Esports to Tie Into the 2020 Olympics
Photo Credit: International Olympic Committee
Over the past few years, the Olympics and Esports have been in the same conversation a few times. With their rising popularity and with increasingly more money being poured into them it’s only a matter of a time before esports becomes a part of the Olympics.
There has been support for esports to become a part of the Olympic Games, but so far it’s been an uphill battle as concerns have been raised over multiple issues. Unlike traditional sports, which no one owns, every esport is a game developed, operated and owned by a company. There’s also the most glaring issue, the violence.
Esports has made some headway as it was featured as a demonstration sport at the 2018 Asian Games. The esport games featured were Arena of Valor, Clash Royale, Hearthstone, League of Legends, Pro Evolution Soccer and StarCraft II. At this years 2019 Asian Games, esports will now be featured as an official medal event. The games being played will include; DOTA2, StarCraft II, Tekken 7, Arena of Valor and Mobile Legends.
Now, it looks like the Olympic Committe might be coming around as well as they’ve partnered up with Intel to announce a $500k backed esports competition that will tie into the 2020 Tokyo Games. The Intel World Open will feature competitive play in Rocket League and Street Fighter V. Each tournament will have a $250k prize pool. The Intel World Open will start on July 22nd and play out over three days ending on the 24th and leading into the Olympics themselves which start on the 24th as well.
Source via Esports Observer.