Gamers find new ways to get kicks

No violence

The World Cup is no doubt a great opportunity for e-sports to gain more popularity and recognition, but the ultimate goal is to be included in the Olympics.

The Olympic Council of Asia has confirmed that e-sports will be part of the 2018 and 2022 Asian Games, while the International Olympic Council has said e-sports "could be considered a sporting activity".

One of the preconditions for adding e-sports to the Olympics is that they should share Olympic values - in other words, no violence.

However, according to the China Game Industry Report released by Tencent's Penguin Intelligence last June, in terms of game type, 63 percent of Chinese e-sports players like multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games such as League of Legends, while 31 percent like shooting games and only 7 percent like sports games.

Tencent's senior manager Hou said that adding sports games like FIFA Online into future Asian or Olympic games could be a long process.

"There's a long process involved in turning the perception of e-sports competition from mere performance to real sports events," said Hou.

"It's also about the e-sports development around Asia and the world, not only China.

"The development of various types of games and e-sports tournaments are very different among Asian countries.

"Through working with Asian E-sports Federation, we will help the e-sports development of many countries and have more communication."