'Faker to appear' at Asian Games, Yoo Seung-min (Chairman) says "I want to watch it myself: I want to see e-sports tournaments run properly" [Nagoya on-site]

*This content was translated by AI.

Yoo Seung-min, president of the Korean Olympic Committee, who has been visiting Japan to encourage the delegation during the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya (Japan) Asian Games, stated that he would like to visit the e-sports venue as well.

"I plan to visit venues for sports that need support even if they are not medal events in the future," Yoo Seung-min (Chairman) said during an interview held on the 24th at the Main Media Center (MMC) in Nagoya, Japan. "Although it is not the Olympics, there are officially adopted sports at the Asian Games. Personally, I want to visit e-sports and see how they are properly conducted."

E-sports, which determines winners through video games, was first adopted as an official sport at the 2022 Hangzhou tournament held in 2023, and has been officially adopted again at this Aichi-Nagoya tournament. The number of events increased from seven at the Hangzhou tournament to eleven at this tournament.

South Korea will compete in nine events at this tournament, including League of Legends (LoL), Tekken 8, and PUBG Mobile (Asian Games version). Kim Young-chan (25, DCT Racing) has already won a bronze medal in Gran Turismo 7, securing the first e-sports medal for the South Korean delegation at this tournament. Much attention will be focused on League of Legends, where 'Faker' Lee Sang-hyeok (T1) and others will compete to challenge for back-to-back titles.

"E-sports has significant public interest," Yoo Seung-min (Chairman) said. "If I can see directly how it is being operated at the Asian Games, I think it could be helpful when we host e-sports and related tournaments in the future."

Continuing, Yoo (Chairman) added, "I am very familiar with other sports, but not with e-sports. It is true that I am not familiar with venues or systems. I believe that by seeing and experiencing these things myself, there may be parts we can prepare more perfectly when the opportunity to host comes our way."

At the previous Hangzhou tournament, South Korean e-sports won a total of four medals: two gold, one silver, and one bronze. Faker received special military service exemption for his gold medal in League of Legends at that time, becoming a topic of discussion as the first e-sports athlete to do so.

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*This content was translated by AI.