Interview

Marseille, France

Full-scale witness: 
Yannick Agnel shares 
his vision of e-sport for the future 

„E-Sport is a passion just like traditional sport”

Exclusive interview of Yannick Agnel, twice swimming Olympic champion (200m freestyle and  4x100m freestyle) aux London JO in 2012, former partner of Nabaiji and today sports manager at MCES, E-Sport academy.

In 2018, CIO met Gamers at Lausanne, Switzerland, concerning the e-sport and Olympic games, what do you think about it?

It is a good idea to be able to think about the Olympic Games, as e-sport can benefit from the expertise of the Olympic Games movement and the Olympic Games can benefit from the energy of the e-sport movement. it could be good for CIO as the average age of the TV audience of the Olympic games in France, is around 50 years. We have to find a way to make the TV audience younger. Maybe bringing E-sport to the Olympic Games, or creating a special competition with the Olympic Games, E-Olympiques Games, and Paralympic Games. This could be a good idea.

The dynamic went from pleasure to competition in video games?

E-sport has always existed. Video games are « e-sport ». Like the very first video game « Pong ». What is « Pong »?  Tennis, so it is a sport, with interaction, competition, etc. There are lots of E-sport video games on the market, as creators and editors have understood people needed that kind of product to attract a young audience and unite their customers. It is a way to have emotions and thrill someone’s passion like in traditional sport.

As an Olympic games winner, can you talk about the difference between professional gamers of e-sport and non-professional ones?

The general public doesn’t know much about it, people don’t make the difference between a pro and a non- pro e-sport gamer. We talk about having a gift for the game. Some gamers are very gifted, quicker, more accurate, with better reflexes who practises 6 to 7 hours a day like athletes in traditional sports. 

Yannick Agnel

Your vision is the same one considering sport and e-sport: the same training sessions ( physical, mental, nutritional)  and with a double e-sport studies project .

E-sport in the future is to associate sport and e-sport, that is what we aim for at MCES. There are 5 million occasional gamers in France, 3 million are interested in the video games competition. It is nearly the same number as the number of soccer players registered at the soccer Federation. What do we do with those people? Do we find solutions for them? A structure? An organization?  Help them to have a chance to live their passion as long as possible? At MCES, we have decided to get a move on and help those gamers to live their passion.

July 2020

DECATHLON FRANCE

Nabaiji

Nabaiji, the water sports brand.