The Olympic Esports Series (abbreviated as OES) is the second installment of the International Olympic Committee's (abbreviated as IOC) virtual sports competitions. With all its online qualifiers completed, the offline finals are set to take place in Singapore from June 22 to 25. However, when the IOC announced the 9 competing game titles at the Olympic Esports Series back in March this year, they were promptly hit with backlash from the gaming communities due to the insignificance of several selected games and the overall lacking representation of "esports".

https://twitter.com/Olympics/status/1630840515640930304

So why exactly was the IOC mocked by gamers? Is the OES even worth watching? What games are more recognized as esports by the gaming audience? I'm here to provide the answers from an avid gamer/esports follower's perspective. Without further ado, let's take a deeper dive into what the fuss is all about. 

(Credit: olympics.com)

First off, I think we can all agree whether it's traditional sports or video games, a sustainable spectator sport should have both a sizable player and viewer base to live off of. Then, take a glimpse at the 10 video games selected as the Olympic Esports Series competing titles and the sport they're respectively representing:

• Archery - Tic Tac Bow

• Baseball - WBSC eBASEBALL: POWER PROS

• Chess - Chess.com

• Cycling - Zwift

• Dance - Just Dance

• Motorsport - Gran Turismo

• Sailing - Virtual Regatta

• Taekwondo - Virtual Taekwondo

• Tennis - Tennis Clash

• Shooting - Fortnite (added on May 5)

How many of these have you played or heard before they were revealed at the OES? Probably 5 out of 9 or less? Sadly, it's a 4 out of 9 for me (leave a comment to tell me if you beat that