Here’s a look at the world’s most prestigious gaming competition, which is being held this year in Eilat, Israel that will start on November 16 to 20, all gamers from all over the world will go to Eilat for the 13th edition of the International Esports Federation (IESF) World Championships.
This will be Israel’s first time hosting the competition, which will be watched by hundreds of millions of people all over the world. Since the 11th World Championships, this event has already been in the works and now, the 12th edition of the competition will be held in Eilat at the time, but it was postponed due to the covid pandemic. The competition was eventually held entirely online.
The long-awaited world championships have finally arrived.
Ido Brosh said that it is incredible that they have now finally arrived at a point where they can show the world Israeli hospitality, and gamers from 71 countries are expected to attend the event in Eilat and said that he is ecstatic about it, and hopes everyone will have a good time.
Brosh is Israel esports Association (IESA) head, the Israeli representative organization within the IESF, and he also serves on the board of the IESF, making him the first Israeli to do so.
The IESF world championships are different from other major esports competitions and tournaments because of their nation-based focus. Rather than clubs and teams, national teams are used in the world championships, with individual countries sending representatives through their respective IESF representative organizations. This puts it in the same league as the FIFA World Cup, and, like the World Cup, not everyone will be able to attend. Instead, a series of qualifiers are held all over the world to narrow down the field of competitors.
The gamers compete in a variety of games, including DOTA 2, a popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) title that emphasizes strategy; Tekken 7, a fighting game considered one of Israel’s most popular competitive esport titles; Counter Strike: GO (CS:GO), the world’s most popular esport title; and eFootball 2022, a soccer game that is the most recent title and is a full rebrand of the previous title.
Aside from that, there will be one more game. Audition is a Korean-made dance and rhythm game that isn’t as well-known in the West as the others. As a result, it will be an exhibition game rather than a competitive game. It does, however, have one advantage: female players.
Brosh said that esports is unfortunately a very male-dominated scene that is why they are thrilled to see more women participate and that it’s an important part of their plan. However, because of the competition’s international scope, there are political considerations to be made, especially since many countries do not recognize Israel or have diplomatic relations with it.
Given the many different corona travel restrictions around the world, sending any delegation is impressive.
Indeed, Brosh is very proud of the fact that such political and pandemic issues can be overcome, referring to it as “triumph of esports” not only in the face of politics, but also in the face of COVID.
This type of outreach is important to Brosh because it allows him to give the younger generation a positive first impression of Israel, saying that they had to have the event online last year, and it reached over 400 million people around the world. He added that in Europe and America, where Israel isn’t always depicted positively, and in Asia, where Israel is rarely, if ever, featured.
He said that it is very important to him as the head of the IESA, and he’s very proud of it so far saying that they are showing Israel to people who don’t know enough about them, not to people who love or hate them, and they’re hitting them in the right spot.
Brosh explained that they will be showing them something they didn’t know and that they will have Israel, a country that can do so many amazing things.
However, due to Brosh’s current workload, these future projects will have to wait explaining that this year’s World Championship is taking up the majority of their capacity, but after that, and thank to their partnership with Maccabi World Union, Brosh believe a lot of projects for Israeli and Jewish esports could come to life in the future, not in ten years, but sooner.
One of the projects he can now reveal is that an esports exhibition will be held at the upcoming Maccabiah games in 2022.
The goal is to introduce esports to the Jewish community saying that they are showing how there are Jews playing esports right under their nose, and they should engage in this for kids who aren’t interested in traditional sports and that they need Israel to become the Jewish world’s undisputed leader in esports and gaming, and he believe they are on our way there.If Brosh is not being too bold, he’ll say that esports are beneficial to Israel.
The IESF World Championships will begin on Tuesday at 10 a.m. at Eilat’s Ice Mall. It will be broadcast (in English) on HOT’s Channel 66 in Israel, as well as 24 TV channels around the world. It can also be found on the IESF and World Championships websites, as well as on Twitch and social media.