By Michael Pavitt |
The Belarusian Federation of Esports has announced a demonstration event will feature as part of next year’s European Games cultural program in Minsk.
The Federation published a letter from Minsk 2019 confirming the decision.
“We’ve been working towards the goal for a long time,” Denis Bogush, Belarusian Federation of esports chairman, said.
“The accomplishment confirms the significance of the work we’ve done.”
The Belarusian Federation of esports have expressed their intention to organize a “major tournament” of FIFA 19, the latest instalment of the football simulator game.
It is claimed that esports players from famous European clubs and teams from nations in the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The group includes Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Moldova, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Russia.
The Federation revealed work is in progress on the format of the tournament and the list of clubs.
Esports featured as a full medal sport on the programme at the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat.
It was included as a demonstration event at this year’s Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, with the potential for it to become a full medal event at the 2022 edition in Hangzhou in China.
A declaration from the Olympic Summit last week, however, poured cold water on the prospects of esports being included on the Olympic program in the near future.
Among the problems with esports identified by the Olympic Summit was that some games are violent and, therefore, “are not compatible with the Olympic values and therefore cooperation with them is excluded.”
They also pointed to the fact that the industry is evolving rapidly with the changing popularity of specific games and the rapid development towards augmented reality and virtual reality, the fragmented nature of the industry and the fact that it is commercially driven.
A distinction was drawn, however, between esports/egames and esports simulation games, such as FIFA.
The Summit called for”accelerated cooperation” with these kinds of esports, urging International Federations to explore the “potential benefits and applications of the electronic and virtual versions of their sports.”
Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz.