The Olympic Esports Series 2023, a competition that features a total of 10 gaming titles organized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), will run from June 22 to 25 in Singapore at the Suntec Centre.
The tournament is yet another step in integrating esports with the Olympic Games. In 2021, the Olympic Virtual Series took place ahead of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and gathered around 250,000 participants from 100 countries. The IOC was criticized for only including sports simulator games for the Olympic Esports Series 2023 in the first announcement in March and later announced the battle-royale game Fortnite will be used for a shooting competition.
Related: The Olympic Esports week now actually has an esport in it
Here are all the titles that will be a part of the Olympic Esports Series 2023.
Here are all Olympic Esports Series 2023 categories, federations, and games
- Archery – World Archery Federation – Tic Tac Bow
- Baseball – World Baseball Softball Confederation – WBSC eBASEBALL™: POWER PROS
- Chess – International Chess Federation – Chess.com
- Cycling – UCI – Zwift
- Dance – World DanceSport Federation – JustDance
- Motor sport – Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile – Gran Turismo
- Sailing – World Sailing – Virtual Regatta
- Taekwondo – World Taekwondo – Virtual Taekwondo
- Tennis – International Tennis Federation – Tennis Clash
- Sport shooting – International Shooting Sport Federation – Fortnite
The reason why Fortnite is the only esport on the list is that the primary goal of the IOC is to promote the “development of virtual and simulated sports games,” the committee said in an interview with Polygon in March. The games must be aligned with Olympic values, and the most popular esports— League of Legends, VALORANT, and CS:GO—aren’t.
Like most esports LAN events, the Olympic Esports Series 2023 will be available for fans to attend in person. It will also be streamed globally across Olympics.com and the Olympic Games’ social channels. Fans will get to watch archery, cycling, dancing, and sailing on June 23, baseball, taekwondo, sport shooting, and tennis on June 24, and motorsports and chess on June 25.
