Olympic Council of Asia says WESG the future

Olympic Council of Asia honorary life vice-president Wei Jizhong believes it is only a matter of time before esports are fully embraced by the Olympic family and all other more traditional multi-sport events.

“Change is happening,” said Wei, speaking on the sidelines of this week’s World Electronic Sports Games (WESG) Grand Final.

The OCA tested the waters with esports at last year’s 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, and the experiment was apparently a resounding success with close to 100 million views of the action recorded across livestreams and social media, according to Wei.

Up next esports will be among the demonstrations sports at the Asian Games in Jakarta in August 2018 before making its debut as a medal sport at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.

“The decision to include esport was very easy,” said Wei. “We looked at the participation and how many people were competing for pleasure. Now we are working to learn, and to regulate. Step by step.”

The Olympic Games are on the horizon, Wei said, but certain matters needed to be addressed first, including the formation of an internationally recognized and accepted ruling body for esports, and decisions on exactly which esports are chosen.

Preference would be go to games that are based on traditional sports such as soccer – which would lead to esport events more readily accepted by the sports already featured at the Olympic Games.

“If esports are successful at the Asian Games of course the IOC [International Olympic Council] will notice and already I hear that esports are being considered as an exhibition sport at the Paris Olympic Games in 2024,” said Wei.