The world of Nerdom got one step closer to parity with Jockland as the topic of video gaming becoming an Olympic sport was discussed at the Esports Forum in Switzerland this past Friday.
Former Boston Celtic and LA Laker small forward as well as esports franchise owner Rick Fox served as the the Forum host moderator and commented: “I am proud to have the opportunity to support the beginning of a discussion between the Olympic Movement and the world of esports. I’ve been fortunate to have a career involving both basketball and esports, and I think today reflected the passion that exists in sport and esports and also highlighted ways in which we could work together” according to the story on Olympic.org.
This forum was the start of a dialog between the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) and almost 150 representatives from the gaming industry. The point of the discussion, according to the story, was to find areas of commonality between the esports organizations and the IOC-GAISF and how they can be represented in the Olympic Movement.
Here’s some footage from the forum:
While I won’t hold my breath that this will be the change in tide that will finally get me to watch the Olympics, I am certainly excited for all of us “indoorsy” types that we’ll finally get the opportunity to strut our stuff and wow the spectators with our mad DPS skills.
This also begs the question… will we start seeing varsity video game squads crop up at high schools across the country? That’d be pretty sweet.
