It’s here and it’s real. Team and Individual Esports competitions set as Demonstration Sports for this year’s Asian Games.
The long wait as to whether this year’s Asian Games will actually include Esports titles or not is finally over as the Olympic Council of Asia, together with the Indonesia Asian Games Organizing Committee and the Asian Electronic Sports Federation finally unveil the 6 game titles that will be part of one of 2018’s biggest sporting event.
Announced earlier today, the 2018 Asian Games will definitely include Esports, but only as demonstration sports, meaning that while the winners will be awarded medals, they don’t actually count or have any bearing in the actual Olympics system. Nevertheless, this inclusion of video games in a sporting event is bound to spark a lot talks in the community, and with the Asian Games being the first to do so, it’s going to be very interesting as to how the general feedback would be.
6 Game titles will be included in the 2018 Asian Games, divided into Team and Individual categories, namely League of Legends, Pro Evolution Soccer 2018, Arena of Valor, Hearthstone, Clash Royale, and StarCraft II. The game list shows a good distribution of PC, Mobile and even Console titles, although there is some clear lack of absence of other popular Esports games like Dota 2 and CounterStrike: Global Offensive. Just like the Asian Games themselves, each participating country can elect their team representatives via qualification events with a Regional Qualifier phase to be held this coming June 10-20, 2018, all across Asia.
The main event, of course, will take place during Asian Games 2018 in Jakarta Palembang this coming August 18 to September 1, 2018.