will you be nostalgic for your homeland? sanya, what are you doing here, well, the same as you, i’m going to have dinner, guys, this is the day, the anniversary of your acquaintance, judge what ’s serious, candle, don’t you think this is too much, and what are we drinking, champagne, no , let's order something stronger, oh, why are there only two devices, you should put on, or something, some unknown ritual of your tribe, sanya, can i just say a few words to you, and then. i just sat down, hungry as a dog, well, let's see what zhorik will treat us with today, sanya, sanya, okay, zhor, calm down, i i was joking, i was just passing by, i stopped by to congratulate you, that’s it, i congratulated you, sorry!

and continue without me, no, well, not idiots, our esports athletes are winning on the world stage and from now on they are allowed the national flag and anthem at international competitions. what is the secret of success, what can i say to those who consider such competitions to be child's play? who is spoiled by the millions in prize money, is it really doping here, and how computer games have become a significant component of soft power, let's talk about this with the head of the russian computer sports federation dmitry smith.

dmitry, e-sports is becoming more and more popular in the world in our country, there is data on how many russians are involved in this process and what are the growth prospects, well, the growth prospects are clear, people are constantly being born, constantly picking up gadgets, in fact, this is very simple the path to esports, if we take beautiful and tasty numbers, we can probably say that this year, more than 800,000 participants have already taken part in the competitions that we hold on the vkplay platform, but here you need to understand what is participation, it’s like there are unique views, yes, that is - one person can watch several times, one person can take part in several competitions at the same time, so if we take participants, then there will be 800,000 of them, and if we take unique, that is, of course, it will be about 2 seconds less, if we take

the study of nelson or some other companies that are interested in this area, then they generally estimate the esports audience at 15 million, yeah, well, that’s in our country, in our country, no, if we take it in the world, several orders of magnitude more, today russian and belarusian athletes are under serious restrictions, something similar is happening in e-sports, and yes and no, that is, from... initially, yes, sanctions were imposed on us, we were forbidden to perform under the flag, under the anthem, but this year there was a congress of the international federation, it includes 140 countries, with the exception of 14 countries that insisted that the sanctions remain, and the rest countries adhered of a different opinion, as a result, the sanctions were lifted from us, our team even managed to go to international competitions this year and participate fully with the russian flag.

tell me in what types of sports the russians demonstrate success, because there are also all sorts of shooting games, popularly called shooters, yes ? of course, simulators, including sports, you know, what a thing , russian athletes have always been very strong and in all games, that is, i played starcraft at one time, but it was the russians who beat everyone there, and then yes the koreans were the first to seize the palm tree for a while, but that’s a different story if we take it. there are the same shooters, as you say, shooting games, but in our country it is classified as tactical three-dimensional combat, in e-sports, and here russian athletes are also at their best, and it’s not only counstray there, there is a domestic game, there is stand off 2, for example , there are also a large number of people competing, there are races, there are, after all, here we have a technical simulator - this is the control of drones, when drones fly at speed, drone racing in virtual space, and also our wonderful guys. feels well, that is, no

, russia is rich in talent, our guys perform very well, it’s no secret that the average person looks at e-sports with a little juice. well, just think, they play some kind of computer toys, i also have achievements, but what would you say in defense of esports, that is, is it all true ? we just did a study, when the guys played in the finals, we hung a sensor on them, took telemetry body, so the level of mobilization of the body is comparable to a race the 100-meter dash, or the same feeling experienced by a formula 1 pilot while on the track, that is, this is a very high level. body, this is the ability not only to quickly react competently, this is the ability to competently, quickly react in a team, there are studies, you can read them, but try the simplest thing, you know, sometimes, as they say, here is a person who spends a long time at the computer, he has sores

begin to appear, there, then the back, you know, there, carpal tunnel syndrome, something else, what you say is absolutely correct, so the first thing, what we teach in our esports sections is... safety and in general it would be a good idea for all office employees to study it: how to sit correctly, how to choose a monitor, how to do eye exercises, how to avoid this carpal tunnel syndrome, and so on . we have to talk about doping in e-sports or not, or is it still clean, as they say, well, how can e-sports be clean when there is so much money in it? the temptation is great, and naturally, young guys often try to increase their chances of winning through unfair competition, in esports, doping probably comes in two forms, there is the classic medicinal doping, let’s call it that, our guys undergo rusada testing, receive certificates stating that they know what is possible and what is not, and naturally, there is technical doping, the so-called scam programs, cheats, because

a person connects the same mouse, it has built-in memory, and from it on the computer a program can come out as a virus, i don’t know, that will try to give him some advantages. they are broadcasting, well there, i don’t know, not even six months go by without some fairly eminent player being caught cheating, tell me, as for the level of the prize fund, there is no limit to perfection, because well, in dota 2, mine was $2 million in prize money, well, this year. before that it was more than 40 million, on average there is about 15 million at major international dota competitions, well, of course dollars, and i am not a supporter of inflating the prize fund, in my understanding, the prize fund is needed

for two things, the first is to make people talk about the event; it stands out from the rest, the second is motivation for athletes, but my personal experience shows that it is for a teenager. who participates in the competition there, there is no fundamental difference, he will win half a million rubles there , or 5 million rubles, for him it’s both, this is a very good motivation, yeah, he’s flooding the market, with such big serious numbers, i don’t see much sense, the test with copper pipes is difficult in itself, but when at the same time you have a big amount of money, this is not always beneficial, and all ages are submissive to esports, that is... you say a teenager, but i suspect that, in principle, you and i, although so to speak, may not look very young, but no less, they could also compete for some prize money or not, or it’s too late, in general, this is a sport for young people, reaction speed is too important, but there are,

for example, competitive puzzles in which there is no need to act quickly, where it’s more important to think , then yes , you and i will have some chances, but this... the sport of young people, first of all, due to the fact that they need to devote a lot of time to it, it’s training, it’s not just sitting down and playing, for a professional, his body is a tool, a tool to achieve goals, to earn the same money, the tool must be held in perfect condition, well, how does everything already work out, the gym follows the standards of sports training, in which recommendations are given, and accordingly, the coaches follow these standards, well-known teams, they have all been involved in classical sports and continue to do so, because that i repeat once again, if you are not physically at the peak of your form, you will not be able to give the desired result in a computer game, and here it is not only a matter of reaction speed, it is the general

state of the body, it is the speed of your brain, in the end it directly depends on , how you feel, and naturally, if a person there regularly engages in physical education, takes care of his physical shape, it is much easier for him. sport is a system, a training system, these are regimes, this is a sleep regime, a nutrition regime, this is a training regime, well, that is, it is a system, well by the way, how is this system built in our country, the training system? e-sportsmen, yes, now there are already e-sports sections and there are universities, separate sports clubs, there are sites, there are training facilities, some universities there give scholarships for the fact that a person successfully performs in e-sports and so on, but this is naturally not enough, we have left with the initiative that computer sports be offered to schools as an elective... option for classes, that is, first, only those who want to go there, and the parent does not

against, secondly, those who do not have problems with academic performance are allowed there, because as our experience has shown, this is a very good motivator for a person to improve his academic performance, we have experience on how to determine what a person is inclined to , in what direction should esports develop, well, again, here we need to understand that, among other things, systematic esports... they help develop skills and competencies that are useful to a person in our world, well, i suspect that we should be especially happy success we don’t have to import substitution in esports in terms of equipment, or am i mistaken, god forbid? and you know, well, mice, manipulators, all these, after all, they are not always domestically produced? i would say rather the opposite, almost never domestic, but for example, there are domestic chairs for e-sportsmen. we’ve already learned how to do it, yes, well, just like in many other sports, we

depend on other countries, to be honest, i don’t see anything fundamentally bad in this, but the world always trades, that is, if it is produced in china, and something is produced here, we can join forces, of course, if these are key segments, such as computer equipment, here yes, you need to have your own, you need to be able to be independent. because not only esports depends on this, the sport has to adapt, you need to be able to make your own strategic directions and here, yes, it’s difficult in esports, but i repeat once again, we see the progress that has been going on there over the last 7 years, and what’s happening in in general, esports makes me happy, if i'm all i understand correctly, maybe this is one of the drivers of development, in general , of the cyber industry, and there a toy needs to be drawn, it needs to be written, yes, i have the right feeling, or after all, as they say, here the driver

is different, these are the same prize money that we are talking about we said, there are games, for example, the same dota 2, it has no plot , there is nothing else in it except the competitive component, it is purely for e-sports, e-sports, like a bright beacon that says, guys, it’s cool here, on average now several dozen games are released a day, that is, from them almost nothing... becomes e-sports, because the main task of games, no matter how sad it may sound, is to make money, there are some hardcore games that basically become e-sports, where there is a certain challenge, where something is really needed overcome, but in general, once again , e-sports can be a good driver, but it is still just a superstructure on top of such a huge iceberg, and the gaming industry, well , in terms of development... the industry, what is our role in this? well, let's do this, and the federation after all, he is involved in e-sports, not games

, but we were one of the founders of a structure called a priori, which united game manufacturers, and this is where our task is to support the development of domestic game makers. we are talking about the fact that 10 years ago we practically did not know how to produce good, high-quality games of our own, there were only a few of them, now there are already a lot of such... games, and they are not necessarily e-sports, i already spoke about e-sports today, there is the same the most stand off 2 or there i don’t know, warface or i don’t know, the world of tanks is the same, please, these are good representatives , there are games that are just casual, which are also domestic and which carry the right ideology, so many people are embarrassed, they say, how come, this is a tool of influence, why do we need to promote our culture, and what if? they will come to her anyway for good things, no, if the product is good, it still needs to be advertised, it still needs

to be promoted, almost all countries in the world have already realized that the level of influence on the target audience through games is much higher than cinema or i don’t know, there is pop music, music, etc., games are now a very effective tool of soft power, and here we, like... other countries, have two options: either we will use it, or with the help of this tool will influence us. russia has already learned how to create high-quality games, there are just few of them yet and support is needed. for scaling. dmitry, thank you very much for the conversation. thank you.