Redeye Rants About “Pompous” Olympics Committee on Bringing Esports to Olympic Games
Renowned esports broadcaster Paul “Redeye” Chaloner spoke passionatley about the potential for esports events at the Olympics, calling those on the committee ‘pompous’.
The Paris 2024 Olympics committee have reportedly discussed the potential of having esports as a medal event at the games, which has split opinion both within esports and in the mainstream.
From an esports perspective, the main issue is that President of the International Olympics Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach has said that any esports inclusion “must not infringe upon Olympic values.”
That means any ‘promotion or demonstration of violence’ would be a “red line”, so there could be no Counter-Strike, League of Legends, Overwatch Call of Duty, Rainbow Six, Dota2, fighting games or even Fortnite, and the list goes on.
Redeye suggests this “vetting” of esports is an entitled view, and that the Olympics needs esports more than esports needs the Olympics.
“It’s time that we stopped pandering to other sports, to let them into us. They need us more than we need them now. I don’t care about the Olympics, I really don’t.
I love Mo Farah and what he’s achieved, I think all the sports, the men and women and the disabled people involved are all incredible. It’s nothing to do with that whatsoever. I also happen to think that someone like s1mple or coldzera or Ryan Hart, or any of the amazing people involved in our world, are also capable of incredible things.”
He goes on to say that esports already has the necessary infrastructure, events and talent in place to operate itself – without Olympics involvment.
“We’ve already got it. We’ve got ESL One Cologne, we’ve got Katowice stadium, the majors coming to the UK. We’ve got FaceIT, DreamHack, StarLadder. We’ve got incredible people all around the world – North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, everywhere.
Doing incredible things that make me smile, that give me enjoyment, that promote my passion for what we’re doing. I don’t need the Olympics to prove any of that.
[…] It just feels pompous as f*** to me that these olympian people can come in and think they can include this – I DON’T CARE!”
Watch Redeye’s passionate rant in full below, courtesy of the official LuckBox YouTube channel where he is joined by Sujoy Roy.