At 3/3/23 11:43 AM, orangebomb wrote:
This is legitimately the stupidest addition to the modern Olympics ever. Esports is a fringe sport with no personality and little audience to begin with.
A majority of sports at the Olympics are already like this. How many people watch Shotput outside of the Olympics? Probably not comparable to the amount of people that regularly watch esports.
At least with recent additions like skateboatding, surfing and 3x3 ball, they have some degree of legit athleticism involved and 3x3 ball is a variation of basketball. Esports OTOH doesn't even qualify as that, and most are just virtual depictions of real sports/events, which are completely redundant. Who exactly is this supposed to appeal to, other than the hardcore Twitch crowds, if that?
You're correct that they're not physically demanding, but they certainly require technique and precision (traditional esports anyway). Careful coordination and thinking are definitely required if somebody wants to succeed. That takes practice and strategy. I think it's comparable to Archery, Pistol Shooting, Golf, and other such sports that are already at the Olympics in that sense.
I honestly think the most challenging aspect of putting esports in the Olympics is figuring out what to include and exclude. Should FPS shooters be forbidden due to their graphic content? What about fighting games? What's the threshold for adding certain games in? I think that's why they're playing it so safe the first goaround. Maybe they'll get more experimental if it's popular.
