Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Conor English: New Zealand Esports President on the first ever Olympic Esports Games confirmed for next year

Transcript

Conor English: New Zealand Esports President on the first ever Olympic Esports Games confirmed for next year · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Right now we have the all Blacks, but have you
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: heard of the e Blacks? Here we e sports athletes
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: are going to be heading to Saudi Arabia next year
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  Speaker 1: to compete in the first ever Olympic Esports Games. The
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: International Olympic Committee voted unanimously for Saudi Arabia to host them.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: The decision comes as Read hosts the Esports World Cup,
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  Speaker 1: a two month event drawing two and a half thousand
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: gamers competing. Forget this, one hundred million New Zealand dollars
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: in prize money. It's massive. Connor English is the president
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: of New Zealand Esports and he's with me now, Connor.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning. Are you good?
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: So is this going to be like an official Olympics
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  Speaker 1: endorsed thing.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Yes it is. Yeah, it's a whole new Olympic competition
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  Speaker 2: that's been created. So you'll have the Summer Olympics, the
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  Speaker 2: Winter Olympics, and then the Esports Olympics and they're likely
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: to be in rotation over the four years.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: What do we like at esports? How many full time
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  Speaker 1: athletes do we have, if any?
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  Speaker 2: We don't have a lot of full time athletes, but
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: we do have some very good athletes. Esports as a
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  Speaker 2: sort of structured sport if you like is you know,
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  Speaker 2: it's a growing area of sports in New Zealand and
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  Speaker 2: we're getting as the New Zealand Esports Federation. We've been
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: putting in frames, for example, across the schools to help
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  Speaker 2: have integrity and the competitions and to build pathways for
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  Speaker 2: athletes to you know progress. And now that we've got
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  Speaker 2: this Olympic Games opportunity, then we'll be looking at how
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: we build pathways towards the Olympic Games for athletes.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: It must be one of the sports that has flushed
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  Speaker 1: with money, is it. I mean, it just seems every
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: time we talk about esports it's always something one hundred
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: million dollars.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, I think what we know is that,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: you know, gaining in esports has really grown, and you're
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: seeing you know a lot of movies now turning into
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: into esports games and often there's more money in the
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: gaming than what there is in the movies. So there
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: is a lot of money in the sector. We also
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: know that the participation rates are growing very substantially and
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: very quickly. If you talk to anyone younger than you
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  Speaker 2: and I Ryan, a lot of those people have been
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  Speaker 2: playing gaming in some shape or form, so participation is
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  Speaker 2: very high and now we're just moving through to having
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: more structured competitions, so there is a lot of money
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  Speaker 2: in that, because there is a lot of money in gaming.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Connor, thanks for your time this morning, and good luck
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  Speaker 1: with the Olympics. That's Connor English.
• 2:37
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• 2:40
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• 2:42
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