“If you’re here, it’s because we wanted to have this gesture of recognition and be able to celebrate French esports, your disciplines and your champions”declared the President of the Republic to his guests. “Today begins a new era, not simply to recognize you but to help you structure yourself, move forward and progress”, he continued.
The small crowd, some 200 figures from the French milieu listened – satisfied of course with the recognition that such a reception offers to the sector – and is now waiting for the few promises made by the Head of State, a week before the legislative – in particular to host more major world sporting events in the future – materialize in future years. Report with Brice N’Guessan, editorial director of Video Games Magazine.
franceinfo: A President of the Republic who honors video games and esports is very, very rare.
Brice N’Guessan: It’s a real event and finally a recognition for this discipline that is esport. Like the athletes who have the privilege of being received at the Élysée for their exploits, Emmanuel Macron wanted to honor both the champions and the personalities who contribute to developing this discipline. Esport has always experienced development, thanks to the support of video game publishers, its associations such as France esport which have worked, often in the shadows, but above all the players and passionate entrepreneurs who have been able to bring out the movement for the professionalize and publicize it.
So is there an awareness at the top of the state of the scale that French esports is taking?
With 73% of French people playing, video games are rooted in our society, and esports, which represents part of the ecosystem, are becoming more democratic year after year. Today, there are just over 9 million players who are interested in or engage in the practice of esports in a competitive way.
These events are often online, but the wish and ambition of the players in this sector is to develop physical events even more, so that fans can follow and commune with sportspeople, as was the case this Saturday. June 4, with the Trackmania Cup organized by Zerator in front of 15,000 spectators in a boiling Accor Hotel Arena in Bercy.
And some world events can generate incredible audiences online, like the MSI final, on the strategy game League of Legends last week, which was followed by 2 million people.
So what is the future for this discipline in France?
Emmanuel Macron expressed his wish to work and support the sector with the objective of organizing more physical events through infrastructures such as stadiums, cinemas but also to develop and structure the trades around them.
Finally, the 2024 Olympic Games will be an opportunity to unofficially organize competitions in parallel, but officially, the Olympic Committee does not close the door to the integration of the discipline for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.