Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his support for the idea of holding Esports tournaments in Russian schools during the All-Russian open lesson. According to Reports, the esports is officially “in law.”
Russia was among the very first countries in the world to officially recognise esports as a sports discipline back in 2016 and now taking further steps to inculcate esports culture along with traditional sports in school curriculum.
According to the reports, Putin legitimised esports in schools which will “contribute to the destruction of cliches in the minds of many parents that computer games are pure evil.” Putin emphasized on the fact that esports is “highly useful” only if the tournaments are held in best possible manner.
This indicates to the fact that schools will be getting a complete upgrade in terms of hardware. The least possible hardware which can support games to be played in decent graphics will be utilised to keep up with the “quality” of tournaments that Putin has emphasized in his speech.
As the tournaments are going online and esports is only rising day by day, the pandemic factor has only helped to boost the esports industry further. The growth is evident as more players are active in-game with the additional free time and viewership on streaming platforms have sky-rocketed. An example of viewership is LEC finals where the concurrent watching peaked one million viewers.
This move by President Putin will help the esports industry to grow in Russia and set a grassroots level for upcoming players who want to opt gaming as their profession from a very early age.
