Esports like Overwatch (pictured above) are too violent for the Olympics, the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has declared.
“We cannot have in the Olympic program a game which is promoting violence or discrimination,” IOC President, Thomas Bach, recently told the Associated Press.
“So-called killer games. They, from our point of view, are contradictory to the Olympic values and cannot therefore be accepted.”
Bach said that violent sports like fencing are somehow different from online shooters.
“Of course every combat sport has its origins in a real fight among people,” Bach said. “But sport is the civilized expression about this. If you have egames where it’s about killing somebody, this cannot be brought into line with our Olympic values.”
Despite a lack of interest from the Olympic Committee, Esports will feature as a demonstration event for the first time at this year’s Asian Games, and is on track to become a full-medal sport in four years.
Locally, we’ve just seen the conclusion of the successful Melbourne Esports Open, held last weekend at the Melbourne Olympic Park.
Would you like to see Esports at the Olympics?
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