Esports is making a huge comeback next year as it officially joins the 31st Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) as a sport category.
The SEA Games 2021 will be hosted in Vietnam from the 21st of November to the 2nd of December, just months after the conclusion of the Tokyo Olympics, which had to be rescheduled from 2020 to 2021. This will be the second year in a row that the SEA Games will have esports as a medaled event.
In addition to esports, three other disciplines will complete the list of SEA Games sports, namely triathlon, bowling, and jiu-jitsu. These three categories have been approved and a formal announcement will come in November.
The 2019 SEA Games saw esports as a medal event for the first time, debuting six online titles popular across Southeast Asia: Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Arena of Valor, Dota 2, Tekken 7, Starcraft, and Hearthstone. The host nation, the Philippines, dominated three out of six titles and walked away with the country with the most gold medals won for the esports category. The next host country, Vietnam, took bronze medals in Dota 2, AoV, and Starcraft 2.