for the international body. As early as 2017, Tony Estanguet, co-chairman of the Paris 2024 committee, closely observed the integration of esports into the French Games. “Young people, yes they are interested in esports. Let’s watch it all. Let’s meet them. Let’s see if we can make some connections.” The idea caught on. The 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games hosted a competition of Starcraft II. Those of summer, in Tokyo, in 2021, also organized an event upstream of the official events: the Olympic Virtual Series. However, this format was confined to video game adaptations of real sports: cycling, rowing, or even sailing.
Olympic Esports Week should be a little closer to the “real” disciplines of esports, namely competitions on popular titles like Rocket League (others could be announced in the next few days). “It’s a major progression, underlines Désiré Koussawo, at the head of the France esport structure, the main lobby of the sector in France. The environment remained a little unsatisfied with the Olympic Series.“Transposing sports from real to virtual was not enough, abounds Bertrand Perrin, manager at Paris & Co, who manages the Maison de l’esport, a place dedicated to practice located in the 20th arrondissement of Paris. The public will always prefer to watch this type of sports on television than people playing simulations, however realistic they may be.” For the two specialists, it is not in adaptations of traditional sports that the potential and the bulk of the esports audience – more than half a billion people according to the firm newzoo.
And yet it is this precious audience that the IOC ardently covets, because the youngest are turning away from the television channels where the Games are broadcast. “Hence the desire, at regular intervals, to introduce new sports that correspond more to the aspirations of young people: surfing, climbing and skateboarding have appeared in Tokyo; France will inaugurate the first Olympic competitions in breakdance , observes Vincent Pereira. Sport is changing in its practice and consumption, which is getting closer and closer to entertainment.” A logic which makes it possible to understand why Olympism is now eyeing electronic competitions, which are innovative in terms of broadcast formats, comments or interaction with fans.
Among esports, the connection with Olympism also makes sense. Philosophically first. “Esports is part of this family of sport and requires as much application, concentration and self-sacrifice as others”, insists Désiré Koussawo. As with the IOC, there are also economic arguments. The last Summer Games in Tokyo were watched by over three billion viewers. These significant media coverage and the attraction of new sponsors are at the heart of the challenges for esports, which is still looking for the right economic formula to last. Revenues come mainly from video game publishers – which do not always maintain optimal relations with players – and from sponsors in the IT sector (manufacturers of computers, graphics cards, software, etc.), which are currently suffering of the global economic slowdown. Platforms like Twitch or YouTube are certainly valuable relays on the web, but the gains remain in the hands of their powerful owners, Amazon for one, Google for the other. Caught in a vice, esports leaves its future in the hands of powerful patrons, like Saudi Arabia, which, via the Savvy Gaming Group, is investing billions of dollars in the young discipline.
The Games are an enticing carrot for esports. But this objective raises complex questions. First, which “esports” games to highlight? Despite a program of shooting (pistol, archery, etc.), combat sports (boxing, luxury, taekwondo, etc.), the IOC remains cautious about presumed “violent” titles. One counter strike, well known in the esports community, but which opposes “terrorists” and “anti-terrorists” in a death match, is not really welcome, confirms Vincent Pereira. “The rules of the game must be easy to understand”, also believes Bertrand Perrin. Which eliminates a plethora of other games like League of Legends, yet one of the most popular titles in the esports world. Last size problem. “The IOC wants to uphold the values of integrity, ethics [NDLR : contre le dopage, aussi présent dans l’esport], equity in competitions. Can all these subjects be in the hands of commercial entities?”, pretends to wonder Vincent Pereira, about game publishers. For the moment, the answer is no.
The expert pleads for a better structuring of the sector, the emergence of sports federations to work on the development of game modes optimized for the Olympics. You will have to be patient. “Unlike traditional sports, esports has developed from above. Today there are a few professionals, major clubs, but not yet a base at the pyramid”, explains Bertrand Perrin. This important base, made up of amateurs and volunteers from all over the world, on which the practice of the majority of the sports presented at the Olympic Games is based.
France can, however, count on strong political support to build it. The country is one of the few to have a sports strategy. Emmanuel Macron himself received the world of esports at the Elysee Palace last summer and announced the forthcoming holding in France of major international competitions on the circuit. Former athletes themselves act as spokespersons. The French candidacy for Olympic Esport Week will notably be led by Matthieu Péché, bronze medalist in canoeing and kayaking in Rio, in 2016. It remains to know the envelope dedicated to this whole policy. “We do not really know the scope of action in which the State wishes to invest. If it is ready to finance new equipment, we can speak in millions of euros. Awareness in schools or sports associations, this will rather be hundreds of thousands of euros”, summarizes Désiré Koussawo. An amount capable of defining the future Olympic ambitions of esports. Or to leave this dream to the next generation.
