The world of sport and IT come together once again with this news this week from the FFF which officially launches a French esport team.
Sport at the service of play
The FFF, by which means “the French Football Federation”, is in turn embarking on eSports. It is now proposing its entry into the virtual world with the formation of a French team of four players. These four lucky winners will then have the chance to participate in video game competitions, and it will be, as announced Monday, April 9, 2018, against other nations. But no question for the organization to entrust this task to any gamer in France. It will therefore be on a team, which will be led by Fabien Devide, better known in the world of eSports under the alias + Neo +, that the Federation of our dear French neighbors will rest its hopes for the world championships of the controller. On this subject, the FFF declares in a press release: “Sixteen players have been pre-selected to participate in a qualification camp which will take place on April 20 and 21 in Clairefontaine. At the end of this pre-selection phase, four players will be selected to form the France team and participate in exhibition matches against other nations throughout the season ”.
The sport
If young players identify more with the competitive world of video games than with sports competition nowadays, as we will see together a little below, the fact remains that eSport includes competitions. of video games between professional players. An area that is enjoying real and growing success around the world. It is not for nothing that it benefits from an audience estimated at 280 million fans, and more particularly among the 15-35 year olds, who are now classified in a category called “millennials” and especially , despite an economic model still groping across Europe.
But this is no longer such a rare thing at the moment and we have even seen many football players position themselves in the sector, such as Manchester City or even PSG, by recruiting esports players for this kind of competition. virtual networks that create the buzz and remain a great way to promote real teams.
We even read in the press, at the end of February 2018, statements by Aleksander Ceferin, the boss of European football (the president of UEFA), who then explained that “it would be naive not to realize that esports and video games are all our competitors. The world in which our young people live is as much virtual as it is global. We cannot afford to let the train pass ”.
Youth and eSport
As we indicated to you a little above, we have noticed in recent years that young people identify much more with the competitive world of video games than with sports competition itself. During the 8th edition of Paris Games week, which took place at Porte de Versailles until November 5, 2017 and which remains THE unmissable event for all gamers and video game enthusiasts, we were able to learn a lot more about this sector at the time already expanding well. Sophia Metz for example, 30 years old and gamer, launched a chain of bars dedicated to esports enthusiasts, called Meltdown, and found herself the guest of Europe 1. She will then testify to her commitment and her hopes to carry the discipline until the Olympic Games.
Utopia or an achievable dream?
The show then gave a real place to e-sport with its football tournaments, but also its boxing or shooting matches on the big screen … We are not far from seeing the video game confrontation perhaps becoming a Olympic discipline. Here we are faced with a concept that strongly combines player and spectator. If e-sport enjoys such success according to specialist Sophia, it is because “young people identify more with this competitive world of video games than with sports competition. You should know that they experience it exactly as if it were a classic sport. They will go and watch it, but they are also players and actors ”.
