Secretary Rafael Picciani participated in an important agenda last Thursday (19) at the secretariat headquarters, receiving a group of thirteen athletes, trainers, coaches and professionals from different categories involved in the development of eSports in Rio de Janeiro. Some of the topics discussed included public policies for eSports; eSports and Education; new professions; High Performance eSports, infrastructure and public equipment for eSports; diversity in eSports, school and university eSports; high performance competitions; peace and development through eSports.
“This meeting will be the beginning of a permanent work. We are going to develop other debate environments. We want to bring to Rio, the center of eSports development, which stimulates the complete training of this athlete. This segment is not dependent on public power, but we begin to see that governments will begin, at some point, to approach this advance, and for that, it needs to have an inviting environment for the category,” said the secretary.
At the meeting, the group was able to expose expressive data and suggestions on how the public power can be used to bring benefits to the population of Rio de Janeiro, such as job creation in various segments of the labor market, technical training of teenagers, among others.
“We were very happy with the reception. Our initial expectation was to open a dialogue with the government of the State of Rio de Janeiro, and we left here with the proposal of composing a Working Group to think about public policies for the sector,” commented Ewerton Panda, CEO of the Empire DC team and promoter of eSports in the State of Rio de Janeiro.
Also participating in the meeting was Luciana Nunes, a psychologist who works in the eSports area and who worked on the Rio 2016 committee. “This opportunity is very important. My hope is to bring and use the eSports tool as a means of transformation, peace and development for communities. eSports has the ability to engage students and keep them in school. Our reality has changed a long time ago and we need to understand,” said Nunes.
Participants:
Ewerton Panda (CEO of the Empire DC team and eSports developer), Carlos Gama (Assespro - Associations of Brazilian Information Technology Companies), Paulo Mendes (Public Policies in eSports), Ingrid Souza (eSports and education), Marianna Muniz (Novas professions), Luiz Costa (High Performance eSports), Daniel Ciesla (Infrastructure and Public Equipment for eSports), Nayla Cristina (Diversity in eSports), Michel Assed (School and University eSports), Matheus Raposo and Lucas Ribeiro (High Performance Competitions ), and Luciana Nunes (Peace and Development through eSports).
More about eSports
Around the world, several countries already regulate eSports. Some even started to regulate related professions. This is the case of South Korea, China and Japan, which not only recognize the modality, but transform related disciplines into regulated professions. Other countries such as Malaysia, Russia and Finland already recognize eSports and Germany is negotiating with the government.
In Brazil, electronic sport is still not recognized by the Ministry of Sport. There are bills pending in Congress that seek, through definition proposals on the concept of the category, the identification of players as athletes, the recognition of eSports in the national sports scene. (Federal PL – Senate – 383-2017, Federal Bill – Chamber of Deputies – 3540/2015, Federal Bill – Chamber of Deputies – 7747-2017, State PL – SP Assembly – 1512-2015 SP).
Electronic sports have organized competitions, with clear and determined rules, within a professional development scenario. The relationship between the athletes and the teams complies with the provisions of Law 9615/98 (Pelé Law) which deals with professional athletes.
The Ministry of Labor and Employment already recognizes its players as athletes, with the granting of specific passports for competing in competitions in the country; there are projects based on the sports incentive law directly related to electronic sports, which demonstrates a direction of government agencies to understand eSports as a sport.
Source: GMB
