Hey Hive!
I'm taking a pause from documenting international travels, as I just wrapped up my series on our 2023 trip to Tokyo - a trip that took over 10 months to write about! During this break, I'm excited to explore and write about the hidden gems and vibrant spots we have right here in Singapore!
So back in June 2023, Singapore hosted the first Olympics E-Sports event! It was a week-long event with different e-sports, but it's not the kind of esports most people would think.
When people think of esports now they'd probably be thinking of big games like DOTA 2, League of Legends, Valorant or Call of Duty, to name a few. So when I heard about Singapore was going to be hosting an Olympic Esports event I got quite excited since I'm a gamer. But to everyone's dismay, the Olympics' definition of Esports is literally e-sports, or a virtual version of an existing sport, like Cycling:
So instead of playing pvp games like Mobile Legends, athletes would actually be up on stage doing a virtual version of a sport they're supposed to do. It's quite pointless when they're already there, especially for a sport like Taekwondo.
Source: ANOC
Nevertheless it was quite a big event here in Singapore and there were setups out of the main area as well like the Chess event.
I thought it was quite odd seeing the pro chess players play in the middle of the mall but it was also cool to see. I hope their headphones were fully noise-canceling though.
They were literally sitting in the atrium of the mall playing Chess. There were some onlookers but since it's a slow game I guess they would take up valuable space in the arena.
There was quite a lot of backlash online about this whole Olympics Esports event since it was like the Olympic Committee wasn't treat Esports as an actual sport.
In the actual convention building there were some popups as well, mostly from sponsors.
Obviously they were mostly tech companies since it's an Esports event which is using a lot of electronic peripheral devices.
But they also had some mobile games setup so you could play different games for free if you want.
There was also a dedicated playing area where you could do certain gaming challenges for prizes! I was tempted to try it since there wasn't anyone around but I wasn't sure what prizes were available.
After a look around the area, I met Sean to get a free entry ticket and he got us in!
I don't recall how much is the entry ticket normally but I think it was around 20 bucks or so.
There were huge boards upon entry just advertising the actual event in the classic Olympics colours.
It looked pretty cool to be fair, but if it was an actual Esports event it would have some colourful RGB lighting instead.
We took some commemorative photos here since there was no one else around to photobomb.
After that we took a walk around the convention hall to see what sports games there were.
The first one I saw was Golf, and it reminded me of Wii Golf.
There were two different versions where you played in VR or against the projector screen with real balls. I'm not sure what the actual games were though.
There was an actual gaming booth by SEGA though, and they had Sonic Mania and Puyo Puyo Tetris for people to play for fun. They're not really Esports games but it is still better than the virtual sports I suppose.
I think the only setup that came close to actual Esports was this Street Fighter setup where people could play against each other. Some people even brought their special arcade fight sticks to play.
On the other end of the spectrum, there were also actual sports you coupld play like Table Tennis, no virtual systems needed.
There was also a half-court basketball set up for people to play. I'm not sure if this was a team but they all had the same shirt.
There were quite a lot of virtual sports games available for people to try like rowing. I've never seen a rowing machine before and it looked like something you'd find in the gym.
It was pretty cool to see though since you could row as if you were outside but not have to deal with actual weather or water.
There was also a VR boxing ring with people playing in a pseudo boxing ring that looked pretty cool. It looked kind of like Wii Boxing.
They also had Just Dance set up, which is included in the actual Olympics Esports as a category, which was an interesting choice.
There was Bridge as well, but I'm not familiar with how Bridge works.
After that we made our way to the main stage! It looked pretty impressive to me since this was my first time attending an event like this. I think most of the audience here were media people though.
There were professional commentators just like in actual esports tournaments and everything.
There were breaks in between events so we could get a nice view of the stage while it was empty.
We tried to take some nice shots of the place but the lighting made it quite difficult.
To their credit the stage actually looks pretty good, and everything would be fine if they just acknowledged actual esports and made this event legit. The Olympic committee would've made bank and be seen as progressive if they just did that.
There were different events on different days and that evening was the Just Dance final. I was curious to see what that was going to be like.
Sean had to meet some of his stakeholders for work at the VIP lounge area so he brought me up there as a guest.
It was an upper level in the convention area and they even had some finger food!
They were mostly one-bite snacks since this was a networking area and not for actual eating.
They were pretty fancy finger foods though.
Some were better than others, and I think I preferred the simple food better.
I think the scallops and mushrooms with ratatouille were not bad though, and they even had yoyiC for free, which is a probiotic drink like Yakult.
I sat there in the lounge quietly eating while waiting for Sean to finish networking. Soon enough, the Just Dance event was starting!
First it was the quarterfinals and we got to see each person compete for their country to go into the finals. There were also 3 judges but I'm not sure what qualifications they had or how they would even judge this since they weren't using the in-game scoring system.
It was honestly quite a weird sport to be competing in and it was totally subjective who did better. It seemed quite unfair to me, but I guess no one was really taking this seriously.
Sean and I just sat in the lounge eating and watching the dancers perform. There were some good songs too.
We didn't intend to stay so long but it was quite entertaining watching them perform. It basically came down to who had the most pizzazz while dancing.
In the end there was the prize ceremony for the top 3 people who made it, and the winner was this girl from Finland.
She's actually a Just Dance streamer and has been doing it for a while so I think she deserved it.
Even though it wasn't what we expected, it was still a pretty interesting event nonetheless and we had fun.
Here's hoping the Olympic committee will change their mind on Esports after all the online backlash and decide to include some actual esports games next time they do this.
Thanks for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
Anime and Snacks then Sayonara 🛫- TacoCat’s Travels #292 (Tokyo)
