The Economist - USA (2020-06-27)

(Antfer) #1

10 Leaders The EconomistJune 27th 2020


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hampions frommany countries are dropped on an island,
wearing tight, garish outfits that show off their muscles.
They search for weapons, such as guns and rocket-launchers. In
teams of two, they try to kill everyone else on the island. The last
pair standing wins gold medals and global adulation.
The Tokyo Olympics, which were supposed to start next
month, have been postponed until 2021, thanks to covid-19. That
delay offers a chance for reflection. The International Olympic
Committee wants to make the games more popular with young
people. To that end, it is introducing new events, such as skate-
boarding, surfing and climbing. Why not go further and let na-
tional teams compete at video games? Electronic sports such as
“Fortnite”, described above, are vastly more popular than Olym-
pic oddities such as dressage or curling. In fact,
they are more popular than most mainstream
sports (see International section). Only 28% of
British boys aged 16-19 watch any traditional live
sports; 57% play video games.
Stick-in-the-muds may grumble that e-
sports are not proper sports. Many parents, ob-
serving their surly teenagers sitting on the sofa
all day twiddling their thumbs and shouting
“Quick, pass me the shotgun!” at a screen, would agree. Yet video
games are highly competitive, with professional leagues that
play to packed stadiums. There are perhaps only 200 tennis stars
in the world who can make a living from playing in tournaments.
By contrast “League of Legends”, a fantasy game played by teams
of five, supports over 1,000 on good wages. Its World Champion-
ship final last year was watched by 44m people.
New sports have always been unpopular at first. King Edward
II of England tried to ban football in 1314, because he thought
boys should be learning archery instead. In 19th-century Ameri-
ca churchy types objected to baseball, which they worried was
too much fun. The best e-sports require as much skill and dexter-
ity as many conventional sports—professional gamers typically

carry out five distinct actions every second. Video games are also
cheaper and more accessible than, say, sailing or horse-riding.
Critics of e-sports offer moral objections, too. They are addic-
tive. Prince Harry has called for “Fortnite” to be banned for this
reason. They are violent. Surely, at a time of global disharmony, it
is a bad idea to make simulated killing an Olympic sport? The
Olympics aim to promote peace. Finally, video games are crassly
commercial. Nobody owns basketball; “League of Legends” is
owned by Tencent, a Chinese megacorporation.
None of these arguments is very convincing. The idea that an
activity, rather than a substance, can be addictive is contentious
among doctors, as is the existence of a causal link between gam-
ing and violence. And the notion that warlike sports have no
place in the Olympics is hard to square with his-
tory. Javelin-throwing and wrestling were intro-
duced in 708bc. They are still there. Modern
pentathlon, which includes shooting and fenc-
ing, was designed to train soldiers. The imagi-
nary mayhem in “Fortnite” cannot be compared
to the real harm caused by boxing. Packs of e-
sports fans do not rampage through town cen-
tres as soccer or ice-hockey fans sometimes do.
As for the fact that e-sports belong to companies, so what?
The Olympics already generates billions from broadcasting and
sponsorship. Commercial pressure can make for livelier enter-
tainment. Having a video game named as an Olympic sport
would be a huge prize. Companies would vie to create games as
exciting to watch as they are to play. This sounds like a recipe for
fun. Those who disagree can always watch the 20,000-metre
speed-walk. Put “Fortnite” in the Olympics, and millions will
tune in who might otherwise not have bothered. They might
even stumble across a traditional sport and decide to try it, too.
And if the experiment fails, no matter. The International Olym-
pic Committee could drop it in 2024, as it has previously dropped
croquet, tug-of-war and solo synchronised swimming. 7

Citius, Altius, Fortnite


Why the next Olympic games should feature Fortnite

E-sports

banks are boosterish on asset prices, as they are now, and in
countries with a corporatist mindset. Even as Germany has em-
braced shareholder capitalism, the view that company managers
are more trustworthy than their shareholders, especially less pa-
tient ones, has proved stubbornly persistent.
Those who bet against companies have long been eyed with
suspicion; short-selling bans date back to 17th-century Amster-
dam. But claims that shorting causes instability do not hold wa-
ter: financial crises are more often caused by investors borrow-
ing to go long, not short. Sometimes short-sellers are up to no
good, as when they engage in speculative “naked” shorting (plac-
ing bets without first borrowing stock). More often than not,
though, they are on to something. Over the past year they have
uncovered several big frauds, from the fabricated sales at Luckin
Coffee, a Starbucks wannabe—the latest in a line of fantastically
fraudulent Chinese firms laid low by contrarians—to the debt-
disguising shenanigans at nmcHealth, a ftse100 company.
Shorting does more than just root out funny business. It also

helps sharpen price discovery when legitimate firms are overval-
ued. Short-sellers tend to do their homework because they have a
lot at stake. Stocks can rise by more than they can fall and shorts
can bleed money if a target’s shares remain buoyant for years.
They have to face writs and illegal tactics, too—Wirecard is sus-
pected of ordering cyber-attacks on its critics.
More’s the pity, then, that as protectionism mounts, govern-
ments are becoming more tempted to cuddle up to home-grown
corporate stars. Typically, frauds have a global element—Wire-
card falsely claimed that the missing cash was in the Philippines;
nmchas creditors in Taiwan and Oman, among other places; and
Luckin was incorporated in the Cayman Islands. But the trade
war and fracturing of global regulation make it harder for scep-
tics to work their magic. More Chinese firms may eventually
shift their main listing from New York to China, where short-
selling is less tolerated. Professional naysayers will never be
popular, profiting as they do from the misery of others. But if
they cannot keep markets honest, nobody wins. 7
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