S. Korea to vie for first ever E-sports medal at Asian Games
Arirang News
2018-08-21
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Athletes from dozens of countries are in Jakarta for the Asian Games, the region's biggest sporting event.
This year, one of the demonstration sports at the Games is e-sports -- that is, computer games -- something South Korea excels at.
On Tuesday, here in Seoul, a launching event was held for the South Korean team that'll be heading to Jakarta later this week.
Lee Min Sun reports. On Tuesday, South Korea's best video gamers, and gaming-related officials, promised to do their best in Jakarta to win an e-sports gold medal.
South Korea is a leader in e-sports, and this year, the discipline has been chosen as a demonstration sport at the Asian Games.
Because it's a demonstration, the medals won will not be counted in the medals tally, but its a historic first.
The six games chosen for the debut matches are League of Legends, Pro Evolution Soccer 2018, Arena of Valor, StarCraft 2, Hearthstone and Clash Royale. Gamers from 18 countries will compete for 18 medals starting this Sunday.
Six South Korean gamers will complete in League of Legends and and one other will compete in StarCraft2.
"We are, of course, aiming for the gold medal. Our League of Legends team is actually very competitive. We've won all the recent international competitions, so I'm very hopeful."
E-sports is likely to become an official medal event at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. However, there's been criticism because computers games are made by private companies and the Olympic Charter traditionally doesn’t consider mechanically-propelled or mental activities to be sports.
"E-sports are expanding as one of the strongest cultural trends globally. It's spreading irrespective of race or borders as a cultural and athletic phenomenon. It's highly likely that e-sports will become official event at the next Olympics or Asian Games."
The International Olympic Committee hosted an e-sports forum in July to explore just that possibility.
E-sports is taking a historic step towards being seen as a real sports competition, and South Korea is looking to take some of the first ever e-sports medals home.
Lee Min-sun, Arirang News.
Athletes from dozens of countries are in Jakarta for the Asian Games, the region's biggest sporting event.
This year, one of the demonstration sports at the Games is e-sports -- that is, computer games -- something South Korea excels at.
On Tuesday, here in Seoul, a launching event was held for the South Korean team that'll be heading to Jakarta later this week.
Lee Min Sun reports. On Tuesday, South Korea's best video gamers, and gaming-related officials, promised to do their best in Jakarta to win an e-sports gold medal.
South Korea is a leader in e-sports, and this year, the discipline has been chosen as a demonstration sport at the Asian Games.
Because it's a demonstration, the medals won will not be counted in the medals tally, but its a historic first.
The six games chosen for the debut matches are League of Legends, Pro Evolution Soccer 2018, Arena of Valor, StarCraft 2, Hearthstone and Clash Royale. Gamers from 18 countries will compete for 18 medals starting this Sunday.
Six South Korean gamers will complete in League of Legends and and one other will compete in StarCraft2.
"We are, of course, aiming for the gold medal. Our League of Legends team is actually very competitive. We've won all the recent international competitions, so I'm very hopeful."
E-sports is likely to become an official medal event at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. However, there's been criticism because computers games are made by private companies and the Olympic Charter traditionally doesn’t consider mechanically-propelled or mental activities to be sports.
"E-sports are expanding as one of the strongest cultural trends globally. It's spreading irrespective of race or borders as a cultural and athletic phenomenon. It's highly likely that e-sports will become official event at the next Olympics or Asian Games."
The International Olympic Committee hosted an e-sports forum in July to explore just that possibility.
E-sports is taking a historic step towards being seen as a real sports competition, and South Korea is looking to take some of the first ever e-sports medals home.
Lee Min-sun, Arirang News.
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