Esports was included in the medal competition for the first time at the 2022 Asian Games

The 2022 Asian Games (or 19th Asiad) will become the first Asian Games to include eSports in medal competitions. According to information from the Asian Electronic Sports Federation (AESF), there will be 8 sports included in the official list of competitions and 2 performances.

These 8 sports are Arena of Valor, Dota 2, Dream Three Kingdoms 2, EA Sports FIFA, Hearthstone, League of Legends, PUBG Mobile, Street Fighter V and 2 performance sports. are Robot Masters and VR Sports.

8 eSports sports officially competed at the 19th Asiad.

According to the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), AESF will be the body in charge of organizing eSports sports, including technical stages, qualifying selection, management and administration of the tournament at the 2022 Asian Games. scheduled to take place in September 2022 in Hangzhou (China).

It is known that this is not the first time eSports has been included in an Asiad. However, at the most recent Asiad in 2018 held in Indonesia, 6 eSports subjects included in the congress program were for performances only and not for medals.

After that, eSports continued to be included in the medal competition at the 2019 SEA Games (Southeast Asian Games) held in the Philippines and the upcoming 31st SEA Games in Vietnam.

The fact that eSports sports are included in an Asian Games to compete for medals, will have many important implications for national championship standards or military service exemptions. For example, at the 2018 Asian Games, the Korean team that won the men’s soccer championship helped players including star Son Heung-min to be exempted from military service, which is mandatory for all Korean men since 18-35 years old.