Many areas of mainstream culture still do not see esports as legitimate and believe that they should not be classified in the same manner as traditional sports, especially when it comes to the Olympics. The latter was the main issue for Reinhard Grindel, the President of the German Football Association, when he was asked about the potential for esports to become apart of the Olympic Games. "I consider this absurd. I hope this does not happen," Grindel told reporters according to a report by Reuters.

"The biggest competition to kids coming to our sports clubs is not handball or basketball but the use of digital equipment. That is absolute impoverishment," Grindel continued, "Football belongs on the green pitch and has nothing to do with other things that are computer-related. For me esports is not sports."

With the massive rise of esports as a billion dollar industry with millions of fans and players around the world, the question of esports becoming  apart of the Olympics is becoming more prevalent every day. With the Olympic committee already declaring esports as a sport, The Olympic Channel stating that it will be looking at integrating esports in the future and esports being a medal event at the 2022 Asian Games, the Olympics and esports have been on a collision course for some time.

It is unlikely that some of the biggest esports may be invloved with the Olympics, as the International Olympic Committee and The Olympic Channel have stated that the violent nature of some esports does not represent what the Olympics stand for.

"A lot of the content is quite violent or has the violence narrative engrained to it. This is obviously very foreign to what the Olympics represent."

It is still highly likely that we will be seeing esports athletes competing for their country in the future, even with attitudes like that of Grindel still harboring around.

(cover photo courtesy of Associated Press)