Bringing eSports to the Olympics?

[Luziyca]

They should bring everything to the Olympics. Olympics should be World Fairs + Olympics. It would make for such a more fascinating game if people showcased great architectural additions for the city the game was hosted in. Or parks to the city. We could have accountants come in and advise the city on how to better itself. Scientists to come in and provide new vaccines for Zika. We could have auditing competitions to see who can find the most corruption in government, think of the possibilities for the Olympics to actually help the country it's set in?

And esports, if you want.

Montreal called. After Expo 67, the site pretty much decayed until it became just a park with some ruins. After the Olympics, they were in serious debt.

This is a fantastic way to make an Olympic host city broke.

[Community Values]

They should bring everything to the Olympics. Olympics should be World Fairs + Olympics. It would make for such a more fascinating game if people showcased great architectural additions for the city the game was hosted in. Or parks to the city. We could have accountants come in and advise the city on how to better itself. Scientists to come in and provide new vaccines for Zika. We could have auditing competitions to see who can find the most corruption in government, think of the possibilities for the Olympics to actually help the country it's set in?

And esports, if you want.

The Olympics was set up as a sporting competition. Not a competition to sap the host country of tax money.

It has seemed to have failed on the latter point a long time ago. Aren't there a ton of country's still paying off Olympic debt?

Montreal called. After Expo 67, the site pretty much decayed until it became just a park with some ruins. After the Olympics, they were in serious debt.

This is a fantastic way to make an Olympic host city broke.

This is why I half think the Olympics should only have one or two sites. It seems horribly pricey for one weeks worth of events. Just have the Summer in Athens and the Winter... somewhere else. No need to butcher a country for shit it will never use again.

[Salandriagado]

They should bring everything to the Olympics. Olympics should be World Fairs + Olympics. It would make for such a more fascinating game if people showcased great architectural additions for the city the game was hosted in. Or parks to the city. We could have accountants come in and advise the city on how to better itself. Scientists to come in and provide new vaccines for Zika. We could have auditing competitions to see who can find the most corruption in government, think of the possibilities for the Olympics to actually help the country it's set in?

And esports, if you want.

The Olympics was set up as a sporting competition. Not a competition to sap the host country of tax money.

Poetry.

[Torisakia]

You mean bring another event where one country just dominates? Sure. I can't get enough of Korea.

[Mike the Progressive]

You mean bring another event where one country just dominates? Sure. I can't get enough of Korea.

Heh

[Jumalariik]

Honestly I had to take a double take on that title because I misread it as 'Bring Escorts to the Olympics.'

Same. :/

[Jumhuriyah Hindustan]

I'd win in the grand strategy category. /s

[Aeyariss]

Meh.

No, because e'sport' isnt a real sport?

[Risottia]

They should bring everything to the Olympics. Olympics should be World Fairs + Olympics.

Good idea.
And possibly host them on the Moon. Or anyway as far as possible from my home.
And let them be funded ONLY through private funding. Not a single cent from public coffers should be spent on such stuff, which are basically an excuse for the usual suspects to pocket public money.

[Risottia]

If youre going 250 MPH at Monico youre going to piss yourself.

Naah. If I were allowed to drive an F1 at Monaco I would suppose I'm trained enough to avoid the need for a diaper.

[Risottia]

No. I don't watch the Olympics see fat kids who never see the sun act like they are cool

Because weight-lifters are sooo lean, are baked by the sun, and are noted for their understatement.

[Playing In The Water]

No.

Beyond my own personal feelings on the matter - I am strictly in the 'absolutely not' camp on this - there are a few set-in-stone reasons why 'esports' should not and will not be included in anything Olympic. To start, there is the simple fact that the IOC has set a maximum limit on the number of events that are hosted during a given Summer Olympics; time constraints and logistics and all that. In short, two weeks of competition only has so much space to go around, and there is no way in hell that any esport deserves to shove an existing Olympic sport out to take its spot.

On top of this, as was mentioned somewhere earlier, there is no real neutral way to decide which various 'disciplines' of gaming deserve to have a place at the Olympics. Unlike sports, virtually every video game ever made is a product before it is an activity. One might argue, 'Well so is a football!' and one would be nominally correct in that, except footballs are manufactured by a great many different producers, none with an explicit monopoly on the ensuing activity the product is used for. Nike does not determine the rules for Association Football, and Speedo does not lay down the law in Aquatics. This is a crucial difference.

Finally, and mostly simply of all, the IOC has declared; "Sports that depend primarily on mechanical propulsion, such as motor sports, may not be considered for recognition as Olympic." Sailing is an advanced equipment-heavy sport, as is Ice Hockey, but the athletes in both use neither electricity nor combustion power in any way for their performances. So unless your gamers are pedaling a hamster wheel while they play to keep their computers running, they have no place at any Olympic event.

Honestly, for me, I couldn't care less about esports - I'm sure that opinion shows by now - but I can recognize that plenty of people enjoy them. If the various esporting communities want international recognition, they can get together and create their own multi-'discipline' event every four years, slap some pretty medals together for it, promptly learn to cheat at it, and take it from there. They should not try and piggyback on the work that the athletic community has done to bolster and grow the Olympics.

If you're smart, you wouldn't want to be affiliated with an organization as plagued by problems as the IOC is anyway. Start fresh, and learn from past Olympics' mistakes in your foundation.

(P.S. - I also read 'escorts' at first in the title. I re-read and clarified before clicking the thread, because bringing escorts to large sporting events is something that's been happening since long before we were born and will continue long after; there is nothing to debate about it. )

[The Huskar Social Union]

I propose a Paradox Interactive category for esports at the Olympics.

*Thinks of CK2 shenanigans*

YES.

[Equestria and Griffon]

They should bring everything to the Olympics. Olympics should be World Fairs + Olympics. It would make for such a more fascinating game if people showcased great architectural additions for the city the game was hosted in. Or parks to the city. We could have accountants come in and advise the city on how to better itself. Scientists to come in and provide new vaccines for Zika. We could have auditing competitions to see who can find the most corruption in government, think of the possibilities for the Olympics to actually help the country it's set in?

And esports, if you want.

Montreal called. After Expo 67, the site pretty much decayed until it became just a park with some ruins. After the Olympics, they were in serious debt.

This is a fantastic way to make an Olympic host city broke.

Saint Louis called. They were weird and had a world's fair at the same time. We've had weirder. Alas,Art competitions. (1912-1954) It has been revived in the form of the Cultural Olympics and the Jeux de La Francophonie's cultural competitions.

[Hydesland]

Olympic sports cannot require proprietary equipment.

Er...what? According to what?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SportAcco ... n_of_sport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport#Definition

[The Two Jerseys]

Montreal called. After Expo 67, the site pretty much decayed until it became just a park with some ruins. After the Olympics, they were in serious debt.

This is a fantastic way to make an Olympic host city broke.

Saint Louis called. They were weird and had a world's fair at the same time.

Yeah, I'm going to invoke the Gunsmoke Rule here...

[MERIZoC]

Er...what? According to what?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SportAcco ... n_of_sport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport#Definition

not rely on equipment provided by a single supplier (excluding proprietary games such as arena football)

[Hydesland]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SportAcco ... n_of_sport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport#Definition

not rely on equipment provided by a single supplier (excluding proprietary games such as arena football)

Well, I'd like to point out this exception does not appear in Sport Accord's website: http://www.sportaccord.com/about/member ... -sport.php

So perhaps that's just wikipedia being wikipedia. At the very least, a game that is closed source and only provided by (say) Valve for instance would be problematic given rule 5, no?

[MERIZoC]

Well, I'd like to point out this exception does not appear in Sport Accord's website: http://www.sportaccord.com/about/member ... -sport.php

So perhaps that's just wikipedia being wikipedia. At the very least, a game that is closed source and only provided by (say) Valve for instance would be problematic given rule 5, no?

The sport should not rely on equipment that is provided by a single supplier.

I'm pretty sure Valve isn't gonna be providing the chairs, tables, monitors, keyboards, headphones, and mouses for a CS:GO tournament.

[Hydesland]

Well, I'd like to point out this exception does not appear in Sport Accord's website: http://www.sportaccord.com/about/member ... -sport.php

So perhaps that's just wikipedia being wikipedia. At the very least, a game that is closed source and only provided by (say) Valve for instance would be problematic given rule 5, no?

The sport should not rely on equipment that is provided by a single supplier.

I'm pretty sure Valve isn't gonna be providing the chairs, tables, monitors, keyboards, headphones, and mouses for a CS:GO tournament.

But it will be providing CS:GO...

[MERIZoC]

I'm pretty sure Valve isn't gonna be providing the chairs, tables, monitors, keyboards, headphones, and mouses for a CS:GO tournament.

But it will be providing CS:GO...

Ok? It says equipment provided by a single supplier. I'm gonna take that to mean that a supplier cant provide all of the necessary equipment, only a part of it, because any other interpretation wouldn't make sense, given the usage of, say, shinguards from Adidas, or clothing from Underarmor in football.

[Hydesland]

But it will be providing CS:GO...

Ok? It says equipment provided by a single supplier. I'm gonna take that to mean that a supplier cant provide all of the necessary equipment, only a part of it, because any other interpretation wouldn't make sense, given the usage of, say, shinguards from Adidas, or clothing from Underarmor in football.

That's just sponsorship. You don't need shinguards from Adidas or clothing from Underarmor to play football.

But we're still skirting the issue. CS:GO is proprietary and the code is closed off - that means results can't be independently verified and audited, plus the standards and mechanics are entirely at the discretion of Valve which can be changed at any time for any reason, without us even realizing.

I strongly believe if an ESPORT is to become an Olympic sport, it would need to be non proprietary and open source.

[Huswyae]

eSports are not sports.

Google says a sport is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

Physical exertion is basically EXERCISE. Playing video games is not physical exercise. Therefore, eSports are not sports, they're just games mimicking sports to feed your video game addiction.

[MERIZoC]

Ok? It says equipment provided by a single supplier. I'm gonna take that to mean that a supplier cant provide all of the necessary equipment, only a part of it, because any other interpretation wouldn't make sense, given the usage of, say, shinguards from Adidas, or clothing from Underarmor in football.

That's just sponsorship. You don't need shinguards from Adidas or clothing from Underarmor to play football.

But we're still skirting the issue. CS:GO is proprietary and the code is closed off - that means results can't be independently verified and audited, plus the standards and mechanics are entirely at the discretion of Valve which can be changed at any time for any reason, without us even realizing.

I strongly believe if an ESPORT is to become an Olympic sport, it would need to be non proprietary and open source.

Can you demonstrate that thats what this clause is referring to?

[Hydesland]

That's just sponsorship. You don't need shinguards from Adidas or clothing from Underarmor to play football.

But we're still skirting the issue. CS:GO is proprietary and the code is closed off - that means results can't be independently verified and audited, plus the standards and mechanics are entirely at the discretion of Valve which can be changed at any time for any reason, without us even realizing.

I strongly believe if an ESPORT is to become an Olympic sport, it would need to be non proprietary and open source.

Can you demonstrate that thats what this clause is referring to?

Do you accept 'equipment' can include software?