Esports is officially recognized in the Russian Federation. Esports officially recognized as a sports discipline

Official press release:

On June 7, 2016, the order of the Ministry of Sports was published on the inclusion of Computer Sports in the register of official sports of the Russian Federation. This is a long-awaited event for all eSports fans, which opens up the following opportunities:

• Holding official competitions
• Possibility of appropriation sports categories based on sports rating
• Development educational programs for the preparation of referees and coaching staff

Thus, eSports is on a par with traditional sports such as football, hockey or basketball. This became possible thanks to the long-term activity of the Federation of Computer Sports of Russia in studying, popularizing, organizing and holding competitions in computer sports, as well as as a result of research activities to train athletes. The recognition of computer sports is commented by the President of the Federation, Alexander Gorbachenko:

Undoubtedly, today is a great holiday for all eSports fans. The status of an official sport imposes new requirements on the activities of our Federation in terms of the quality of organization and conduct of competitions and increased social responsibility. First of all, we plan to focus our efforts on the development of eSports in the regions of Russia - the Russian eSports Cup will be the Federation's largest competition in 2016.

Disciplines into which official esports will be divided:

• three-dimensional shooters (3D shooter), simulation of combat between groups (teams) of players
• tactical and strategic game - in the game there are battles between the armies of the game units of the players while the sides are developing at the same time
• team role-playing games with elements of a tactical-strategic game. The player controls his single model, developing it while interacting with the game space and models of other players
• technical simulators - automotive and aviation
• simulators sports games(football, hockey, basketball)

Recall that eSports has already been recognized in Russia as an official sport, it was on June 25, 2001. Then Russia became the first country to take this step. However, in July 2006, esports was removed from this list because it did not meet the criteria for inclusion.

We can only hope that this step will help the development of e-sports in Russia, and thanks to this we will reach new level, which will also develop student leagues, and we will have more major tournaments.

: first-person shooters, real-time strategies, car and flight simulators, team role-playing games with elements of a tactical-strategic game, etc.

Prize pools up for grabs can reach several million US dollars. The Dota 2 tournament "The International" broke records for payouts several times: in 2016, 20.77 million dollars were played, in 2017 - 24.79.

Tournament games are broadcast in live on the Internet, gathering a multi-million audience. For example, the final of The International 2015, according to TrackDota.com, was watched by more than 4.6 million viewers. In 2017, the audience of esports will reach a total of approximately 385 million people worldwide.

The history of esports began with the game Doom 2, which had an online game mode via a local area network. Thanks to the popularity of the game Quake, in 1997 the first league of e-sportsmen appeared in the USA - Cyberathlete Professional League.

Story

The history of esports begins in 1997, when the CPL was founded, which made the first Quake tournament. But the first game to feature co-op combat was Doom 2.

Recognition in Russia

Russia became the first country in the world to recognize esports as an official sport. This happened on July 25, 2001 by order of the previous head of the State Committee for Sports of Russia Rozhkov Pavel Alekseevich.

After the change of leadership and the renaming of the Goskomsport of Russia into the Federal Agency for Physical Culture and Sports, as well as in connection with the subsequent introduction of the All-Russian Register of Sports (VRVS), it was necessary to repeat the procedure for recognizing computer sports on March 12, by order of the head of the Goskomsport of Russia Vyacheslav Fetisov .

In July 2006, eSports was excluded from the All-Russian Register of Sports due to the fact that it did not meet the criteria necessary for inclusion in this register: development in more than half of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and the presence of an all-Russian physical culture and sports association registered in the prescribed manner.

On April 13, 2017, the Ministry of Justice of Russia registered the Order of the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation dated March 16, 2017 No. 183 “On the recognition and inclusion in the All-Russian Register of Sports of sports disciplines, sports and amendments to the All-Russian Register of Sports”. In accordance with this order, computer sports were transferred to the second section - "sports developed at the all-Russian level." This means that it became possible to hold the official national championship in Russia, the emergence of categories and titles in computer sports. In the same section are all the "traditional" sports - football, hockey, basketball, etc.

From July 5, 2017, in accordance with the order of the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation No. 618, the Federation of Computer Sports of Russia is an accredited sports federation for the sport of "computer sports".

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Competitions

Esports competitions are held all over the world, including international ones. The most significant and analogue of the Olympic Games was international tournament World Cyber ​​Games (WCG), which was held in various countries from 2000 to 2013. In addition to the WCG, Cyberathlete Professional League and Electronic Sports League are regularly held.

To date, the largest and most prestigious competitions are those held by the game manufacturers themselves: for example, The International Dota 2 tournament or the League of Legends World Championship.

Semi-professional online leagues

In addition to competing with prize fund There are a number of semi-professional leagues that organize competitions in the form of online cups and ladders. The most famous and popular ones are ClanBase, ESL, etc.

Competition Requirements

In accordance with the order of the Ministry of Sports of Russia No. 618 dated July 5, 2017, the right and obligation to develop rules for a sport and submit them for approval to the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation are assigned to the Federation of Computer Sports of Russia.

In addition to the protocol, which confirms the fact of the tournament, it is obligatory to have a team of referees, which consists of the chief referee and referees for games (if there are several), linesmen, observers and technical referees.

It is necessary to create regulations governing the activities of an athlete, coach and judge in the implementation of the process sports training and holding competitions remotely.

Rules

Are common

The winner of an esports competition is the player or team that has shown best result in the final battle.

Disciplines

In eSports, you cannot use any games. For example, games that contain an element of chance that prevails over the skill factor of the game are not suitable for competition. Thus, games of the MOBA or RTS genres often fall into the category of eSports disciplines.

Cybersport in the countries of the world

USA

In 2013, the eSports discipline League of Legends was recognized as a real sport, and its participants were recognized as real athletes. This makes it easier for players from other countries to enter the United States through a simplified visa system.

CIS

Computer sport in Uzbekistan is officially recognized as a sport. As part of the recently completed Asian Games 2018, Indonesia hosted an eSports tournament as a demonstration sport. The tournament was organized by the Asian Electronic Sports Federation (AESF), which includes federations of 45 Asian countries, including the Federation of Computer Sports of Uzbekistan.

One of the largest eSports organizations in Russia was the National Professional eSports League (NPCL), which was established in 2004 and was engaged in holding eSports competitions among professional gamers. For the first time in Russia, the NPCL used the show format for holding e-sports matches, created one professional e-sports club (already closed) and launched a regular championship organized according to the principle of the largest sports leagues and associations. The league has now ceased to exist. [ ]

Cyber sports organizations exist in several CIS countries including Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

One of the largest tournaments in the CIS countries was ASUS Open [ ] , which has been held quarterly since 2003 . Prize funds are among the largest among the CIS championships - up to 1 million rubles. The WCG qualifiers, the winners of which go to the World Cyber ​​Games championship, are also one of the most prestigious competitions in the CIS countries. On this moment WCG has ceased its activities. Since 2012, the TechLabs cup has taken a stable position among CIS cyberfestivals [ ] . Moscow, Minsk, Kyiv and Alma-Ata are the four cities hosting the TechLabs team for the festival since 2010.

There are also various non-commercial tournaments, such as the RDL (Russian Quake II Duel League). The largest individual StarCraft II league in Europe is the Russian project RSL - Russian Starcraft 2 League, organized by sc2tv.ru. The largest league in both Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, as well as Dota 2 for 2014 is the CSPL league. The main League of Legends competition in the CIS is the LCL.

The most influential people in the CIS

• Victor Kisly, founder of Wargaming Public Co Ltd
• Vladimir Nikolsky, COO Mail.Ru Group
• Dmitry Martynov, director of 1C-SoftKlab
• Gevorg Sargsyan, CEO of Innova
• Igor Matsanyuk, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Game Insight
• Sergei Orlovsky, founder and CEO of Nival
• Nikolai Katselapov, co-founder and co-owner of Wargaming Public Co Ltd
• Sergey Klish, general manager of Playstation in Russia
• And others.

However, it is worth noting that esports is an independent part of the gaming industry, so this list does not mean that the persons listed in it are influential in esports at the same time. In addition, at the moment the list is outdated, as it does not include, for example, Anton Cherepennikov- the head of the CIS largest esports holding ESforce (which grew out of the Virtus.pro team), and Dmitry Smith- President of the Federation of Computer Sports of Russia.

India

In remote cities of India, there is no Internet and computers, but at the same time, there is no problem with this in large cities. For more than a decade, Counter-Strike 1.6 has been the dominant discipline and Indian teams have regularly participated in the World Cyber ​​Games Grand Final and the Electronic Sports World Cup. The debut performance on the world stage was WCG 2002, where the TUI team lost all matches. two famous teams are ACID (participants of WCG 2003, WCG 2004, WCG 2005) and Team ATE. Most famous players: "r4iD" and "RiTz" .

Mexico

Due to Mexico's proximity to the United States, most gamers use consoles rather than computers. But among PC gamers, the most popular discipline is StarCraft II, which is supported by three organizations: Team Quetzal, Team Neo Forze, and xGamers. In the League of Legends discipline, their success; 4th place at WCG 2013 .

Italy

Team disciplines in Italy are weak, for example, at WCG in Counter-Strike and Dota 2 disciplines, Italian teams do not advance from the group. But in individual disciplines they have earned one medal at ESWC and a dozen at WCG.

In Italy, the StarCraft II discipline is popular, dominated by three organizations: Old School Clan, InFerno eSports and Team Redbyte Italia.

Spain

First in Spain football club, which created its own esports team, was Valencia. The leadership of the Spanish club told about this at a press conference, which took place on June 7th. The club is going to open esports divisions in the following disciplines: Hearthstone, FIFA and Rocket League. Soon they will be joined by a League of Legends roster.

Broadcast on TV

Esports is actively broadcast on sports channels. In 2007, on the sports channel 7TV, at the suggestion of the National Professional Cybersports League, the Counter-Strike: Source of the Russian Championship season was broadcast, where 32 Division A matches were shown once a week, each game.

Cybersport as one of the sports

In the article about the development of esports on the official website of the esports organization Team Empire, it is proved that esports has achieved recognition as one of the sports disciplines, since the disciplines have long-established rules, the intellectual abilities of the participants are used, mandatory training is carried out, and, finally, interpersonal relationships are also well-established. fact.

On January 27, at a special conference in Seoul, the Korea Electronic Sports Association (KeSPA) successfully promoted esports to the ranks of second-tier sports disciplines. So far, we are talking about the recognition of eSports only by the Korean Committee, in order to qualify for something serious, you need recognition from the IOC itself

Criticism

Electronic championships do not have a clear organization: one world tournament can be held monthly, therefore, more than one world champion can appear in each discipline in a year.

Even major championships can delay the payment of prize money to winners. For example, ACON5 2005 did not pay $5,000 to the third-place German defusekids Counter-Strike team. In response, one of the team members - Yannik Bindo - wrote open letter with a description of the situation.

Esports betting

Like a sport, bets are placed on esports. To do this, there are many sites that allow you to bet both real money and in-game items.

Esports is already surpassing some of the traditional sports in popularity. Competitions in CS:GO , Dota 2 , League of Legends , Overwatch , Hearthstone and other disciplines gather millions of fans near the monitors. And the number of fans of computer battles is only growing.

Almost all betting companies already offer eSports bets to their customers. They cover both large local events and semi-professional competitions.

It is proposed to bet on:

• main outcomes (1X2);
• results of rounds (cards);
• totals and odds on cards and frags;
• statistics of cards, players, long-term bets.

The odds are already commensurate with classic sports. Leading bookmakers give odds. in the region of 1.85-1.9 for equivalent outcomes of the event. All cash games are available in Live mode, that is, the bettor can bet while watching the game at the same time.

Many bookmakers offer bonuses for betting on eSports, as well as constantly improving conditions for fans of computer games. Having deep knowledge of one of the disciplines, you can make good money on eSports betting. This has already been proven by many experienced players.

Holding competitions

Large competitions are held in special places where the public can watch the players sitting at the computers, and the progress of the fight is monitored on a large screen, where images from the players' screens are broadcast. IN South Korea because of a large number spectators such competitions are held in stadiums. Smaller scale competitions are held in computer clubs and Internet cafes. In addition, there are online competitions that are held over the Internet.

Prize amounts

At major competitions, the prize fund reaches $1,000,000 or more. The biggest win by 2005 was $150,000, won by Jonathan Wendell, who plays under the nickname "Fatal1ty" in the Painkiller game competition. Korean StarCraft players earn between $20,000 and $600,000 a year.

In 2011, the Ukrainian team Na`Vi won at The International Dota 2 tournament. For a team (5 people) they received 1,000,000 US dollars.

In 2013, SK Telecom1 won about $1,000,000 in the RiotGames League of Legends Season 3 World Championship. The prize fund of the season was $2,050,000 per season divided into 14 teams.

There is also a prize fund for participating in a cosplay contest. For example, for Dota 2 fans it was $15,000.

Teams

Some types of computer games, such as Counter-Strike, are created only for team competition, while others allow you to play both in 1v1 mode and team by team.

Federations and associations

There are several large associations and federations of eSports in the world. If associations are called upon to improve and protect eSports from the position of players, trying to raise salaries, establish some kind of guarantees, then federations, on the contrary, are interested in the interests of spectators and the competitive part. It is the latter who set the rules and entertainment of the match.

Federation of Computer Sports of Russia

In accordance with the order of the Ministry of Sports of Russia No. 618 of July 5, 2017, the FCS of Russia has the following rights and obligations:

In addition to other regulations and provisions, the FCC has issued methodological recommendations for teaching computer sports. It is recommended to start with basic computer management skills. After, with the help of a coach, the player learns how to control the game. It also regulates computer settings, watching games, developing tactics, improving game techniques and special training for important competitions.

G7

WESA

On May 13, 2016, the World Esports Association (WESA) was established.

The association includes the esports organizations Fnatic, Natus Vincere, EnVyUs, Virtus.Pro, G2 Esports, Faze, mousesports, Ninjas in Pajamas, Renegades, SK Gaming, Optic Gaming, Road To Success, Splyce and North, as well as the organizer of ESL esports tournaments

National Electronic Sports Commission (NeSC)

On March 23, 2013, the first meeting of the National Electronic Sports Commission took place, the purpose of which was to create a professional gaming environment with appropriate rules and responsibilities, fair both for large organizations and for newer and younger ones.

International e-Sports Federation

Notes

1. Is esports the sport of the future or entertainment? (Russian). Retrieved June 6, 2018.
2. Juho Hamari, Max Sjoblom. What is eSports and why do people watch it? (English) . Internet research, 27(2). Issue: 2, pp.211-232. Internet Research (2017). doi:10.1108/IntR-04-2016-0085 .
3. Official Internet portal of legal information. publication.pravo.gov.ru. Retrieved June 8, 2016.
4. Cybersport as a profession. Retrieved June 6, 2016.
5. Cybersport is officially recognized as a sport in Russia. Match TV (June 8, 2016). Retrieved October 19, 2016.
6. The Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation has recognized Computer Sports as an official sport in the Russian Federation. resp.su. Retrieved October 19, 2016.
7. eSports: The Future of Video Game CompetitionsLA Local Business Blog. L.A. Local Business Blog. Retrieved October 19, 2016. (unavailable link)
8. The International 2016. Valve Corporation DOTA2 Blog.
9. The final prize pool of TI7 has become known. cybersport.ru Retrieved 17 August 2017.
10. Household-name ball sports athletes investing in eSports video game teams . Calistoga Sports. Retrieved October 19, 2016.
11. Vladimir Chaika Everything you need to know about the Dota 2 World Championship // championat.com, archived copy
12. Esports: A Guide to Competitive Video Gaming. Toptal.
13. Esports: is it a sport? . Retrieved 28 February 2014.
14. How Russia was the first in the world to recognize eSports (Russian) . Retrieved 23 October 2017.
15. Order of the State Committee for Sports of the Russian Federation of July 25, 2001 No. 449 “On the introduction of sports into state programs physical education»
16. Approved by order of the State Committee for Sports of the Russian Federation dated April 14, 2003 No. 225 “On the list of sports recognized by the federal executive body in the field of physical culture and sports” with subsequent changes.
17. Order of the Federal Agency for physical education and Sports dated July 4, 2006 No. 414 "On computer sports"
18. Regulations "On the All-Russian Register of Sports (VRVS)" (approved by Order of the Federal Agency for Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism dated September 28, 2004 No. 273)

Computer sports are included in the register of officially recognized sports. After the decree comes into force, cybersportsmen will have the opportunity to receive the titles of "Master of Sports of Russia", "Master of Sports international class"and" Honored Master of Sports of Russia ".

Recognition of eSports in Russia

In 2001, Russia became one of the first countries to recognize computer game competitions as an official sports discipline. In 2006, cybersport was excluded from the register: for the final recognition of the discipline as official, it was necessary that it be actively developed in more than half of the Russian regions.

In addition, over the five years of existence in the registry, cybersportsmen have not managed to acquire a registered all-Russian physical culture and sports association.

This year, the competition in computer games has clearly reached a professional level: the Federation of Computer Sports (FCS) of Russia for the first time in a long time announced the holding of open competitions in 2016 as part of the National eSports Cup.

The winners of the tournament, the final of which will be held in October, will be able to receive a prize fund of 5 million rubles.

In addition to Russia, eSports is also popular in the USA, India, Mexico and Italy.

What is esports

Usually esports teams consist of five or six people, but there are tournaments in which players fight one on one.

The main requirement of any esports game is the absence of randomness, since the victory of the team should depend solely on the skills of the athlete.

Now the list of esports disciplines is constantly updated with new games - among them are MOBA (“multiplayer online battle arena”), shooters, RTS (“real time strategy”), sports simulators and other popular projects.

The history of esports dates back to 1997, when the first CPL esports league was founded. At first, the disciplines of "computer sports" included only shooters, such as Quake and Counter-Strike, but later this list expanded to fighting games and sports simulators.

What games are popular among esports players

Dota 2, LoL, HotS

The required qualities of an esports discipline are possessed by all well-known MOBA games. The success of this or that team depends solely on the skills of all players, and the factor of luck and chance is minimized in them. In addition, these games are spectacular, thanks to which MOBA attracts an incredible number of viewers during the main championship.

At the same time, the prize funds of these games reach several million dollars, which contributes to the constant influx of new players into the esports camp.

Hearthstone

Blizzard's collectible card game does not seem to satisfy the main requirement of eSports games - the player receives cards from the deck in random order.

But all this does not prevent the game from being an extremely popular esports discipline, because the success of the match depends on the skills of the player himself, his ability to calculate the game several moves ahead. In addition, Hearthstone is easy to learn, so even a beginner can enjoy watching the match and understand what is happening.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Esports was born on Counter-Strike, and Valve has put a lot of effort into ensuring that even after a decade, the game continues to exist as the best esports shooter. This game needs no introduction, even under pressure from other genres, CS:GO tournaments remain one of the most popular esports events.

Mortal Kombat X

The MKX championships can rightly be called the most spectacular of all. Many local and global competitions take place around the world, which attract a large number of spectators precisely because the game is interesting to watch. In addition, the outcome of the duel always depends solely on the skill of the player and his ability to evaluate the battlefield.

It would be strange if the computer implementation of football did not become as popular as its real counterpart. At the same time, FIFA, like CS, became an esports discipline at the beginning of the 21st century. The FIFA organization itself holds the FIFA Interactive World Cup, which has been running since 2004 to this day.

Investments in eSports

In October 2015, it became known that USM Holdings, a Russian entrepreneur's holding, was investing about $100 million in the development of eSports.

The funds were sent to ESforce Holding (then called Virtus.pro Group), which is considered the largest Russian esports community.

The company was born from the Virtus.pro team that played the Counter-Strike shooter. Then the players began to take part in competitions in Dota 2, Heroes of the Stor, World of Tanks, etc. USM explained that the goals of the funding are to popularize esports in Russia, launch new tournaments and build esports arenas. If last year Usmanov's decision could surprise, now it becomes clear that the entrepreneur discovered a new trend that could bring profit earlier than others.

In March, the largest Chinese online retailer also bet on esports — together with the Singaporean company YuuZoo, the giant launched a series of esports tournaments with a prize pool of several billion dollars (for example, in CS:GO the prize pool was $1.5 billion).

One of the world's largest cyber stadiums is already under construction in Moscow: in addition to halls for tournaments, training sessions and communication with fans, there will also be a restaurant and a computer club for 180 seats. It is expected that the arena with an area of ​​​​more than 5 thousand square meters. m will open in October near the Timiryazevskaya station.

Myths about esportsmen

One of the biggest misconceptions about esports athletes is that many people imagine them as weak, sickly young people who sit at the computer all day and do not communicate with the outside world.

In fact, a professional cybersportsman must also have a decent physical training: together with the team, cybersportsmen go to the gym along with training in computer games.

In addition, many athletes who are addicted to computer games often play football or other traditional sports in parallel.

It is also worth distinguishing between gamers and e-sportsmen — if gamers play games for fun and spend real money on their hobby, then for an e-sportsman games are more likely a source of income. Professionals are constantly training, gaining teamwork skills and often perceive the gameplay as something routine.

Esports should be considered a full-fledged sport, Estanguet believes: this is necessary in order for the Olympic Games to remain relevant for new generations. “We can't say no right away,” he says. “Young people are interested in esports and things like that.” In 2024, the Games will be held in France, their program will begin to take shape in 2019.

Esports are open competitions for users of such well-known computer games as Counter-Strike, StarCraft, Dota 2, League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm, World of Tanks, etc. The phenomenon is relatively new: although the first StarCraft competitions took place at the end of 1990 1990s, such tournaments began to gather a large audience only in last years. Organizers earn sports competitions and players in sponsorship deals, advertising, broadcasting rights sales, etc. Newzoo predicts that global esports revenues will grow by 41% in 2017 to $696M, of which $517M will come from advertising and rights sales, the rest – proceeds from the sale of tickets and branded products. Superdata values ​​the market even more, at about $1 billion (see chart).

In Russia, eSports has been recognized as an official sports discipline this spring, meaning that athletes will be able to receive sports titles and ranks. This will allow in the future to hold competitions and championships of the country. It was in Russia that two esports deals, which are among the largest in the world, took place: in 2015, USM Holdings Alishera Usmanova invested more than $100 million in the organizer of esports tournaments Virtus.pro, and his partner Yuri Milner invested $26 million in Super Evil Megacorp. This company created Vainglory, a platform for eSports competitions from all over the world.

E-sports is also gaining popularity among traditional media: the competitions in this sport are broadcast by cable channels - American, Russian, etc. Last year, 2x2 TV channel showed computer games competitions, last week Match TV announced the Dota 2 championship. The International 2017.

Ticket to the Games

According to the Olympic Charter, the program for each specific Games is approved by the IOC. Only those sports that accept and comply with the World Anti-Doping Code are allowed into the program. Selects sports, determines the criteria and conditions for inclusion in the program of the IOC session no later than the choice of the city - the organizer of these Games. The decision to include a discipline or type of competition in the program is made by the IOC Executive Board no later than three years before the Olympic Games. The IOC executive committee consists of 16 people and is headed by IOC President Thomas Bach. There are no delegates from Russia in it.

“We expect that more and more young people will watch Match TV, so we continue to increase the volume of broadcasts of world-class cyber tournaments,” explained Tina Kandelaki, General Producer of Match TV. By 2019, the global audience of eSports competitions will reach 303 million people, Superdata analysts predict. The majority of spectators of such competitions are men (85% of the audience), more than half of them are 18–25 years old.

World sports organizations are increasingly saying that esports should be equated with traditional sports. In 2018, e-sports will be included in the program of sports competitions of the Asian Olympic Games (they are held only in Asian countries in sports, like the main Olympic Games, the competitions are overseen by the IOC). Companies will test esports as a sport there, and from 2022 it will be included in the main program. This means that for the victory in eSports will be issued Olympic medals. The organizers of the Asian Games explained their decision by the rapid growth and development of eSports disciplines.

Adding esports to the program of the Olympic Games will not be easy due to the large number of technical nuances and the diversified development of esports, says Roman Chernyavsky, editor-in-chief of the Game Show TV esports channel. As a rule, championships are held under the auspices of one of the developers of computer games or major eSports organizations. For example, the publisher of Dota 2 holds a tournament with the largest prize pool in the industry - more than $24 million. It is not known whether the IOC will choose one, two or more games for the competition. Some games can be difficult for an unprepared viewer to perceive, Chernyavsky warns, perhaps the only exception is Counter-Strike, whose rules will be clear to many.

There are also difficulties with the selection of teams from different countries - for example, in the Russian Virtus.pro project, the Counter-Strike team consists entirely of Polish athletes, and the Virtus.pro Dota 2 team consists of Russian and Ukrainian players. But there is also a good Russian team in Counter-Strike-Gambit, which won the world championship this year, says Cherniavsky.

It is also not clear what requirements the IOC will impose on esportsmen. Now the team managers themselves make sure that esportsmen lead healthy lifestyle life and support sportswear- this is necessary to create an image of eSports and break the stereotype that computer games are only interesting for people who do not take care of themselves, he says. But doping cessation, which means avoiding food and drink habits, may discourage esports athletes from participating in Olympic Games. On the other hand, there is already experience when sports organizations hold eSports tournaments, he says. For example, FIFA holds the World Cup on the computer game of the same name.

In the next 20 years, add esports to Olympic sports sports is almost impossible, Gadzhi Makhtiev, founder of the Kanobu gaming portal, is sure. Olympic Committee quite a conservative body and will need to be convinced that this sport will be relevant for many years and will be able to generate a stable income from advertising, he notes: “The eSports industry is very young and dynamic, but this may not be enough for the IOC. They will carefully study how many athletes are involved in this sport, how many countries are involved, etc.”