 Logo | |
 Member nations per August 2020 | |
| Abbreviation | IESF |
|---|---|
| Formation | August 11, 2008 |
| Type | Sports federation |
| Headquarters | Busan, South Korea |
Official language | English |
President | Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud |
Main organ | General Assembly |
| Website | https://iesf.org |
The International Esports Federation (IESF) is a global organization based in South Korea whose mission it is to have esports recognized as a legitimate sport.
As of 2023, there are 140 member states of the IESF, including: [1]
Afghanistan 
Bahrain 
Bangladesh 
Brunei 
Bhutan 
Cambodia 
China 
Chinese Taipei 
Hong Kong 
India 
Indonesia 
Iran 
Iraq 
Japan 
Jordan 
Kazakhstan 
Kuwait 
Kyrgyzstan 
Laos 
Lebanon 
Macau 
Malaysia 
Maldives 
Mongolia 
Myanmar 
Nepal 
Pakistan 
Palestine 
Philippines 
Qatar 
Saudi Arabia 
South Korea 
Sri Lanka 
Syria 
Tajikistan 
Thailand 
Timor Leste 
Turkmenistan 
United Arab Emirates 
Uzbekistan 
Vietnam 
Albania 
Armenia 
Austria 
Azerbaijan 
Belarus 
Belgium 
Bosnia and Herzegovina 
Bulgaria 
Croatia 
Czech Republic 
Denmark 
Estonia 
Finland 
France 
Georgia 
Germany 
Greece 
Hungary 
Iceland 
Ireland 
Israel 
Italy 
Kosovo 
Latvia 
Lithuania 
Luxembourg 
Malta 
Moldova 
Monaco 
Montenegro 
North Macedonia 
Netherlands 
Norway 
Poland 
Portugal 
Romania 
Russia 
San Marino 
Serbia 
Slovakia 
Slovenia 
Spain 
Sweden 
Switzerland 
Turkey 
Ukraine 
Wales The International Esports Federation (IeSF) was established on August 8, 2008, by nine esports associations from Denmark, South Korea, Germany, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Vietnam, and Taiwan. In November of the same year, the organization held its inaugural general meeting.[ citation needed ]
A year later, on December 12, 2009, the IeSF hosted its first international tournaments. These tournaments included the "IeSF Challenge" in 2009, followed by the "IeSF Grand Finals" in 2010, and the "IeSF World Championship" starting from 2011 and onward. [2]
In 2012, IeSF introduced the first-ever esports tournament for women during the IeSF 2012 World Championship.[ citation needed ]
On July 7, 2013, IeSF was chosen as the representative for the electronic sports discipline at the 4th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, marking the first time esports had a presence in an Olympic event. [3]
In May 2013, IeSF gain recognition as the official signatory of the World Anti-Doping Agency within the branch of esports. [4]
In July 2013, IeSF submitted an application to join Sport Accord, with expectations of becoming a temporary member in April 2014. [5]
In November 2013, the IeSF hosted the IeSF 2013 World Championship and the 2013 General Meeting in Bucharest, Romania, a significant departure from their usual South Korea location.[ citation needed ]
In May 2014, the IeSF was granted membership by TAFISA and announced its participation in the 2016 TAFISA World Games for All, to be held in Jakarta. [6]
In 2014, IeSF initially implemented gender-based restrictions in the Hearthstone tournament, but later amended its policy to merge the sections into open-for-all tournaments while still maintaining female-only tournaments with smaller prize pools. [7]
During the 2015 World Championship, an esports panel was hosted with international sports society representatives to discuss the potential recognition of esports as a legitimate sporting activity worldwide. [8]
The IeSF expanded further with the inclusion of new member federations, such as Colombia's Federación Colombiana de Deportes Electrónicos (FEDECOLDE), Kazakhstan's Qazaq Cybersport Federation (QCF), Turkey's Turkish Esports Federation (TESFED), and Ukraine's Federation of E-Sport of Ukraine (UESF), bringing the total member count to 60, spanning six continents. [9]
In July 2016, Macau became the 56th member nation of the IESF. [10]
In 2018, IESF voted to accept the United States Esports Federation (USEF) as a full member, establishing USEF as the officially recognized national governing body for esports in the United States. [11]
In a bid to expand into the Middle East, the IeSF signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the UAE's Motivate Media Group, the parent company of "Gulf Business," as the esports community in the Middle East continued to grow, with over 300 million gamers in the region. [12]
In October 2023, IESF appointed Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, a member of the Saudi Arabian royal family, as its president. [13]
The IESF has held fourteen World Esports Championships:
The AFC Asian Cup is the primary association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), determining the continental champion of Asia. It is the second oldest continental football championship in the world after Copa América. The winning team becomes the champion of Asia and until 2015 qualified for the FIFA Confederations Cup.
Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams.
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) is the governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal in most countries/territories in Asia. It has 47 members. The Asian Ladies Football Confederation (ALFC) was the section of AFC who managed women's association football in Asia. The group was independently founded in April 1968 in a meeting involving Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. In 1986 ALFC merged with AFC.
The Namibian Electronic Sports Association (NESA) is the governing and representative body for Electronic Sports in Namibia. It was founded in 2010, and affiliated to IeSF in 2011 as the third country from Africa to obtain membership after South Africa and Egypt. NESA organises various esports leagues and the Namibian National esports team. In 2012 it was closed due to lack of community interest and participation. It was re-opened in 2013 by the original founders and select members from the community. The first formal National Team was selected in 2014 for DotA2, called the Desert Sidewinders. NESA has since awarded National Colours via the Namibian Sports Commission annually and expanded on the number of National titles hosted per year. In 2017 NESA sent the very first Namibian esports athlete abroad to participate in Tekken7 at the IESF World Championship held in Busan, South Korea. More Namibian athletes has since then been sent to partake in the annual IESF World Championship and numerous online international test matches are hosted each year.
Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) is recognised by Act of Parliament as the national controlling body for mind sports in South Africa.
The International Federation of Muaythai Associations, or IFMA, called the International Federation of Muaythai Amateur until 27 July 2019, is a sport governing body of amateur and professional Muay Thai and Muay boran consisting of 140 member countries worldwide with 5 continental federations after unification of International Federation of Muaythai Amateur and World Muaythai Council. IFMA is officially recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF), the Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF), the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) International World Games Association (IWGA), and Trim and Fitness International Sport for All Association (TAFISA). Muaythai has been included in many official sport programs such as the World Games, World Combat Games, Arafura Games, TAFISA Games, SEA Games, Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, Asian Beach Games, Demonstration Sport in the Asian Games.
The ESL Gaming GmbH, doing business as ESL, is a German esports organizer and production company that produces video game competitions worldwide. ESL was the world's largest esports company in 2015, and the oldest that is still operational. Based in Cologne, Germany, ESL has eleven offices and multiple international TV studios globally. ESL is the largest esports company to broadcast on Twitch.
The League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) is the professional League of Legends esports league run by Riot Games in the EMEA region, in which ten teams compete. Each annual season of play is divided into three splits, winter, spring and summer, all consisting of three weeks of round-robin tournament play, which then conclude with play-off tournaments between the top six teams. At the end of the season, the top performing teams qualify for the annual League of Legends World Championship. The LEC represents the highest level of League of Legends play in the EMEA.
The 2015 World Weightlifting Championships were held in Houston, United States. The event took place from November 19 to 28, 2015. This event was, together with the 2014 World Weightlifting Championships, the first stage of the Qualification Process for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Blizzard Entertainment's online collectible card game Hearthstone became played professionally quickly after its release in March 2014. The game is played as an esport, with high-level tournaments such as Blizzard's official World Championship featuring prize pool of up to $1 million, and livestreamers can earn money streaming gameplay on Twitch.
Esports were featured at the 2018 Asian Games as a demonstration sport, meaning medals won in this sport would not be counted in the official overall medal tally. It was held from 26 August to 1 September 2018. Six video games were featured in the demonstration event, Arena of Valor, Clash Royale, Hearthstone, League of Legends, Pro Evolution Soccer, and StarCraft II.
Professional StarCraft II competition features professional gamers competing in Blizzard Entertainment's real-time strategy game StarCraft II. Professional play began following the game's initial release in 2010, as the game was the sequel to StarCraft, considered one of the first esports and the foundation of South Korea's interest and success in competitive gaming. Between 2016 and 2019, competition was centered around the Global StarCraft II League in Korea and the World Championship Series Circuit everywhere else, with all Blizzard-sanctioned events being under the StarCraft II World Championship Series (WCS) banner. Since 2020, Blizzard changed the format of WCS by entering into a three-year partnership with esports organizers ESL and DreamHack.
The International Teqball Federation is the governing body for the sport of teqball and para teqball. FITEQ is responsible for the organisation of teqball's major international tournaments, notably the Teqball World Championships.
The Philippine Esports Organization is the national governing body for esports in the Philippines. It is a member of the International Esports Federation (IESF) since 2012 and is an associate member of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) since 2020.
Esports at the 2022 Asian Games were held at the China Hangzhou Esports Center in Hangzhou, China from 24 September to 2 October 2023.
The Philippines national esports team represents the Philippines in international esports tournaments. It is organized under the Philippine Esports Organization.
Cheating in esports is a deliberate violation of the rules of an esports governing body or other behavior that is intended to give an unfair advantage to a player or team. At its core, esports are video game competitions in an organized, competitive environment. Tournaments often pay out prize money to the highest placing teams in these events, giving players an incentive to cheat. Commonly cited instances of cheating include the use of software cheats, such as aimbots and wallhacks, exploitation of bugs, use of performance-enhancing drugs, such as Ritalin and Adderall, and match fixing.
The Esports World Federation (EWSF) is a Philippine-based international organization that serves as an umbrella body for international federations in electronic sports (esports) and digital sports and other game genres across the world.
Esports and competitive video gaming | |
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| MOBA |
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| Real-time strategy | |
| Shooter | |
| Sports | |
| Other genres | |
| Multi-genre | |
| Governing bodies |
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| Defunct organizations | |
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