One team of four players and three other individuals won the cycling, archery, sailing, and dance competitions at the Olympic Esports Series 2023 in Singapore on June 23, the first day of the event.
You might be wondering why none of these so-called “esports” are famous games such as CS:GO, League of Legends, VALORANT, and Dota 2. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) only chose sports simulator games because FPS titles, for example, go against the Olympic values, according to the IOC’s head of virtual sport Vincent Pereira.
Nonetheless, this is an important initiative to include gaming and esports in the actual Olympics in the future. The IOC selected 10 games for the Olympic Esports Series 2023 and the winners of cycling, archery, sailing, and dance were crowned on the opening day. Cycling was the only team-based category, while the other three were individual competitions.
| Esport and game name | Winners |
| Cycling (Zwift) | Team Fuego – Lou Bates (Great Britain) – Marlene Bjärehead (Sweden) – James Barnes (South Africa) – Martin Maertens (Germany) |
| Archery (Tic Tac Bow) | Jared Michael “MontyDey” Montgomery (U.S.) |
| Sailing (Virtual Regatta) | Tim “UOL Pepitõ” Carpentier (France) |
| Dance (JustDance) | Amandine “TheFairyDina” Morisset (France) |
Related: Olympic Esports Series 2023: All scores and results
The Olympic Esports Series 2023 will resume on June 24 with competitions in baseball (WBSC eBASEBALLâ„¢: POWER PROS), chess (Chess.com), tennis (Tennis Clash), and shooting (Fortnite). If you plan on watching, though, be aware that the competitors won’t actually be playing Fortnite the way you’re used to.
If those aren’t the “esports” you want to watch this weekend, fear not. You can still catch the conclusion of VCT Masters Tokyo in VALORANT and the weekend matches of the LEC in League.
