Whether Esport is a sport or not is a debate that has been around for a very long time and still there are sides that strongly insist on their views. Getting the necessary recognition as a sport is still not that easy.
Now, however, there has been a small breakthrough in Sweden regarding this discussion. Esport has finally become an official sport following the decision of the Swedish Sports Federation.
Esport = Sport
A total of 179 people voted on whether Esport should be recognised or not. 108 people voted for Esport to be recognised, 71 voted against Esports Association joining their ranks. As the website Svt.se reports, the decision was met with applause, even if not everyone was happy with the result. But that was to be expected, because Esports is still “relatively” new and it was clear that some people would also vote against. The president of the Esports Federation was positively surprised by the decision. He said that at the last meeting there had been little attention from the media and little conversation among the federation members, so he had not expected this to happen and rather expected Esport not to be included.
today Sweden approved esport as an official sport, despite @NIPCS recent performance
congrats 🇸🇪 and @Xizt, go tell all your skeptical mom's that you're athletes now
— HEROIC (@heroicgg) May 28, 2023
Before the meeting, the Swedish Esports Federation had high hopes for membership, but the national sports authority insisted on rejecting the application. Problems at The International in Sweden were one of the reasons. In July two years ago, Valve had problems hosting the Dota 2 tournament The International in Sweden because the country did not officially recognise the esport. The problem was the Corona pandemic. Because of this, many participants would not have been able to get sports visas. As a result, the organisers postponed the tournament and moved it to Romania.
Esport is mainstream
Shortly before the tournament was to be held, the country was hit by a new wave of the corona virus, so the PGL had to hold the event without live spectators. In the meantime, Sweden lifted its measures to combat the pandemic. In the meantime, the coronavirus is no longer a big issue and the situation has cooled down again. Meanwhile, however, Esport is becoming an increasingly hot topic and is becoming more mainstream every year.
Esport is now officially labeled as a sport in Sweden. To think that we pioneered the scene and are this late is pretty crazy but at least we've reached our destination! 🇸🇪
— Maxim (@MaximsTweets) May 28, 2023
Especially during the pandemic, when many people were confined to their homes, games and esports were a welcome change, which in turn led to a massive boom in the industry. Add to that the fact that esports are becoming more and more recognised and more and more people are interested in them, and you can definitely expect this upward trend to continue.