2022 Commonwealth Games to include esports event

The 2022 Commonwealth Games will include a Commonwealth Esports Championship for the very first time.

The Commonwealth Games is an athletic event, held every four years, between athletes from current and former British Commonwealth nations. The 2022 Games take place in Birmingham, England from July 28 until August 8 and the Commonwealth Esports Championship will run on August 6-7 in the city’s International Convention Centre.

While there is no word yet as to which games will be featured, the announcement from the Global Esports Federation did explain that “renowned multi-genre global titles are in the final stages of confirmation and will be announced shortly.”

This move comes almost two years after the Commonwealth Games Federation announced its partnership with the GEF, the latter of which will put on this new championship alongside the British Esports Association.

Running alongside the athletic events, the Commonwealth Esports Championship will subsequently have its own “branding, medals, organization, and governance, led by the GEF and its community of partners.”

While it’s a separate event this time around, the GEF believes the potential success of the tournaments could be used to “enable the Commonwealth Sport Movement to further explore the impact and potential of esports as part of the roadmap.” This means that esports titles could become official medal events some time down the line.

Commonwealth Games follow in Asian Games’ footsteps with esports competition

This will not be the first time that esports has been included at an international athletic event.

In 2018, the Asian Games saw a number of gaming titles included as a demonstration sport. Most notably, its League of Legends tournament saw a grand final heavyweight matchup between respective Chinese and South Korean superteams. The Chinese team led by Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao defeated Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok’s Korean team to take first place.

The 2022 Asia Games, held in September, will feature esports tournaments as medal events. Many Korean esports professionals have been forced to retire to carry out mandatory military service in the country, but the Korean team may be able to dodge that if they take gold.