[Esports, Road to Olympics]
The Olympic Council of Asia has announced Esports to be integrated as an official program of 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games. While there is a variety of opinions and voices being expressed about esports as a sport, it is certain the status of esports is continuing to expand through its participation in mega sports events. As Thomas Bach, IOC president puts it, “it would be a valuable test for discussing formal discipline of the future Olympics.”
At this point, IeSF would like to announce the initial agenda of the Global Esports Executive Summit. ‘Esports, Road to the Olympics’. In this topic, IeSF is requesting the participation of various international sports society members to participate in the panel session to discuss on the relationship between traditional sports and esports. In the Global Summit held in Shanghai in 2016, there had been a pre-discussion on the similar topic, ‘Esports, Road to Official Sports’, wherein various sports and esports officials participated.
Other topics of the Summit will be announced as soon as they are confirmed, and this year, especially through the active support of the Busan city, would be promoted on a larger scale than before. A detailed introduction to this Summit can be found in the following link:
http://ie-sf.com/bbs/board.php?bo_table=iesf_notice&wr_id=162
[How Far is Esports from Becoming an Official Sport Discipline]
IeSF was established in 2008, quickly expanding from 9 to 46 member nations, and has been involved in promoting esports for the past 9 years in order to promote and extend the values of esports towards the international sports society. In 2013, IeSF brought esports to AIMAG(Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games), an OCA event, introducing esports to the international sports events. It was also in 2013, which the federations received the official recognition as the signatory of WADA(World Anti-Doping Agency). IeSF to became an official member of TAFISA(The Association For International Sports For All) in 2014. IeSF signed a MOU with IAAF in 2015, and more recently, in 2017, a MOU with FISU. Thus IeSF continues to push esports forward within the international sports society.
IeSF has also applied for membership to SportAccord, previously known as GAISF(Global Association of International Sports Federation). Should such membership be awarded, IeSF intends to use such status, to expand the number of National Olympic Committee (NOC) and National Sports Authority(NSA) recognized National Federations(NF). Currently there are 24 NOC/NSA recognized NF’s, of which 22 are current members of IeSF, with the remaining two currently applying for IeSF Membership. In 2016 IeSF had also applied for membership to the International Olympic Committee, and is continuing its conversations to receive recognition with such body.
