Olympic games will be considered for formal specialization Aiming for developed countries of 'e sports' What kind of efforts are being done in Japan?

" E Sports " is a game where opponent computer games are regarded as sports competitions and players compete with each other's skills like sports . At the Asian Games in 2018, e-Sports has been adopted as a demonstration game and a big topic has been called up, and discussions are continuing toward formal event at that Olympic Games. While e-sports showed excitement globally, Koichi Hamamura, Vice Chairman of the Japan e Sports Union (JeSU), which organizes e-sports fields in Japan , came to Machi ★ Asobi vol.21 and gave a lecture, I have heard what kind of efforts are under way in Japan.

e Sports Stage - Machi ★ Asobi
http://www.machiasobi.com/events/esports.html

A keynote lecture by Koichi Hamamura, Vice Chairman of JeSU, held on October 6, which will be the first day of climax run of Machi ★ Asobi vol.21, was held at "Fountain of Cornea" in the Higashi Shinmachi Arcade.

At first, from Hamamura Vice President's Profile introduction. Hamamura is a person who is engaged in game magazine 's " Weekly Famitsu " since its inception and has a background as an editor at the time.

In the keynote lecture, for the young and old girls who do not know much about e-sports, they explained the e-sports situation in the world and e-sports in Japan in an easy-to-understand manner.

◆ e sports circumstances of the world The e sports market in the world is growing big now. The e-sports market size is estimated at 1.6 billion dollars (about 180 billion yen) in 2018, but it is expected to grow to 2.3 billion dollars (about 260 billion yen) by 2022. It seems that not only the size of the market but also the e - sports tournament using a box of 10,000 people, which is usually used as a boxing venue, are being expanded.

The estimated number of viewers of e sports is as follows, 551 million people are expected to watch e sports in 2021.

Of the fans that support such e-sports market, the figure below shows the share of "regular fans". Esports is calculated to have about 165 million regular fans in 2018, of which about half of them are said to be fans of the Asia Pacific region. In Japan, there is still the impression that it is going to come, but Korea is said to be "e-sports developed country" even if it looks at the world, and China's e-sports popularity growth seems to be tremendous momentum.

It is a particularly popular e sports in Asia, but of course the popularity is spreading steadily in other areas as well. For example, the US government has announced that the League of Legend tournament is recognized as professional sports, foreign players are issuing athletic visas, and higher education institutions offering "e Sports Scholarship" It seems that administrative support is getting warmer. In Europe, schools that can choose "e sports" in selected classes have appeared, and ESL of the e-sports league and York University partnered in the field of industrial research are advancing their own efforts. In Korean universities, we have added a selection examination in e-sports to the undergraduate school of physical education, and Tencent of Chinese enterprises will expand e-sports industry to 100 billion yuan (about 1.7 trillion yen) scale We have announced plans for the year.

Public high schools where "games" can be chosen in the selection class appear, candidates to play include League of Legends, Starcraft 2, etc. - GIGAZINE

Especially notable in e-sports is "big prize money" put on the competition. World Cyber ​​Arena totaling 200 million yuan (about 3.3 billion yen) in the Haasstone World Championship with a total prize of 100 million yen, " Monst Grand Prix 2018 " total prize money of 60 million yen was done in Japan.

In addition, it is the official event of Epic Games' online battle royal game 'Fort Knight' which is scheduled to receive an extraordinary big prize as e sports tournament. It is announced that this tournament will provide $ 100 million (about 11 billion yen) to the prize pool.

Epic Games announces that e-sports top class prize of over 10 billion yen will be put on the official event of Fort Knight - GIGAZINE

◆ Efforts at the e-sports world in Japan JeSU was created to accelerate efforts in Japan in e-sports to strengthen momentum worldwide. JeSU was founded on January 22, 2018, and activities began on February 1 of the same year. Prior to the establishment, there were three groups in Japan, JeSPA , e-Sports promotion organization, Japan e-Sports federation aiming to promote e-sports, but most major Japanese game makers are members With the support of the Computer Entertainment Association (CESA), the Japan Online Game Association (JOGA) was sponsored and succeeded in integrating the three e-sports associations into one, and JeSU was born. If CESA and JOGA gather, it is possible to cover about 90% of Japanese game related IP, and in the world of e sports where trade associations tend to be quite challenging, JeSU has also succeeded in putting together many companies together It seems to be a rare case. Therefore it seems that attention from e sports organizations around the world is also high.

The first event that such JeSU went on was "JAEPO × Battle Meeting 2018" held in February 2018. The number of event visitors is 72,225 and the total number of visitors to the net is 5,133,1820, so we have successfully held the largest event in e-sports history in Japan. It seems that JeSU issued the professional license for the first time at this event, and 15 professional athletes will participate in the tournament. As a result, the fighting conference 2018 became a convention with a total prize of 28.15 million yen as a domestic e-sports competition, and the total number of media posted is 3230, which is 2.36 billion yen in terms of ad conversion, attracting a great deal of attention in the country You can see whether it succeeded.

Since then JeSU the license has been carried out vigorously the issue, license certification title is eight (Winning Eleven 2018, Call of Duty World War II, Street Fighter V Arcade Edition, Tekken 7, Pazudora, Puyo, Monster Strike, Rainbow Six Siege), the number of licenses issued is 120 e-sports pro licenses, Japan · e sports · junior license 1, Japan · e sports team license 8 teams, the number of certified tournaments will increase to 28 tournaments success. It is surprising that the total prize money of the accreditation tournament has increased to 118.5 million yen, and this was achieved in only 7 and 8 months from the establishment.

Thanks to these measures, awareness of e-sports in Japan is also accelerating. As of September 2017 before the establishment of JeSU, the recognition of e sports was only 14.4%, but it increased to 41.1% in July 2018.

At the same time, the number of members of JeSU has steadily increased, and at the time of article creation, 27 regular members, 4 special support members and 9 support members are created. Also on August 9, 2018, JeSU 's official sponsor was au, Suntory, GALLERIA, LAWSON, BEAMS, Indeed were announced. Companies that are not involved in any game at all are raising a sponsor, and from here we can also realize that e-sports fever is rising in Japan.

◆ e Sports and International Competition <br> And in the 2018 Asian Games, as e Sports was adopted as a demonstration competition, we need to make activities that look to the world more in the future.

For example, international sports competitions where Japan will participate in the future will exist every two years even at the Asian Games and the Olympic Games. It is an e sports which was a demonstration competition at the 2018 Asian Games, but it is announced that it will be adopted as an official event in 2022 . Also at the Olympic Games, the official sports event "e Sports" at the Paris Olympics in 2024 is being studied, so there is no doubt that more people around the world will be interested in e-sports . Vice Chairman Hamamura seems that the Asian Games to be held in Nagoya in 2026 seems to be one of the major mountains for the Japanese e - sports community.

When the Olympic games formalized, JeSU needs to join the Japan Olympic Committee (JOC) in order to send Japanese e-sports athletes to the tournament. As conditions for joining the JOC, "1: the only domestic control group in the competition" "2: having experience in participating in the Olympic Games, Asian Games, and other international competitions" "3: International Those who are members of the International Federation of Federations approved by the Olympic Committee. " In order to satisfy "1" of this, JeSU was born in a form that unifies three organizations.

In the Olympic Games, recruitment of e-sports has been discussed for a long time, but recently Hamamura Vice Chairman said that rather than "discussion as to whether or not to adopt", "discussion on which title to adopt" It seems to be heard from stakeholders. The reason why "discussion on adopting which title" is being done, "shooting game" which is particularly popular among games and has many official competitions and so on held, is violent expression many and many to the Olympic Games Because it is thought that it is not suitable. Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said in the past that "We want to promote the peace of people in non-discrimination, non-violence.This philosophy is violence, explosion, murder We do not agree with such video games that include, etc, so we have to clearly draw a line, "he says, and games that contain violent depictions are not suitable for being played as Olympic games I will. However, this does not mean that e-Sports is not suitable for the Olympic Games, it's just that violent titles are not suitable.

Violent titles are excluded even if e sports goes to the Olympic Games - GIGAZINE

JeSU has already begun to move so that Japanese e-sports players can play an active part in these international competitions. In order to participate in the Asian Games, East Asia district qualifying must be overcome, JeSU has two Easting Asian district qualifiers at Winning Eleven 2018, one at Crash Royale, one at Star Craft II, Haas One representative from Stone and seven from the League of Legends dispatched Japan representative of e-Sports. Three of those who participated in Winning Eleven 2018 and Herstone decided to participate in the main battle, so three will participate safely in the Asian Games. And in the winning eleven 2018 division Japan representative Sugimura and Aihara won the championship and succeeded in winning the gold medal . At the Asian Games in 2018, e Sports was a demonstration game to the last, but since it will be officially scheduled from 2022, if you acquire a medal, it will be counted as a medal formally won by that country, so attention It seems that degrees will be even higher.

In addition, it is decided that the e-sports competition " nationwide prefectural opposition e sports championship 2019 IBARAKI " will be held in the Ibaraki national body of 2019, and it is also decided to host e sports matches between Japan and Saudi Arabia It is. It seems that there is an aim to get people who are not interested in e sports to pay attention also by playing against the other countries and regions with the Hinomaru on the back instead of just doing the tournament .

Also, e sports has the characteristic "There is no difference depending on age and gender", so old people may beat young people, or even a small girl may knock down adults with grasshopper grasshoppers, and such exhilaration is normal It is a point that can hardly be experienced in sports, so the number of people who support nature and e-sports may also increase if such refreshingness is experienced by more people through the convention.

About the Future of e Sports: In Japan it seems that at the time baseball was born, it was rooted in the area, but it seems that professional baseball has been born there as the radio popularizes. And as television popularizes, professional baseball will be broadcasted on TV as popular content, young people aiming for professional baseball in Japan increases, and as a result, the population enjoying the baseball game itself and the baseball will not see the relay The population enjoying watching and watching has increased, and the box office called professional baseball has been activated.

We are also aiming e sports to turn the same cycle. First of all, there is "1: General game player" which purely enjoy the game, such as RPG and shooting, people with confidence in a little play and people who are good at talking will start to play "game commentary". When such a game related community starts to show excitement, a "community event" will be held and "2: amateur game players" will be born from there. When the event starts to show excitement, "Manufacturers sponsored fan event" increases, and further momentum, "Official event with prize money" will be opened, "3: Professional gamer" to live with this prize money born . Among them, if "4: non game player, game player watcher" increases by "the appearance of popular athletes" who gain the support of many fans, it will lead to the spread of e sports itself.

Based on the philosophy of "fostering the mind and body of young people through e-sports" and "aiming for the spread of e-sports in Japan", JeSU will increase the number of official e-sports titles by issuing licenses, increasing the number of official e-sports titles, We have also succeeded in increasing the number of sports teams and business associations, as well as increasing sponsor companies. This will increase the revenues of e-athletes, will be able to train in a stable environment, and the cycle for eSports popularization will become more lubricated. In addition, we are aiming to improve the status of e-sports athletes by actively sending e-athletes to the Asian Games, other contests, exchanges and the like, and these are currently for the 2018 Asian Games It seems to be said that we have steadily succeeded from achievements.

JeSU cites "e-sports practice facilities improvement", "partnership with schools and vocational schools", "collaboration with the community", "matching of clients and e-sports teams", "second-career support of athletes", etc. . Especially about e-sports player's second career, we are seeking various possibilities, such as being a team owner or being a leader.

A simple question and answer session was held after the keynote lecture. In response to the question "How to train professional athletes from the venue?", I answered that they are conducting guidance not to teach techniques but to guard the players not going in the wrong direction. Specifically, he seems to be preparing facilities such as e-learning, teaching how to use doping and SNS, and giving lectures on what kind of things can happen to the players participating in overseas competitions.

Also, while e-sports has a lot of competition titles, while also revealing that it is a handful to become a professional in the same professional sports and earn with e sports, many companies and organizations want to sponsor each title Even if you can not become a professional, there are jobs that support tournament management and convention broadcasting etc, and it also reveals that there are various career paths while aiming at professional e sports athletes.

After that, I also started a talk show with Iikumi Kamon Tokushima Governor (left), JeSU's Vice Chairman Hamamura (middle), Tokushima's professional e-sports player Ruka Hanai (right).

Takanaka players reveal that they continue to strive to have themselves to have longing for themselves so that more professional athletes from Tokushima Prefecture will grow, " CYCLOPS athlete gaming " based in Osaka to which he belongs As I mentioned earlier, he revealed that Tokushima-based e-sports team is secretly expecting to be born.

Governor Iizumi Prefecture seems to expect Tokushima to become a sacred place for e sports, "Tokushima Prefecture is becoming a sacred place for animation with a high affinity with the game thanks to Asobi ★" and "Tokushima Prefecture He said that the penetration rate of optical fiber is high and it is a perfect land for playing fighting games that require an internet environment. "We hoped that Tokushima Prefecture would be a sacred place for e sports.

Lastly we prayed for the promotion of e-sports in Tokushima Prefecture, and all the people gathered at the venue gave a call of "Tokushima e sports ooo!" And the event ended successfully.