Brasília, 01/12/22
I have been preparing this text for some time now, which has a personal vision, as well as a market vision.
Electronic sport, better known as eSport, still has great prejudice in the Brazilian sports universe, but let's go to two concepts that are very clear to me, electronic sport and virtualized sport.
Electronic sports are commonly linked to video game consoles and PCs, but why not call practitioners athletes? Why not recognize it as a sport?
According to studies presented in 2021, the eSports and game streaming market is expected to grow by 70% in the next three years, according to a report by Juniper Research. The projection is that the global electronic sports market will move US$ 3.5 billion in 2025 – against US$ 2.1 billion currently.
The research “eSports & Games Streaming: Emerging Opportunities & Market Forecasts 2021-2025” further predicts that market value will be driven by subscription spending for streaming platforms and advertising. There is still room for further growth in other areas such as broadcast rights and ticket sales for live events.
But how to break this prejudice?
Virtualized sport is indeed a way to break paradigms, as the concept involves real-life sports replicated in the virtual universe.
And as I recently experienced, against data and facts there are no questions about the path of this evolution.
The INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE launched on November 16, 2022 the Olympic Esports Week with the modalities of cycling, rowing, baseball, motorsport and sailing, which marks the next big step in supporting the development of virtual sports within the Olympic Movement and in the Increased engagement with competitive gamers with finals in June 2023 in Singapore (source).
The modalities proposed by the IOC, cycling and rowing use the physical strength of athletes in simulators that reach 99.9% of accuracy in relation to face-to-face outdoor competitions.
But you reader, must now be thinking: "I doubt that this is possible, because it's all video games!"
Let's go to another concept that must be respected, VIRTUAL REALITY x AUGMENTED REALITY.
Virtual Reality is based on graphically created elements in a utopian universe
AUGMENTED REALITY, on the other hand, uses real data such as geographic location, altimetry and real videos to create routes, and if you are still wondering about the fidelity of the information, check out some examples below:
Example 1
L´Étape Brasil Virtual by Tour de France presented by Santander ; the 1st competition in the WORLD with simultaneous start of the real and virtual race with the short course of 60km.
Example 2
Ricardo Alcici - Two-time Brazilian elite track champion, 9th place in the 2015 Copa América de Ciclismo, Top 7th in two editions of the 9 de Julho classic, graduated in Ed. Physics, postgraduate in Sports Training.
Training on the Rouvy platform | 09/16/22 | L'Étape Brasil complete tour
Competition | 09/25/22 | L'Étape Brasil complete tour
Note that the altimetric profile, as well as the time and power data have a minimum difference taking into account the distance; the difference of 3km occurs because in the week before the event the organization of the event needed to change the starting place.
Example 3
Schubert Abreu - Founder of Brazilian Virtual Cycling, sport enthusiast, international triathlon referee and state road cycling commissioner.
Training on the Rouvy platform | 22/04/22 | South Lake - Brasilia/DF
Training on the road | 24/04/22 | South Lake - Brasilia/DF
Once again, the altimetric variation, as well as distance and time are extremely similar, proving that through the use of software like ROUVY, virtual competitions are EXTREMELY REAL.
Virtualized sport is a reality, bringing the whole world together with much lower operating costs and a higher engagement rate and audience.
Brazil today is a reference in the realization of events and projects through Brazilian Virtual Cycling, and when we are asked where and at what speed we are going, I leave here a famous phrase between a master and his disciple:
"Hey Doc, but the road doesn't have room for us to reach 55mph!"
"Road? Where we're going we don't need roads"
Schubert Abreu
Founder of Brazilian Virtual Cycling
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