The Vietnam Electronic and Entertainment Association (VIRESA) has announced the list of eSports titles that will be included in the 31st Southeast Asian (SEA) Games as official medal sports.
There will be ten eSports tournaments in League of Legends, League of Legends: Wild Rift, PUBG Mobile, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, FIFA Online 4, Arena of Valor, Free Fire, and CrossFire.
The tournament will take place from November 21st to December 2nd. This will present an exciting market for online sport betting fans enthusiastic about eSports. The Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism made the decision.
As per the announcement, there will be 40 disciplines in the 31st SEA Games. The organizers claim that they expect participants from eleven countries from Southeast Asia.
The announcement also revealed that League of Legends: Wild Rift will have separate female and male events.
The announcement means that this will be the second time eSports has been incorporated in the multi-sport competition that is under the supervision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The SEA Games in 2019 that was held in the Philippines featured Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Dota 2, Arena of Valor, Hearthstone, Tekken 7, and Starcraft II.
Razor, an official eSports sponsor of the 2019 SEA games, was a critical force behind eSports’ official inclusion as a medaled sport in the 31st event.
The company also claimed that it was willing to take the leading role in navigating eSports at this year’s SEA Games. However, the sector has to ensure that eSports title selection is consistent for them to be established as Olympic disciplines.
This is part of an ongoing discussion on whether eSports should be considered a sport. These deliberations have reached the International Olympic Committee.
Asia seems to have made more progress than other regions in matters of eSports.
Like in the 2018 Asian Games, there have been instances where eSports titles like League of Legends and StarCraft II were included as exhibition sports.
In 2019, the SEA games became the first sports summit under the IOC’s supervision to receive eSports as an official sports discipline on its medal table. It could emerge as a critical betting market in the coming days.
There is a massive mobile presence in the recently announced list of 2021 SEA Games.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism claimed that the inclusion of eSports titles in this year’s tournament was a result of its commitment to expand and formalize eSports as an official Olympic competition.
The medal table will have up to ten eSports disciplines which is an improvement from six in 2019.
Mobile eSports titles 2021:
- Arena of Valor (Team-based)
- Free Fire (Team-based)
- League of Legends: Wild Rift (Team-based – men)
- League of LegendSoutheast Asians: Wild Rift(Team-based – women)
- Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (Team-based)
- PUBG Mobile (Individual)
- PUBG Mobile (Team-based)
PC eSports titles 2021:
- CrossFire (Team-based)
- FIFA Online (Team-based)
- League of Legends (Team-based)
The games are organized under the guidelines of the Southeast Asia Games Federation.
Also, the IOC and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) are supervising the event.
