COMMENT: Dear IOC, it's not for you to define what esports is

There's some irony to how, in a few short years, we've gone from "esports is not sports" to "virtual sports are esports".

Even now, calling professional competitive gamers esports athletes and having them compete at sporting events like the SEA Games and Asian Games seems to stir up debate in some circles.

And, in the midst of all this, the International Olympics Committee (IOC) appears to have decided that they want their own definition of esports with their inaugural Olympics Esports Week in Singapore.

As many have pointed out, there aren't any traditional esports titles beyond a few exhibition matches (and the later addition of Fortnite).

For all their talk about non-violent games and Olympic values, you'd think they'd have at least included the FIFA video game, but the football title (and recognised esport) is not on the list.

On the list are primarily games (and I use the term "games" loosely) which are essentially virtual versions of traditional sports (Gran Turismo does have an esports scene, though).

Some have never been heard of before, until the announcement of their inclusion. Most are played using equipment which are not easily accessible, and would probably cost a fair bit for a casual player to get involved with.

Compare this to a title like Mobile Legends or PUBG Mobile, both popular with the Southeast Asia region, where the barrier to entry is... a smart phone and an internet connection. Even the mainstay of PC esports titles like Counter-Strike, Dota 2 or League of Legends require just that... a PC. You don't even have to pay for the game, just the bandwidth to download it.

Well, I guess Project 99's Tic Tac Bow is also a mobile app, but that brings me to the most important point - esports exist because of the communities that surround them.

Communities define esports

If you've been in the scene long enough, you'd have seen the early days of esports tournaments. I'll use Dota 2 as an example, but bear in mind that this wasn't even the first version of the game, and the Warcraft III map Defence of the Ancients (and even others that inspired it) existed long before some professional players in the scene these days were even born.

The eye-watering prize monies seen these days in Dota 2 belied the humble start of the now established community.

Whether it was forming a team to compete while at a LAN shop, or figuring out the different commentary styles that would evolve into the art that it is today, the Dota scene didn't become what it is because of the will of some entity wanting to dictate it (Riot Games, publisher and developer of Dota 2 rival League of Legends, may appear to have that approach with their more recent games like VALORANT, but if you've observed, it also takes an active hand in building the community).

Entire organisations didn't sprout up overnight to give the player base both their heroes (and villains) as well as a path to a sustainable professional career.

If anything, the Dota community has had to earn what it has today through ups and downs, and wondering at times what publisher Valve was thinking. But it's weathered all that, and it stands today among the titles that define esports.

As another example, the Evolution Championship Series tournament brings together the Fighting Games Community (FGC), from around the globe to Vegas or Japan for a week, even when fighting games are mostly a solo endeavour.

Even at smaller, offline tournaments, you're likely to find FGC members debating arcade sticks versus controllers while taking on one another in fighting games that range from Street Fighter to Smash Bros to Dragonball.

Of course, there are a lot of things in traditional esports titles (still feels weird saying that, having seen how esports used to be so easily dismissed) that are missing from the virtual sports in the IOC's "esports" lineup.

Teamwork makes the (esports) dream work

Not all esports are team games, of course, but a lot of them are. And communication is a key part of those titles.

Sure, your Agent got shot in VALORANT, but perhaps giving your team the right information about that incident can turn the tide in a bad situation. In fact, the communication in such esports titles has even been used to teach kids in school the value of teamwork.

Some games have what is known as a draft phase, which at times can be a battle of the minds that could even rival chess (or well, virtual chess, because, I don't know, played on a computer so esports).

It is a phase where a designated person on the team decides which characters will be chosen and which will be banned.

I am oversimplifying it, of course, but in essence, it's about knowing your own team's strengths and weaknesses, weighing them up against your opponents', trying to guess and disrupt their strategy while putting your own in place.

Which brings me to another point - most of the non-IOC esports titles are live-service games (and mostly free to play).

The ever-changing meta

These games are constantly updated by the developers, new characters/weapons/abilities are added or tweaked, so what might work one tournament will probably fall apart the next.

This helps keep the meta (the way the game is played, essentially, and nothing to do with Mark Zuckerberg's rebrand attempt) fresh, and prevents matches from getting stale, ensuring that no strategy becomes too dominant over time.

It's not perfect, as people who watched the Overwatch League might have a thing or two to say, but for the most part, it helps to keep things entertaining for viewers, as well.

These changes and updates themselves spawn whole branches of the community, from analysts and content creators digesting the information for the general player base, to the theory crafters who try to find new and innovative ways to use game mechanics.

Good luck trying to do that with Refract Technologies' Virtual Taekwondo.

Building an esport doesn't happen just because you want it to

Now, I'm not saying it will never happen, or that any of these IOC-chosen titles cannot go on to be an esport with a community (but let's be real, there were better options to represent "esports" at this time).

The classic game Tetris has a beautiful community and competitive scene, played using the 1989 version on lovingly maintained Nintendo Entertainment System consoles and using CRT televisions.

HoYoverse's F2P (and gacha) Genshin Impact looks to be gearing up to become an actual esport with real-life competitions using its in-game trading card game.

Even Clash of Clans has esports tournaments and organisations that build teams to compete in them.

And while most esports titles are video games in their own right, to show that the community is what makes an esport esports, remember that there exists esports for Excel, everyone's (debatable) favourite spreadsheet app.

Any game with an aspect of competition should, logically, have the potential to become an esport.

But that definition is not up to me, or the IOC, or really any individual entity to define.

What makes an esport esports is the collective community.

Not just the player base, but the game publishers, tournament organisers, the sponsor brands, the content creators who stream and raise awareness, the business owners that fund organisations to compete, the players who dedicate time and training, the coaches who take a non-playing role, the team managers who make sure competitive players can focus on their craft, the analysts who break down plays and drafts, the viewers at both LAN events and over streaming platforms, the casters who turn gameplay into commentary, the list goes on and on.

Every single one of those individuals and entities come together to bring a thriving community and esports scene to life.

Without that, any game, no matter how exciting or fun to play, will remain just a game, no matter who or what tries to say otherwise.

Bryan Huang has been covering esports since 2018, including events like The International. The views expressed are his own.

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