IOC organizes forum on Olympic future e-sports

The International Olympic Committee will hold a forum on July 21 to discuss the possibility of including esports in the Olympics. A number of major players from e-sports have been invited to the forum.

The forum takes place at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne and is organized by the IOC and the Global Association of International Sports Federations, an organization for all Olympic and non-Olympic sports federations. The forum ties in with an IOC executive board meeting. The two organizers want to explore the possibility of including e-sports in the Olympic program on the forum. “It is clear that the development of sport never stands still and that the phenomenal growth of e-sports is part of its continuous evolution,” said Patrick Baumann, head of the Gaisf in a pre-statement. The forum is ‘an opportunity to understand more about esports, their influence and possible future developments, allowing us to explore avenues for working together in the future’.

The two organizers have invited a number of esports leaders to speak at the forum. Among them are Nicolo Laurent, head of League of Legends developer Riot Games, Blizzard founder Mike Morhaime, Nate Nanzer, who joined Blizzard as head of the Overwatch League, and Justin Dellario, head of Twitch’s esports arm.

The admission of e-sports to the Olympics has been discussed for some time, although not everyone is equally enthusiastic about it. In March, Reinhard Grindel, director of the German Football Association, argued that e-sports are not a sporting activity and that the ambitions to become part of the Olympics are absurd. He hopes it will not become an Olympic sport. At the same time, it was announced in May that League of Legends will be part of the Asian Games.