First-ever eSports Triathlon World Champion to be Crowned in 2022

It may be hard to pin down a single metric that makes eSport Triathlon a success, nonetheless, its seemingly unstoppable momentum will now see the first-ever eSports Triathlon World Champion crowned in 2022.

Make no mistake eSport Triathlon is here to stay becoming an officially recognised discipline for triathlon under a partnership between World Triathlon and Super League Triathlon that will see the formation of the Arena Games Triathlon powered by Zwift.

The aim will be to deliver new energy and entertainment to the sport relevant to the next ‘digital age’ generation. It is estimated that two billion people will have some knowledge of eSports — that’s more than one fifth of the entire world’s population. So, if you haven’t heard much about eSports yet, give it time. Its spread, both globally and culturally, is inevitable

So, could this be the format for an extra Olympic Triathlon medal? It would be to deceive not to acknowledge that the chances of obtaining inclusion in the Olympic programme appear to increase drastically for a sport if that particular sport can demonstrate that it will increase the commercial opportunities for the Games. Read more into this topic from our article dated December 2020, below.

Could eSports Triathlon qualify for Olympic inclusion?

The eSport Triathlon event series will give opportunities to ranked athletes and national federations to participate and pursue the official World Championship title by contributing to the athletes’ totals in the World Triathlon rankings. The eSport championship final is the same level in terms of points as a World Cup event and the series events are at the same level as a Continental Cup event.

The eSports World Tri Series will be three-race series with the first event taking place in Munich on April 9, 2022, with the second in London on April 23, and the Grand Final in Singapore on May 7. There will places for 16-20 athletes in each of men’s and women’s races in the Arena Games series races. In the finals, 30 men and 30 women will compete.

As with the previous Arena Games races, each event in this series will take place in an indoor facility, with athletes swimming 200m in an Olympic sized pool, then using a smart trainer for the 4k bike portions and then onto a self-powered treadmill for the 1km run legs These races are formatted differently than a traditional triathlon:

• Each event will have heats consisting of two stages (swim-bike-run/swim-bike-run), with the second stage in a pursuit format, meaning the athlete with the fastest time will start first, leaving others to try to catch up.
   
• The fastest athletes will move on to a final with three stages (swim-bike-run/run-bike-swim/swim-bike-run); the third stage will be in a pursuit format, based on the athlete’s times for the first two stages. 

• The grand final in Singapore will also include a repechage, where those who didn’t win their heats, but still placed well, have a chance to compete for a spot in the final. 

So, who will be crowned first-ever eSports Triathlon World Champion? Details of those who will actually be competing for this new world title will be coming soon, normally 4 weeks before the event

(Cover picture credit: Mike Tadder and Mike Campau)