Street Fighter V and Rocket League are coming to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics

Per Intel’s newsroom, the tech giant will bring esports one step closer to elevating to true Olympic-level competition in 2020, as they bring their $500K Intel World Open competition to Tokyo as an official tie-in to the Olympic games.

Esports: Intel announced the Intel World Open esports tournament will take place ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which builds on the first esports experience delivered at Intel® Extreme Masters PyeongChang. The Intel World Open will feature Capcom’s “Street Fighter V” and Psyonix’s “Rocket League,” and kick off with online qualifiers in early 2020 where any player at any level can compete for a chance to join their national team. –Intel

Intel will be hosting a live qualifier event in Katowice, Poland this coming June to determine which teams will advance to the Tokyo championship that following July. Obviously I don’t need to stress at all how huge this is for esports and gaming in general, but the sole fact that anybody can qualify and compete to represent their home country at the games is some dream-level stuff that a lot of boys and girls around the world probably couldn’t have even dreamed of before today.

Kit McConnell, the Sports Director for the IOC, said it himself that they’re continuing to explore the engagement between esports and the Olympic Movement, so who knows… Maybe we will see games like this in an Olympic stadium one day after all.