Former Blizzard Entertainment Chief Creative Officer and World of Warcraft lead designer Rob Pardo made a bold statement this week when he said that e-sports should be considered for inclusion into the Olympic Games.

“I think the way that you look at e-sports is that it’s a very competitive skillset and you look at these professional gamers and the reflexes are lightning quick and they’re having to make very quick decisions on the fly,” Pardo said in an interview with the BBC.

Pardo was a designer on several of Blizzard’s most successful games, including a few that have been extremely popular in the e-sports industry such as Starcraft, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and Starcraft: Broodwar.

Starcraft and its successor Starcraft II have seen tremendous support among e-sports tournaments, especially in South Korea where top level Starcraft players receive product endorsements and Starcraft tournaments draw crowds in the tens of thousands.

Defining sports

Pardo realizes that his idea might be met with some skepticism.

“If you want to define sport as something that takes a lot of physical exertion, then it’s hard to argue that video games should be a sport,” Pardo said. “But at the same time, when I’m looking at things that are already in the Olympics, I start questioning the definition.”

Pardo did not call out any sports in particular, but he pointed out that competitive gaming requires incredibly mental agility, with players reaching over 300 “actions per minute.”

But there are many other forms of competition that require strong mental ability and strategy that are also not included in the Olympic lineup. Chess, for example, is not included in the games despite popular support and being officially considered a sport by the International Olympic Committee.

But chess is not a visually exciting game, which is one thing that Pardo says e-sports would offer to the Olympic games, which have received lower viewer numbers over the last few years.

“You can do whatever you want with the graphics, you can make it be really exciting and competitive,” Pardo said.

Competitive e-sports offer several spectating features that entice audiences in ways that some traditional sports do not. Because the playing field is virtual, it can be viewed from any angle, and spectators can see players’ actions that their competitors cannot.