kids encyclopedia robot

Olympic Esports Series facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

The Olympic Esports Series is a cool event that's a bit like the Olympic Games, but for esports (competitive video gaming)! It happens every year and brings together different virtual sports and video games in one place. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which runs the real Olympics, is in charge of it.

Even though competitive video gaming wasn't always seen as a traditional sport, the Olympic world started noticing it way back in 2007. That's when esports was part of the 2007 Asian Indoor Games. In 2017, the IOC held a big meeting about esports. After a special online event called the Olympic Virtual Series in 2021 (because of the COVID-19 pandemic), the IOC decided to create the Olympic Esports Series in November 2022. The very first one was held in Singapore in June 2023, and another one is planned for 2024!

The games played at the Olympic Esports Series are connected to traditional Olympic sports. This is because the video games are chosen by the groups that manage those sports worldwide. You'll see a mix of games where you do a physical sport in a virtual world, like Zwift for cycling, and also sports-based video games like Gran Turismo for racing. Some people have said that the Olympic Esports Series doesn't include popular esports games and instead uses lesser-known games that represent traditional Olympic sports.

Unlike the main Olympic Games, players don't win medals or special certificates called diplomas. Instead, the top three players in each event get cool gold-, silver-, and bronze-coloured trophies!

How the Olympic Esports Series Started

Traditional esports games like Counter-Strike, Dota, League of Legends, and Valorant have been thought of as "too violent" to be part of an Olympic-style competition. The IOC held a meeting in October 2017 to think about adding esports to the Olympic world. Another meeting happened in July 2018. However, there wasn't one big group that managed all of esports, which is something the IOC needs for a sport to be recognized. Also, the issue of violence in some games meant the IOC wouldn't add esports to the main Olympic Games.

Other big sports events, like the Asian Games and the Southeast Asian Games, do include esports as a medal event. Esports first appeared at a major event at the 2007 Asian Indoor Games. It will become a full medal event at the 2022 Asian Games (which were held in 2023).

When the COVID-19 pandemic caused the 2020 Summer Olympics to be moved to 2021, the IOC launched its first esports event. It was called the Olympic Virtual Series and happened in 2021. The sports included were baseball, cycling, motorsport, rowing, and sailing. Four of these sports later returned for the Olympic Esports Series in 2023.

A second Olympic Virtual Series was planned for 2022, but it didn't happen. Instead, it was replaced by the Olympic Esports Series.

Winners of the 2021 Olympic Virtual Series

Here are the winners from the first Olympic Virtual Series in 2021:

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Baseball home run derby
eBaseball Powerful Pro Baseball 2020
Ryohei Osaka
 Japan
Yusuke Tominaga
 Japan
Hiroki Horiike
 Japan
Baseball tournament finals
eBaseball Powerful Pro Baseball 2020
Syoma Mori
 Japan
Yoshinori Kato
 Japan
Yosuke Fujimoto
 Japan
Cycling ultimate chase race
Zwift
Alistair Brownlee
 Great Britain
Lucy Charles-Barclay
 Great Britain
John Kariuki
 Kenya
Motorsport
Gran Turismo Sport
Valerio Gallo
 Italy
Mikail Hizal
 Germany
Baptiste Beauvois
 France
Rowing
Open format
 Colombia
Sailing inshore - nacra 17
Virtual Regatta
Arthur Farley
 Great Britain
Bart Lambriex
 Netherlands
Joan Cardona
 Spain
Sailing inshore - ILCA dinghy
Virtual Regatta
Kaan Mazlumca
 Turkey
Filippo Lanfranchi
 Italy
Gaéten de Kat
 France
Sailing inshore - 49er
Virtual Regatta
Lukas Mohr
 Denmark
Arthur Farley
 Great Britain
Tangi Le Golf
 France
Sailing offshore
Virtual Regatta
Erik Danielsson
 Sweden
Christopher Powers
 United States
Luiz Carlos Bonetti
 Brazil

The 2023 Olympic Esports Week

Quick facts for kids
2023 Olympic Esports Week
Olympic rings without rims.svg
Host city Singapore, Singapore
Motto Play Beyond Possible
Organisers International Olympic Committee, Singapore National Olympic Council
Edition 1st
Athletes 131 from 57 nations
Events 10 in 10 sports, plus 6 exhibition events across 5 video game titles
Opening 22 June 2023 (2023-06-22)
Closing 25 June 2023 (2023-06-25)
Opened by President of Singapore Halimah Yacob
Main venue Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre

In November 2022, the IOC announced that the first-ever Olympic Esports Week would be held in Singapore in June 2023. This event would include the live finals of the 2023 Olympic Esports Series. The first nine games and sports were announced on March 1, 2023. A tenth event, shooting (using Fortnite), was added on May 5.

The first Olympic Esports Series finals happened in person from June 23 to 25, 2023, in Singapore. They were held at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre. This was part of the first Olympic Esports Week, which started a day earlier on June 22 with an opening ceremony.

At the opening ceremony, both the IOC president, Thomas Bach, and the President of Singapore, Halimah Yacob, appeared remotely (meaning they weren't there in person). Halimah, who was on a special trip to Qatar at the time, officially opened the Olympic Esports Week in her speech.

About 131 finalists took part in the Olympic Esports Week. There were ten events in ten different Olympic sports. Trophies were also given out for an eleventh event that was held completely online. The sports included were archery, baseball, chess, cycling, dance, motorsport, sailing, shooting, taekwondo, and tennis. The game chosen for each sport was suggested by the international sports group for that sport, working with the game's maker. However, for Fortnite in shooting, Epic Games (the game's maker) said they weren't involved in the choice.

Eight Olympians (athletes who have competed in the main Olympic Games) took part in the taekwondo event. These included Wu Jingyu from China, who won a bronze trophy. Other famous athletes from different countries also competed.

The chess event also featured nine grandmasters (very high-level chess players) and one female International Master. This event was special because it was the first IOC-approved event where Russian athletes, Maksim Chigaev and Aleksandr Rakhmanov, competed as "individual neutral athletes." This meant they competed without representing their country's flag, after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. They even competed alongside a Ukrainian player, Oleksandr Bortnyk.

The event was very popular, with about 20,000 people coming to watch at the Suntec Convention Centre over the four days.

Trophy Winners of the 2023 Olympic Esports Series

Here are the trophy winners from the 2023 Olympic Esports Series:

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Archery
Tic Tac Bow
Jared Montgomery
 United States
David Chan
 United States
Kyosuke Takebayashi
 Japan
Baseball
WBSC eBaseball: Power Pros
Shoma Mori
 Japan
Hiroki Horiike
 Japan
Wang Chia-Ming
 Chinese Taipei
Chess
Chess.com
Aleksey Sarana
 Serbia
Maksim Chigaev
Individual Neutral Athletes
Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn
 Vietnam
Cycling
Zwift
Team Fuego
 Martin Maertens (GER)
 James Barnes (RSA)
 Lou Bates (GBR)
 Marlene Bjärehed (SWE)
Team Epic
 Ben Hill (AUS)
 Michał Kamiński (POL)
 Jacquie Godbe (USA)
 Charlotte Colclough (GBR)
Team Lava
 Teppo Laurio (FIN)
 Lionel Vujasin (BEL)
 Alice Lethbridge (GBR)
 Kong Lam (HKG)
Dance
Just Dance
Amandine Morisset
 France
Joseph Cordero
 United States
Antonino Pomilia
 Italy
Motorsport
Gran Turismo 7
Kylian Drumont
 France
William Murdoch
 Great Britain
Angel Inostroza
 Chile
Sailing inshore
Virtual Regatta
Tim Carpentier
 France
Cavan Fyans
 Great Britain
Francisco Melo
 Portugal
Sailing offshore
Virtual Regatta
Baptiste Renaut
 France
Xavier Coquard
 France
Aurélie Martin
 France
Shooting
Fortnite
Lucas Malissa
 Australia
Alexander Feyzjou
 United States
Andrej Piratov
 Latvia
Taekwondo
Virtual Taekwondo
Nigel Tan
 Singapore
Natalie Tor
 Singapore
Wu Jingyu
 China
Tennis
Tennis Clash
Anass Benghazi
 France
He Shenghao
 China
William Foster
 Great Britain

Special Exhibition Events

Besides the ten main events of the Olympic Esports Series, the 2023 Olympic Esports Week also had some special "exhibition events." These are like demonstration sports, showing off other popular esports games. They included Rocket League, Street Fighter 6, and NBA 2K23. There were also virtual versions of Arena Games Triathlon (a mix of running and cycling) and Virtual Table Tennis.

In Rocket League, there were two show matches. One was for men, won by Karmine Corp, and one for women, won by Williams Resolve. The Street Fighter 6 event was a tournament where players were eliminated after two losses. It was won by Thum Homchuen from Thailand. A famous Street Fighter player, Hajime Taniguchi (also known as Tokido), also competed. The NBA 2K23 event was a round-robin (everyone played everyone else) with no official winner. Teams from the Philippines, Brazil, and Türkiye competed.

The Future of Olympic Esports

After the first event in Singapore, the IOC's head of virtual sports, Vincent Pereira, said that Paris (which is hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics) would get the first chance to host the Olympic Esports Series in 2024 if they wanted to. However, Singapore also showed interest in hosting again. Other cities like Seoul (South Korea), Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), New York City, and Shenzhen (China) also showed interest.

Even though some people want more traditional esports games, the IOC plans to keep games like first-person shooters (FPS) out of the Olympic Esports Series in the future. This is what Pereira said.

Some games that were exhibition events in 2023, like Rocket League, the Street Fighter series, and the NBA 2K series, might be added as main events in the future.

However, it's not likely that esports will become a full medal sport at the main Olympic Games very soon. Even though esports has medal status at the Asian Games and Southeast Asian Games, and there are world championships for virtual versions of traditional sports (like the Esailing World Championship), the IOC's Pereira said that "they're two different worlds."

In June 2024, the IOC announced that they would create a brand new event called the Olympic Esports Games. The IOC will vote on this idea during the 2024 Summer Olympics. In July 2024, it was announced that the very first 2025 Olympic Esports Games would be held in Saudi Arabia.

kids search engine
Olympic Esports Series Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.