Last month, Stadia asked readers to cast their opinion on whether future Olympic Games venue bids should include facilities for e-sports at future competitions.
Despite the IOC recognizing e-sports as a sport and a call by some for the growing competitive video gaming scene to feature at the Olympics, the result showed overwhelming opposition.
More than three-quarters (79%) of those who voted believe that competitive gaming should not be included in future Olympic facility masterplans, a stark contrast to only 5% who feel that the Olympics must diversify to reflect e-sports’ rise in popularity.
16% of voters felt that they would only be happy to see e-sports at the Olympics as long as exisiting venues would be used and did not take away any funds to build new stadia.
Although the majority are against its inclusion, the campaign to get e-sports involved is well underway. Ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, Intel gave fans a glimpse of what it might be like, by hosting the Extreme Masters tournament. Professional gamers battled it out playing StarCraft in a bid to show off the mental and mechanical skill involved, although it remains to be seen whether it will award gold medals in the future.
March 8, 2018
