Olympics criticized over choice of games for ‘Olympic Esports Series’

  ❘   Published: 2023-03-01T18:10:33

  ❘   Updated: 2023-03-01T18:10:39

The International Olympic Committee announced its game lineup for the Olympic Esports Series featuring titles like Just Dance and Virtual Regatta angering the esports community.

In June the IOC will host an Olympic Esports week, which is coming off the back of the Olympic Virtual Series the international body put on in 2021. The IOC Twitter account announced the slate of esports titles that will be played at the event.

To the dismay of many esports fans and the general community, the lineup does not feature any mainline competitive titles like Overwatch 2 or Rocket League.

The Olympic Twitter account gets clowned on by esports fans

Instead, the IOC chose to pick games representing traditional sports like Virtual Taekwondo, Just Dance and Zwift, the virtual cycling game.

The full lineup of titles that people will compete in for the series includes Tic Tac Bow, WBSC eBASEBALL: POWER PROS, Chess, Zwift, Just Dance, Gran Turismo, Virtual Regatta and Virtual Taekwondo.

The announcement tweet has over 1,000 quote retweets, many of which are from esports personalities, players, media members and even organizations that are making fun of the lineup.

Some of the titles are at least esports-adjacent, like Just Dance and Chess, and some have had some tournaments in the past, Gran Turismo and Zwift have had their own circuits. But, overall, the esports community has responded to the announcement with criticism and has generally made fun of the IOC for its out-of-touch lineup and marketing.

The Olympic Esports Week starts on March 1 with qualifying matches with the in-person competition set to start on June 22-25 in Singapore. The Summer Olympics are set to start one year from now in Paris.