A rider warms up ahead of the cycling finals on day two of Olympic Esports Week in Singapore.
Yong Teck Lim | Getty’s paintings
SINGAPORE – Singapore hosts the inaugural Olympic Esports Week, with over 100 athletes from around the world competing in 10 virtual sports.
This just isn’t the first time the International Olympic Committee has partnered with Singapore to “test and launch cutting-edge… events,” said Alvin Tan, Singapore’s Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth.
He had previously chosen Singapore as host first 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Gameswhich has since develop into “the most significant elite sporting event,” said Tan, who can also be the Minister of State for Trade and Industry.
The event kicked off on Thursday with a gap ceremony at the convention center at Suntec City Mall, where athletes will spar in two stages of the competition and attendees will find a way to check out multiple video game zones. Singapore’s President Halimah Yacob appeared via hologram to deliver his opening speech Straits Times reports.
A few of the competitions include mobile archery game based on tic-tac-toe, a taekwondo match with an avatar that follows the movement on the screen and virtual cyclingwhere players race around the Scottish countryside using the Zwift interactive platform.
There may even be virtual sports comparable to baseball, chess, motorsports, sailing, shooting, tennis and dancing.
That is the first live edition of a virtual sports series created by the International Olympic Committee, the organization said. Builds on the success of the Olympic Virtual Series held prematurely of the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics attracted 250,000 attendeesadded the IOC.
Esports in Asia
Southeast Asia is considered one of the world’s fastest-growing esports markets, with gamers accounting for 82% of the region’s urban online population, gaming research firm Recent zoo found.
The worldwide esports market was valued at over $1.38 billion in 2022 and reached 532 million viewers, in accordance with data statistics.
Singapore isn’t any stranger to esports competitions, launching the Singapore Games Association to grow the country’s esports ecosystem. The Singapore Tourism Board stated that the country has the potential to develop into “the best destination for esports fans worldwide”. reported the CNA.
In 2022, the city-state hosted the final of The International, considered one of the biggest esports tournaments in the world. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang’s first independent skilled league took place in 2021.
The local gaming industry is “small but has great potential for growth,” he said International Trade Administrationhighlighting that in 2021 the sector employed almost 2,000 people.
Greater than 3,000 gaming professionals will gather in Singapore in October Gamescom in Asiaamongst the largest trade fairs dedicated to technology and video games.
The federal government will proceed to look for methods to support growth in the “dynamic space” of the gaming sector, – reported the Ministry of Communications and Information in the parliamentary response.
Singapore is optimistic about virtual sports and Olympic Esports Week is a likelihood to “experiment with latest ideas,” Tan told CNBC’s Squawk Box Asia on Friday.
Town-state is “taking small steps towards this, as we did with F1,” he said, citing the first night race in Formula 1 history, which Singapore hosted in 2008.
Nonetheless, some members of the gaming community should not completely happy with the competition lineup during Olympic Esports Week, local media reported.
Critics say it includes many simulations of physical sports, but not popular video games like Dota or Valorant.
While the Fortnite video game is featured in sports shooting competitions, players compete to hit targets in a purpose-built environment that lacks the battle royale aspect of the original game, they said. This refers to the gameplay mode where players fight one another concurrently to be the last one standing.