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Esports are coming to the Olympics, kinda

A UK government initiative is set to bring esports to the Olympic as a “pop up” competition which will run alongside the games.

“Launched as part of the London Games Festival, on April 6th 2016, the eGames is an international gaming tournament where national pride is the prize,”  eGames announced on its website.

While competitors could be in line to win a gold, silver or bronze medal at the event, there’s no prize money up for grabs.

To be fair though, this is being billed as an event taking place during the Olympics, where it’s common knowledge that athletes don’t receive monetary prizes from the games themselves.

Something else we noticed is that no mention has been made of the games that will be played. This is even more worrying when you realise that the eGames are set to take place in the same month as the Dota 2 The International tournament, which offered $18 429 613 in prize money last year.

The exact date as to when the tournament will run is unclear though more information will be released in the coming months. Unlike most esports teams that compete in events of this type using monikers like Cloud 9, Fnatic or Alliance, the teams at the eGames have been tagged with rather bland names like eTeam USA, eTeam Brazil, eTeam Canada and eTeam Britain.

How exactly these teams will be created is unclear especially given that many existing teams wouldn’t be too happy if their MVP decided to ditch the team in  pursuit of national pride.

What we do know is that according to eGames, each country will have an eTeam which will compete in team and individual games such as Hearthstone and Starcraft 2.

We’re hoping all the questions swirling around tis event are answered rather quickly, given that the proposed competition is four months away.

But all criticism aside, this tournament is very forward thinking on the part of the UK government and perhaps it will help to change the perception that esports are simply people watching other people play games. Which, when you think about it, is basically the same as watching other people play any sport. Football, anyone?

[Source – eGames] [Image – CC BY/2.0 Dota 2 The International]

 

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