Esports at the Asian Games: From Demo Event to Korea's Double Gold

On October 2, 2026, in an exhibition hall in Tokoname, south of Nagoya, South Korea's League of Legends team finished off Chinese Taipei 3-0 and collected its second straight Asian Games gold medal. It had not lost a single game in the whole tournament. Eight years earlier, the same event had been a demonstration with no official medals at all.

That journey, from experiment to established medal sport, is one of the most important in esports. It has given players national-team caps, put esports alongside athletics and swimming on the same programme and, in Korea, changed the career calculations of professional players. Here is how esports got into the Asian Games and what happened at each edition.

Jakarta 2018: the demonstration

Esports made its Asian Games debut at Jakarta-Palembang 2018 as a demonstration sport, which meant its medals did not count in the official table. From August 26 to September 1, six titles were played: Arena of Valor, Clash Royale, Hearthstone, League of Legends, Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 and StarCraft II.

The League of Legends final was the headline. China, with a line-up that included the ADC Uzi, top laner Letme and support Ming, beat South Korea to take gold; Chinese Taipei won bronze. Korea's silver-medal team was a who's who of the LCK: Kiin, Score, Faker, Peanut, Ruler and CoreJJ. Korea's consolation came in StarCraft II, where Cho Seong-ju won gold.

Hangzhou: the first medals

The next Games, Hangzhou 2022, were held a year late, from September 24 to October 2, 2023, at the Hangzhou Esports Center. This time esports was a full medal sport, with 475 athletes from 30 nations.

The programme was supposed to include eight events. In March 2023 the Olympic Council of Asia dropped Hearthstone, because Blizzard's games had stopped operating in mainland China, leaving seven: EA Sports FC Online, Street Fighter V, Arena of Valor, Dota 2, Dream Three Kingdoms 2, League of Legends and PUBG Mobile.

Host nation China topped the esports medal table with four golds. South Korea was second with two golds (League of Legends and Street Fighter V), a silver in PUBG Mobile and a bronze in FC Online. Thailand took gold and silver in FC Online. China's four golds came in Arena of Valor, Dota 2, Dream Three Kingdoms 2 and PUBG Mobile, and one of the surprises of the Games was Mongolia, which won silver in Dota 2.

Korea's League gold came from a team of Zeus, Kanavi, Chovy, Ruler, Keria and Faker, with Chinese Taipei taking silver and China bronze. Faker caught the flu during the Games and missed the later knockout matches, but he still received a medal, and the gold earned the players an exemption from Korea's mandatory military service, a life-changing reward for athletes whose careers usually peak in their early twenties.

Aichi-Nagoya 2026: the biggest programme yet

Esports' place at the 2026 Games in Japan was not always certain. The OCA added it on July 8, 2023, with the Japan Esports Union and the Asian Electronic Sports Federation as co-organisers. In November 2024, reports said the OCA was considering moving esports into a separate competition for non-traditional sports. In the end, the OCA's executive board approved the titles in February 2025 and finalised 13 titles across 11 events on February 22.

The esports events ran from September 22 to October 2, 2026, at the Aichi International Exhibition Center, also known as Aichi Sky Expo, in Tokoname, with 537 competitors from 29 nations. The line-up mixed PC, console and mobile:

• PC: League of Legends, Naraka: Bladepoint, Puyo Puyo Champions
• Console: Gran Turismo 7 (PS5), Pokemon Unite (Switch), and a fighting-game team event combining Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8 and The King of Fighters XV
• Mobile: Honor of Kings, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (making its debut), PUBG Mobile, Identity V
• PC and mobile: eFootball

Host nation Japan won gold in Puyo Puyo Champions and Pokemon Unite. Iran won eFootball, Malaysia won Gran Turismo 7 and China won Naraka: Bladepoint.

Korea's second League gold

Korea's League roster was picked by the Korea Esports Association (KeSPA) using a points system built on league results, international titles, All-Pro selections and detailed stats such as kill participation and damage share. The six chosen in May were Zeus, Canyon, Zeka, Faker, Gumayusi and Keria, under coach Kang Dong-hoon. The selection caused debate, because T1 jungler Oner was left out of a line-up that otherwise included four members of T1's 2023-2024 core, and Gen.G's Chovy, reported to be dealing with hip problems, also missed out.

To give the players time to prepare, the LCK shortened its second half from three round-robins to two. The League tournament's qualifier was held in Kuala Lumpur from June 12 to 14, with eight teams, including Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Vietnam, competing for places.

On the field there was no debate. Korea swept its group, beat Saudi Arabia 2-0 in the semifinal and beat Chinese Taipei 3-0 in the final, winning all eight of its games. For the final, Kang started Zeka in mid rather than Faker. Faker, Zeus and Keria became two-time Asian Games champions; Canyon, Zeka and Gumayusi won gold at their first Games.

Korea also won gold in the fighting-game team event, where Bae Jae-min, Lee Kwang-no and Yeon Je-gil came back from 1-2 down to beat Japan 5-2 on September 26. Kang Dong-shin took silver in Puyo Puyo Champions, losing the final to Japan's Yuki Kurihara, and Korea won bronze in Gran Turismo 7 and Pokemon Unite. That made five medals: two gold, one silver and two bronze. Not every Korean team got that far: the PUBG Mobile squad finished sixth with 71 points, the Honor of Kings team lost to the Philippines in the quarterfinals, the Identity V team lost to China at the same stage and the eFootball pair went out in the group stage.

By the numbers

• 3 Asian Games with esports: 2018 (demonstration), Hangzhou (first medals), Aichi-Nagoya
• 6 titles in 2018, 7 medal events in Hangzhou, 13 titles in 11 events in 2026
• 475 athletes from 30 nations in Hangzhou; 537 from 29 nations in Aichi-Nagoya
• 8-0: Korea's game record in the 2026 League tournament
• 5: Korea's esports medals in 2026 (2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze)

What to watch

Esports now has a clear place in Asia's multi-sport calendar, and the mix of titles shows where the region's audiences are: mobile games sit alongside PC and console. For Korea, the League team has become one of the country's most reliable gold medal hopes, and national-team selection is now a major storyline in every Asian Games year. The 2026 season also showed that leagues now plan around the Games: the LCK reshaped its own calendar so the national team could train together, something that would have been unthinkable when esports was only a demonstration event in Jakarta. For the career of the one player who has been at all three, read our Faker profile.