by President of Svenska E-sportforeningen, Magnus Jonsson
Yes, I stole that headline from the book The Fellowship of the Ring. You remember? When Frodo and the other hobbits reach Rivendell? Sometimes I feel I am in a fantasy novel myself. Last weekend I attended DreamHack, the world’s largest computer festival. To be able to just travel down to Jonkoping and for a couple of days experience all the best that e-sports has to deliver, that is a fantasy come true.
When I attend DreamHack it is not purely for fun, I always make sure to have a few meetings as well, although most meetings are entertaining as well. This event I was not alone as the chairman of a national e-sport organisation: Silviu Stroie from Romaina, Dario Salice from Switzerland and Teemu Hiilinen from Finland also attended.
The four of us sat down for dinner one night and had a long discussion covering topics like the IeSF, our national organisations, DreamHack and recent news in the world of e-sports. It is always great to meet other people doing the same thing you do, specially since we all do it in different ways. We all have different priorities and different views on events, but in the end we all aim for the same goal: A world where e-sports is recognized as a real sport, with tournaments everywhere following the same rules, all with educated referees and in collaboration with each other.
This might sound a bit like the fantasy world again, but every year, every event, I feel that fantasy world getting closer and closer, more and more real. We may not be a council deciding on how to destroy evil and save the world, but whether we like it or not we are all part of a council trying to make e-sports better. And that council is not made up of just me, Silviu, Dario and Teemu. It’s not even restricted to the IeSF and its members. This council includes everyone of us. Every player, every referee and every writer on an e-sport website.
As a side note: The day after DreamHack Swedish Radio called me up to do an interview. I talked about e-sports and how it’s not recognized as an official sport in Sweden. Swedish Radio then called up the president of the Swedish national federation of sports and asked for her opinion on e-sports.
Now, she did not invite e-sports to become a member tomorrow, but she did not say that could never become one either. Who knows, maybe that fantasy can come true as well? In any case, the fellowship of e-sport marches on, growing bigger and bigger. And some day we will reach that horizon. Together.
