International Olympic Committee (IOC) Announces Olympic Virtual Series

GAMEFINITY.ID, Purworejo – The 2021 Tokyo Olympics, which will be held in a few months, will be more exciting than ever, as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in partnership with five international sports federations and game publishers announced the Olympic Virtual Series, the first Olympic event for virtual sports with video games.

This event will be held ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics to be exact from May 13 to June 23, 2021. This event will also allow participants around the world to compete from their homes or training facilities in order to generate euphoria ahead of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Olympic Virtual Series

In press release, IOC President Thomas Bach said this event aims to foster direct engagement of new audiences in the field of virtual sports. This conception is in line with the 2021+5 Olympic Agenda and the IOC Digital Strategy. It can also encourage sports participation and promote Olympic values, especially among young people.

Here are the international sports federations with the games and publishers that will be part of the event:

World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) with Konami’s eBaseball Powerful Pro Baseball 2021. (Baseball Sports)
Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) with Zwift from Zwift Inc. (Sports Bike Racing)
World Rowing is still open format, there is no confirmation of what game will be used. (Rowing)
World Sailing with Virtual Regatta from Virtual Regatta SAS. (Screen Sports)
Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) with Gran Turismo from Polyphony Digital. (Sports Car Racing)

These five sports will differ in their competition formats, and will operate through their respective game publisher platforms. Information on how to participate, rules and prizes will be announced soon.

With this event, other international sports federations such as FIFA, FIBA, ITF and World Taekwondo are interested in participating in the next event.

As we know earlier, the IOC is indeed interested in including eSports in the Olympics but is still skeptical about the existence of violence and other explicit content in popular games that goes against Olympic values.

But after holding the 8th Olympic Summit, they agreed that they only wanted to focus on video games based on traditional sports in the real world. So surely popular eSports games like CSGO, PUBG, LOL will not enter the Olympics.

How about you, anyone interested in watching or even taking part in this event?