Earlier this year, the South Korea-based International eSports Federation applied to the International Olympic Committee to be included in the Olympics. This doesn’t mean they’ve been accepted yet, but the process will begin in December. We might not know if the application was successful for a good while yet, but I am certainly hoping it will be. In light of this, Polygon wrote an extensive article asking whether eSports should be in the Olympics. Though they go into great detail about both sides of argument, they never really answer the question. And why not? eSports may not require the same amount of physical prowess as most other sports, but I think its popularity overwrites that – enough to be a part of one of the largest organized events in the world.
The requirements to be a sport in the Olympics mostly have to do with financial and organizational support, which eSports has plenty of. The rest is about the popularity of the sport – there must be a kind of common consensus that the given event is considered a sport worldwide. This is where eSports hits a bump. Video games have been fighting silly stereotypes that media like Fox News spouts for decades, and it will take a monumental change in our society to fully bring down those stereotypes. That change, in my opinion, has started with Pokemon Go . This is the first time that gamers shown their numbers all at once, even driving up the price of Nintendo’s stock (however briefly). Everyone and their mother knows what a Pokemon is now, and even People magazine had a front-cover article about it.
eSports in the Olympics would take the entire world by storm. Such to the point that I fear it might overshadow other sports, simply by the sheer number of people that would rather watch League of Legends than hurdles. The hype would eventually die, of course, just as it has with Pokemon Go , and viewer ratings would even out again. But nonetheless, the numbers are out there. eSports is definitely popular enough, as according to Newzoo , $325USD million was made by the eSports market alone in 2015 and $463 million is projected for 2016.
However, there will always be someone who says that sports are about being physical, and that the ancient Greeks (the founders of the Olympics) would never dream of allowing in something like video games. Polygon takes a philosophical standpoint, and though I agree that what classifies as a sport is evolving, I think they stretch the meaning a little far. eSports should be in the Olympics for its popularity, relevance, and required skill level, not because we’re trying to use the term “sports” loosely.
As for the ancient Greeks, Polygon mentions that sports like the marathon were something the ancient Greeks would greatly disapprove of too. Long distance running, apparently, was for peasants and messengers, not the fine physique of the Greek boys that participated in the Olympics. This shouldn’t even have been mentioned, in my opinion. The modern Olympics came to be because of Pierre de Coubertin in 1894, not because we have continued the tradition of the Olympics since the times of ancient Greece. Coubertin proposed the idea because his studies had shown that sports promote “body, mind, and character.” Something that I think eSports fits perfectly – even the physical aspect. The amount of hand-eye coordination required to play any one of the games in eSports (at the level that these cyberathletes play) is far more complex and intensive than even soccer or hockey.
So yes, eSports should be a part of the Olympics because of its popularity and physical skill requirements, just as any other sport in the worldwide event. It’s only a matter of time before it happens, as games like Pokémon Go show the world how relevant and popular video games are.