The Olympic Esports Series features Just Dance and Chess, no actual esports
Arguably a decade late to the party, the Olympics is taking steps into esports by unveiling an event featuring exactly zero traditional esports titles.
Earlier today, the International Olympic Commission unveiled the Olympic Esports Series (opens in new tab). Players worldwide can attempt to qualify for a suite of games in the hopes of making it to the finals in Singapore in June. The problem as I see it, however, is that these games aren't esports.
The closest to that definition would be Gran Turismo 7, the Motorsport offering for the competition. Glossing over the fact that the Olympics doesn't have its own motorsport competition, I don't know that Gran Turismo is the competitive game of choice for that community. I'd have guessed at Codemasters' F1 series for that, although as a leading casual game without all that Formula One branding, perhaps GT7 was a more sensible option.
After that, the next most esports-adjacent game I can see is Virtual Regatta, dubbed as "the most popular sailing game in the world." Following on, you've got the baseball game, which has a mobile spin-off that hosts a moderately popular competitive scene in Japan. That's all well and good, but a single regional mobile competition does not an esport make. Similarly, Just Dance - the game being used for the 'Dance' event - might hold competitions on an international scale, but it's not an esport.
The Archery title is an app I can't even find online, the Cycling game looks like a twist on Peloton, and Tennis: Clash reminds me of the original Wii Sports game. Taekwondo looks more interesting, but it's an invitational competition allowing up-and-coming martial artists to compete using some motion-capture software, and so it's not available to anyone
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