I'm a bit late on this one, but I'd like to throw in my two cents.
First I think it's important to note the esports competition was held independent of the Commonwealth Games proper; different branding, medals, governance, etc. Officially it was just a demonstration event, benefiting from the massive media attention to the Games. It's also not the first time this has happened; a Starcraft 2 tournament was featured in the leadup to the 2018 Winter Olympics, and I think there's been other instances of esports mingling with traditional sporting events in Asia.
Sports to me are for people who actually run about or cycle or swim or some other competitive physical activity, not somebody who sits in a chair playing sports simulations.
Here are the games being used.
DOTA2 a battle game, efootball and Rocket League (soccer with cars). Looks like they were chosen more for their popularity than any relationship to an actual sport.
If you dig further into the story, there's talk of a women's category. Why? Are men's thumbs simply stronger than women's? Is it that men can sit in a chair longer? Surely this kind of thing would be the great gender leveller?
If esports can be part of the Commonwealth Games, why not chess? After all Lenin called it gymnnastics for the mind.
Your point about physical activity is why there is a distinction between sports and esports, and actually the biggest esports aren't games related to traditional sports at all.
If they were choosing on popularity I think they may have tried to shoehorn in a Warzone or Fortnite competition. I don't know efootball, but Dota2 and Rocket League are both mechanically demanding, highly competitive games with relatively mature esports infrastructure and communities, and both are incredibly difficult to be successful at in their own way while still being relatively easy to watch; I've definitely watched the Dota2 world championship and enjoyed it without ever having played it. I think qualifying esports based on their relation to traditional sports is a little narrow-minded, to be honest, it's a whole other thing. I think the only time that matters is if there's some cross-promotion going on, i.e. football and FIFA/efootball, NFL and Madden, automotive racing and sim racing (be it F1/sportscar/drift/whatever), etc.
I don't know why there's no women at the highest levels of competitive esports, whether it's a physiological thing (reaction time? durability in the wrists/hands?) or a social thing (though it's changing, video games have historically been a male-dominated activity), but the only female gamer I've ever known of who competed with, and beat, the best of the best in the world is a mtf transgender woman. Make of that what you will.
I would think the lack of any real-time action would disqualify chess, but I've been wrong before. Not sure a turn-based strategy game would generate enough viewership dollars for the IOC, though.
I think there’s a huge difference between Sports and Games.
I could see competitive gaming being something I’d watch on T.V., (after all, i regularly watch it on youtube). I’m not sure how I feel about them being included in the Commonwealth, or Olympic Games. I think it would alienate sports fans.
How do you make the distinction between sports and games? There's an awful lot of overlap there, no? Football, whichever side of the pond you're on, is both a game and one of the most competitive and lucrative sports around. I mean, I put "sport" into thesaurus.com and one of the synonyms that came up was "game." I'm not saying they're one and the same, but I think it's definitely some sort of a venn diagram and not two distinct circles.
I watch a fair bit of competitive gaming on youtube as well. Honestly I'm also not sure how I feel about esports being in the Games, and honestly I'm not sure they need to be there. But that's me.
I think this is a dangerous gamble. If they make people wonder what particular activities should be in the games, they risk them wondering why the games are there at all. To find the person who has the best combination of genetics and diet for a particular activity, and who has felt compelled to throw away all semblance of work/life balance to devote themselves to arduous and tedious training? Why does that exist?
There are definitely circles in which people are already wondering what particular activities should be in the games. I forget the specific buzzwords they've used, but the summer Olympics at least has tried to move towards a more "urban" or "youthful" program in recent years. The program for the 2024 Olympics includes 3 on 3 basketball, breakdancing, freestyle BMX, skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing. To me, none of those fit the bill of traditional Olympic sport, but then again, they voted wrestling out of the Games program in 2013 and made them fight like hell to get back in, and weightlifting's place in the Olympics moving forward is, to put it mildly, not guaranteed (though that's not entirely undeserved, and is a whole other can of worms).
In any case, it obviously exists for the greater glory of one's homeland, no?
Sorry, that was a lot more than two cents. Evidently I had nothing to do tonight.
