E-sports in the Olympiad, is it possible? | Have you seen?

Text from Genevieve Leviffer Tardev

In a letter to the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), a group of Olympic health experts and athletes such as Mikael Kingsbury, Joanie Rochett, Kim Putin and Jennifer Appel have opposed the idea of ​​integrating esports into the Olympics.

For Capsana CEO Guy Desrosiers, video games promote a sedentary lifestyle.

How can a young man who might sometimes have a hard time dealing with screens say to his parents: “It doesn’t matter, it’s in the Olympics, it’s a sport. I can stay sitting in my room, in the office and playing games for hours.”

Quebec Game Federation president Louis David Reno is disappointed by this gesture, which leaves out young people less attracted to traditional sports.

I imagine some of these young people with this passion who make an effort to be healthy and are told, “No! You, what you do is not serious, and it will lead to nothing.” This really shocked me, He says.

According to him, a distinction should also be made between e-sports, which require a required physical training, and playing video games. He believes that electronic games have their place in games just like golf, curling or shooting events.

For former pro video game player Stephanie Harvey, professional e-athletes can perform more than 270 actions per minute and are supervised as high-profile athletes.

To perform in the game, a lot of energy is required concentration On your body. It takes a lot, if you are not in good shape, if you do not have a good diet, and you do not have a good sleep, it will show in your performance., She indicates.

E-sport remains different from others, according to Guy Desrosiers, due to the risks of addiction, which has also been recognized as a disease by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Should videogame developers be sitting in that room, because they want young people to be away from the screens? To ask the question is to answer it, He said.

For Stephanie Harvey, this message shows a lack of knowledge of the world of video games and the 2.7 billion players on the planet. It is also part of the IOC eSports Forum that wants to find solutions for organizing healthy video game competitions.

Unfortunately, video games are here to stay. There are billions of people playing on this planet and we must take this passion, and on the contrary, educate it and create platforms, tools, rules and laws that regulate it.

The Virtual Olympic Series takes place from May 13 to June 13 in Tokyo, Japan.