Government of India gave E-Sports a major boost by integrating it with mainline sports disciplines in India. The President of India, Droupadi Murmu, in exercise of the powers “conferred by clause (3) of article 77 of the Constitution” amend the rules governing E-Sports and ask the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Sports Ministry to include “E-Sports as part of multi-sports events”.
There had a growing demand for E-Sports to be include in the curriculum of multi-discipline events after it was include in the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games as a demonstration sport, meaning medals won in the sport were not count in the official overall medals tally.
After the President’s notification, issue on 23rd December 2022, that IT Ministry will be the nodal agency for online gaming-related matters and the sports ministry will have to include it in its curriculum, it has come as shot in the arm for E-Sports enthusiasts.
The International Olympic Association (IOC) too is going big on popularising E-Sports with Singapore being confirm to host the inaugural Olympic Esports Week in June 2023.
This makes the next big step in supporting the development and integration of virtual sports with the Olympic movement and engaging further with competitive gamers.
The IOC had said in November 2022 that the Olympic E-Sports Week would showcase the best of virtual sports, hybrid physical and simulated sports in the four-day festival from 22nd to 25th June 2023, including exhibiting the latest technologies, panel discussions, education sessions and show matches.
IOC President Thomas Bach had said last month that the inaugural Olympic E-Sports Week would mark an important milestone “in our ambition to support the growth of virtual sports within the Olympic Movement”.
The Indian DOTA 2 team had clinch bronze at the first Commonwealth E-Sports Championship held in Birmingham in August defeating New Zealand.
The sport will make its debut at the Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou, China in 2023.
Reacting to the report of its inclusion as a mainline sport, Lokesh Suji, director, E-Sports Federation of India and vice-president of Asian E-Sports Federation, said the efforts of the fraternity had finally borne fruit.
Lokesh Suji Said :
“We have been constantly working on establishing the difference between E-Sports and iGaming, and finally, our efforts have been fulfill. We welcome this announcement by our government, which will open new avenues to pour in more investment opportunities in this booming industry.
“From now onwards, we will have to build proper infrastructure, training facilities and coaching for our young E-Sports athletes. Only a short time until we see E-Sports being place in the same league as cricket, football, basketball, etc. and having similar fan power, scale and craze,”.
