The management of the sports association is faced with a big value decision when planning next year’s match against Sweden at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium, writes journalist Atte Husu.
Atte Husu Sports journalist
Does a shooter game played on game consoles belong to a traditional athletics match against Sweden?
Urheilu’s question confused the director of coaching and training of the Sports Confederation Jarkko Finnia and GM Jani from Denmark At the Kaleva Games at the end of July.
– So how does this relate to athletics? Finni started with a questioning look at Tanskanen’s side.
The reason for the question can be found in the agreement between the Sports Confederation, or SUL, and the Finnish Electronic Sports Association, SEUL. It brings athletics and computer games under the same umbrella in the Sweden match to be held at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium in the fall of 2024.
Although the question surprised the athletics bosses, the issue is not new: SUL and SEUL already cooperated in 2022. At that time, Pelimaailma participated in the Sweden match online as a simultaneously organized country match.
One of the game formats of the ground match was the Counter Strike shooting game, where the task of the player walking on the screen as a human character is to kill the enemy group in the given time window or to prevent the enemy from completing the given task.
What kind of imagination does SUL play with?
This is where I raise my hand. The shooting game and electronic sports in question are not familiar to the undersigned in any way.
Pelimaailma, which has grown explosively in recent decades, has been in my thoughts at most when I have done stories or participated in discussions about the giant public health problem plaguing Finnish society, immobility.
However, the acceptance of different ideas is an essential part of a free society, and I’m not taking a stand on the existence of the shooting game in question.
However, I strongly question that a game that simulates virtual killing is equated with a classic event in athletics, even at the level of imagination – let alone in marketing.
Virtually occurring violence cannot in any way be compared to real-life events, such as, for example, Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, which has affected the lives of Finns more or less for more than a year and a half.
However, it is appropriate to think about whether virtual violence changes the attitude towards violence as a repulsive phenomenon. Does it soften our attitude towards violence?
What will the consumer of athletics think if he sees when he arrives at the Olympic Stadium a year from now Wilma Murron, by Oliver Helander or Silja Kosonen next to an ad about a virtual character in a field suit equipped with an assault rifle?
Marketing would certainly be affected by the fact that, unlike the whole family’s athletics country match, the age limit for the shooting game in question is 16 years.
The Yleuhurheilaijat ry has a positive attitude
Why does SUL want to share its flagship event with a shooter?
The former chairman of SUL, who signed the national match agreement with SEOUL Sami Itani justified the matter a year ago as follows:
– I am extremely happy and proud that, after several years of good cooperation, we are also able to move forward with such a concrete joint initiative with e-sports. Electronic sports is on the rise both in terms of hobby and high-quality event production, which is also reflected in the huge commercial potential of the sport. Respecting tradition, we must also modernize our national matches at the Olympic Stadium. With the help of e-sports, we are able to reach completely new audiences who have not previously experienced or followed athletics as their own form of sport, Itani said in the press release at the time of announcing the collaboration.
In July, Urheilu asked the current chairman of SUL about the meaning of cooperation related to violent games at the Kaleva Games Riikka Pakarinen. He replied that no final decision has yet been made regarding the events surrounding next year’s Sweden match.
However, Pakarinen said that the selection of electronic sports competing at the Olympic Stadium will be a topic of discussion at the planning meetings for the Sweden match later in the fall. CEO of SUL Harry Aalto shared Pakarinen’s line.
Instead, the umbrella organization of track and field athletes, Yleisurheilaijat ry, announced its chairman Topias Koukkulan media that it does not see a problem in bringing shooting games to the national match as a side event.
Athletics has a strong position in Finland, which does not mean that it should not strive to reach new target groups. However, it should weigh carefully what image it wants to market itself with.
Virtual violence should not even be an option on the table. I wish the decision-makers wisdom for the autumn meetings.
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