You have to make a splash, not a spill! That’s probably what the current president of France, Emmanuel Macron, thought. In an interview with the French website thebigWhale, he announced ambitious plans for 2024. He wants to bring the world’s biggest esports tournaments to France.

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France, a great video game nation

In a roundup of programs and attitudes around the net world, Emmanuel Macron also extensively praised France as a great video game nation during his interview with thebigWhale. For example, he said, the country is not only home to industry giants like Ubisoft. Esport teams like Team Vitality and Karmine Corp were also mentioned by the president.

Top French players in many Esport titles, as well as a large streaming scene, have done their part to establish France as one of the video game strongholds of Europe. A distinction that is also evident at tournaments. In 2019, for example, not only did a Dota Major take place in Paris, but the grand finale of the LoL Worlds also hosted thousands of fans at the Accor Arena on the Seine.

Macron now plans to make France the video game nation par excellence and sees a historic opportunity to do so in 2024.

Fitting for Olympics 2024

France will host the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the pinnacle of sporting achievement. According to Macron’s will, France is to hold the biggest esport events in the same year to match.

He names these as the Worlds in League of Legends, the International in Dota 2, and one of the Majors in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. As president, he said he would work to establish such a “link between the Olympiads of both worlds” and bring France’s influence to bear.

Just an election campaign maneuver?

As an Esport fan, such lofty plans naturally trigger enthusiasm at first. After all, such a concentration of Esport events in our neighboring country would be a more than welcome contrast to the step-motherly treatment of Esport in Germany.

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Still, it is important to keep in mind that this statement by Macron is, of course, taking place during the current election campaign in France. After all, the president also ends the paragraph on Esport by saying that he will work on it if the French trust him and re-elect him. Macron faces a runoff against his rival Marine Le Pen on Sunday. In the first round of voting, the two were separated by a mere 4 percentage points.

Even if it ends up being “just” a last-minute vote-getter among younger voters, Macron has certainly drawn attention to the gaming and esports scene in France. Nonetheless, the president’s recognition of the achievements of French esports professionals and video game developers is a great thing for the French scene.

Whether France will then actually become the 2024 Esports Olympics remains to be seen. You can read the entire interview on a variety of topics from the world of gaming here:

Interview with Emmanuel Macron by thebigWhale