Asian Geographic - 08.2018

Video games have long dominated screens

across Asia, but their inclusion in this year’s

Asiad have transformed this humble form of

entertainment into an Olympic-level medal event

Arenas of Valour

ELECTRONIC ADVERSARIES

Text Wong Yi Wei

1972

Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence

Laboratory holds the world’s first video game

competition, the Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics.

About 24 participants competed for the grand prize

of a year’s subscription to Rolling Stone

1980

The arcade video game

Space Invaders gets its

own championship in

America. Over 10,000

players sign up

1988

Netrek, the world’s

first online sports

game, is invented.

Players battle for

galaxy domination

2000

The South Korea

government establishes

an e-sports association

and recognises it as an

official sporting event

e-sports: the olympic journey

DATA SOURCES:THE GUARDIAN, NEWZOO

PHOTO © SHUTTERSTOCK

Hard-core gamers might seem out of place

at a sports stadium, but that’s exactly who

will be comprising part of the audience at

this year’s Asian Games in Jakarta: fans of

cult digital quests Arena of Valor, Starcraft

II, Hearthstone, Clash Royale, League of

Legends and Pro Evolution Soccer 2018.

Thanks to e-commerce giant Alibaba,

competitive electronic gaming, or e-sports –

science