"Digital Games" to feature at Olympics

Sabre0001

"Digital Games" / eSports / Pro Gaming has been promoted to a recognised sport now in China. In addition to this, a gaming tournament will be featured at the Olympics and will be held in Shanghai to "take advantage of the large expected media and spectator turnout for the Olympic soccer matches and other medal events to be held there at the same time"

Not officially a part of the Olympics but to be used as a feature / welcome event. Pro gamers and celebrity gamers are also to be invited (think Snoop Dogg was mentioned ).

No games have been selected yet - Quake is banned in China so that's ruled out However pre-registration starts NOW!

The idea of a gaming Pentathlon has also been mentioned which is interesting because most gamers stick to one genre, maybe two...Never competing in FIVE at the top level!

For more info:
http://www.esreality.com/?a=post&id=1513204
http://www.ggl.com/index.php?controller=Channel&method=view&channel=844

TheDoc

not gna be much different to the same old same old we see on the pro scene at the moment

Sabre0001

May get some coverage from the Olympics coverage too so may hit some more mainstream viewers rather than people already interested in the community that seek news on tournaments...

For example - people who just watch TV (or the Olympics) for the sake of it - I used to watch practically all events in Olympics They may get a little more interested...Maybe from there they seek out a bit more info and see how deep the rabbit hole is (saw that in an article once and been dying to use it!)

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

quake is banned in china? lol

ah, the olympics is a joke anyway... china, ye gods.

can't wait till saudi arabia hosts the next one

Pugsley

I imagine there will be a large Starcraft tourny with a Chinese player getting to the final of the WCG (but lost) after a shocking victory over one of the top Koreans (Bisu or Stork I think), which makes a huge change from the all Korean finals that happen every other time. Imagine there will also be a large Warcraft3 presence.

Im looking forward to it

tman

The idea of a Pentathlon sounds very interesting indeed, someone that kicks ass at at an RTS might not be so hot at SF

Sabre0001

Anyone thinking of signing up to play in the European Region ladder? Will be interesting to see the individual game picks but I also think the 5-game event could be very interesting and would mix it up a bit...

OK-Cancel-Apply

Well I'm a big game fan, but I really think the worlds of athleticism and sitting on your arse should be kept miles apart TBH, so I would hope 'gaming' never gets recognised as an actual division of Olympic sports.

Jazzy

id give it a lash but it depends hugely on what games are going to be picked. i can see an RTS being picked for definate, probably WC3. i hope a DM FPS is picked too but i doubt it, also some sort of fighting game.

depends how the qualifiers are run etc. as well... also depends on how much im bothered

Sabre0001

Jazzy wrote: »

id give it a lash but it depends hugely on what games are going to be picked. i can see an RTS being picked for definate, probably WC3. i hope a DM FPS is picked too but i doubt it, also some sort of fighting game.

depends how the qualifiers are run etc. as well... also depends on how much im bothered

Qualifiers are regional ladders, so challenge matches. Genres could be anything - FPS, strategy, sport, casual were all mentioned...Hopefully there is a little bit of time between announcement and start (and that college doesn't get in the way)!

K.O.Kiki

Hey guys, it's going to be fun!
REAL fun!!

[/sarcasm]

Jazzy

yup. read them ages back. thats a different event tho run by a different organisation so i dont really see the connection.
unless of course you are talking about some ppl being intolerant and some ppl cheating which never happens in any other walk of life except pr0 gayming of course

Sabre0001

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Hey guys, it's going to be fun!
REAL fun!!

[/sarcasm]

Unfortunately these events took place but as Jazzy said, a different organisation is running it...Also, because of the publicity that these events received, it should be used as a lesson for all other event organisers so as to avoid these scenes occuring again.

Also, other sports have incidents on-and-off the playing surface. Take soccer for an example - unsporting conduct is creeping into the game (diving, asking ref to book players, etc), riots, bribery, etc. and yet the sport is thriving!

Those incidents that you mentioned need to be prevented in future but it is only by making mistakes that people can learn sometimes! I can see this event working well and being quite interesting...

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

+1 for the chap who displayed the taiwanese flag

Pugsley

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Hey guys, it's going to be fun!
REAL fun!!

[/sarcasm]

To shed some light on that starcraft exploit - it was legal in the most prestigious tourny, the OSL, but illegal in the MSL, stork may not have been aware of the rules, there are several small bugs that are illegal in some tournies but not in others. As for match fixing, no call for that, its unfortunately quite common.

+1 to You Shen for the Taiwan flag, its the rest of the Chinese team that done the injustice there.

KoKane

I think some of you, as gamers, need to look at the bigger picture here.

This is another big step for competitive gaming. I think its only 3 or 4 countries that recognise pro gaming as a sport.
Long way to go yet, but we are getting there.
Any gaming event at the olympics is a brilliant achievement.

You would have expected the Olympics as the last place you would see E-Sports, as the Olympics has always been associated with pure atheletes etc.

Fanny Cradock

Mercy me! An Olympic sport where it is possible to put on weight as you compete. I can only imagine that this would be about as exciting as watching an extended episode of Gamezville.

A terrible idea.

Sabre0001

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

Mercy me! An Olympic sport where it is possible to put on weight as you compete. I can only imagine that this would be about as exciting as watching an extended episode of Gamezville.

A terrible idea.

Not actually going to be a "Olympic Event" but a featured event run alongside...I think it could be done quite well as it is supposed to be about a culture rather than just the games.

Also, watching top skilled players in full flow can be quite entertaining and interesting - go to GotFrag.com or Quakecon.org and check out some of the event videos (I would recommend the Quake clips from GotFrag but I'm slightly biased )

KoKane

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

I can only imagine that this would be about as exciting as watching an extended episode of Gamezville.

A terrible idea.

A terrible imagination.

Fanny Cradock

Zing! That witty rejoinder put me in my place. I'll have to be more careful in the future when I express an opinion contrary to yours.

KoKane

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

Zing! That witty rejoinder put me in my place. I'll have to be more careful in the future when I express an opinion contrary to yours.

x2

Kinetic^

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Hey guys, it's going to be fun!
REAL fun!!

[/sarcasm]

Was sad to have that happen, Taiwanese dude is a nice guy. Unfortunately discrimination is a part of gaming.

Sabre0001

Kenny 5 wrote: »

Was sad to have that happen, Taiwanese dude is a nice guy. Unfortunately discrimination is a part of gaming.

Unfortunately discrimination is a part of sport & life...

Was a terrible story to read about. WCG really needs to get its act together for next year - unless its a perfect LAN and runs smoothly it could spell trouble!