When the summer Olympics come around in 2020, there will be recognized events in surfing and skateboarding for the first time. With those already in the mix, what could be added in 2024 for a possible L.A. Olympics? If you ask the organizers behind the bid, the next step is eSports (otherwise known as video games).
Los Angeles is already home to some of the largest competitive eSports events in the country. As the committee points out in a statement, it took just hours for the League of Legends World Championship to sell out their October 29 championship at the Staples Center. Proponents see bringing eSports into the Olympics as a way to tap into that huge, young audience.
“The 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles–a city always imagining what’s next, where sport, entertainment and technology mix like nowhere else–would enable the IOC to stay at the cutting-edge of digital youth engagement,” L.A. 2024 committee chairman Casey Wasserman stated.
While L.A. has the venues and infrastructure at the ready, including a new sport, let alone a whole new category of sport, is the job of the IOC. To start the process, the International eSports Federation, based in Seoul, South Korea, has submitted the formal request for Olympic recognition, Mashable reports.
Something to watch if this moves forward: International eSports Federation tournaments are co-ed events. As part of their mission to have eSports treated like any other pro or Olympic sport, they initially attempted to have gender-divided leagues, but that was met with outrage and, in 2014, they reversed that policy. For some games, they allow female-only tournaments in addition to mixed-gender ones, but male-only tournaments are not allowed. Any Olympic inclusion would, in all likelihood, be a gender-blind competition, which remains extremely unusual at the Olympic level.
Want more? Sign up here to stay in the know.