International Esports Federation

The International Esports Federation (IESF) is a global organisation based in South Korea whose mission it is to have electronic sports recognized as a legitimate sport.

International Esports Federation
  Member nations
AbbreviationIESF
MottoProtect the Player
FormationAugust 11, 2008 (2008-08-11)
TypeSports federation
HeadquartersBusan, South Korea
Official language
English
President
Vlad Marinescu
Main organ
General Assembly
AffiliationsTAFISA
Websitehttp://www.ie-sf.org

It has also just revealed an agreement with the Asian Electronic Sports Federation, which saw the pair sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the objective of further promoting esports.   

Member Nations

So far, there are 98 member nations in IESF:[1]

ContinentMember Nations
Africa(8) DR Congo,  Egypt,  Libya,  Mauritania,  Morocco,  Namibia,  South Africa,  Tunisia
The Americas(15) Argentina,  Bahamas,  Brazil,  Chile,  Colombia,  Costa Rica,  Dominican Republic,  Ecuador,  Guatemala,  Jamaica,  Mexico,  Panama,  Peru,  United States,  Venezuela
Asia(34) Bahrain,  Brunei,  Cambodia,  China,  Chinese Taipei,  Hong Kong,  India,  Indonesia,  Iran,  Iraq,  Japan,  Jordan,  Kazakhstan,  Kuwait,  Kyrgyzstan,  Laos,  Lebanon,  Macau,  Malaysia,  Maldives,  Mongolia,  Myanmar,    Nepal,  Pakistan,  Philippines,  Saudi Arabia,  South Korea,  Sri Lanka,  Syria,  Thailand,  Turkmenistan,  United Arab Emirates,  Uzbekistan,  Vietnam
Europe(34) Austria,  Azerbaijan,  Belarus,  Belgium,  Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Czech Republic,  Denmark,  Estonia,  Finland,  Georgia,  Germany,  Hungary,  Ireland,  Israel,  Italy,  Luxembourg,  Malta,  Monaco,  Montenegro,  North Macedonia,  Netherlands,  Norway,  Poland,  Portugal,  Russia,  San Marino,  Serbia,  Slovakia,  Slovenia,  Sweden,   Switzerland,  Turkey,  Ukraine,  Wales
Oceania(2) Australia,  New Zealand

Affiliate Members are eSports Middle East and Fighting Esports Group Korea (FEG).

History

The International Esports Federation was founded on August 8, 2008 by nine esports associations from Denmark, South Korea, Germany, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Vietnam and Taiwan, and held its first general meeting in November of the same year.

A year later, on December 12, the IeSF was able to host its own international tournaments, starting with the "IeSF challenge" in 2009, followed by "IeSF Grand Finals" in 2010, and the "IeSF World Championship" in 2011 and onward.[2]

2012 saw a massive breakthrough for esports and the IeSF, as the IeSF 2012 World championship presented an esports tournament for women for the first time.

On July 7, 2013, IeSF was selected as counterpart for the electronic sports discipline of the 4th Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games.[3] This was a big breakthrough for esports and the IeSF, as the branch was introduced in an Olympic event for the first time.

In May 2013, IeSF was approved as the official signatory of the World Anti-Doping Agency in the branch of e-Sports.[4]

In July 2013, IeSF submitted an application to join Sport Accord, and is expected to be approved as a temporary member in April 2014.[5]

In November 2013, IeSF saw a successful overseas launch of its events, as the IeSF 2013 World Championship and the 2013 General Meeting was held in the city of Bucharest, Romania, in what was the first time of an IeSF event held outside of South Korea.

In May 2014, IeSF was approved for membership by TAFISA. The IeSF will be represented at the 2016 TAFISA World Games for All, to be held in Jakarta.[6]

In 2014, IeSF restricted female players from participating in the Hearthstone tournament, as part of the World Championship division of tournament into male and female sections. IeSF later revised the policy, uniting the section into open-for-all tournaments while maintaining female-only tournaments with smaller prize pools.[7]

In the 2015 World Championship, an esports panel was hosted with guests from international sports society to discuss the future recognition of esports as a recognized, legitimate sporting activity worldwide.[8]

The four federations which are newly represented in the IESF are 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).[9]

The addition of four more countries brings the IESF's total count of member nations to 60, with six continents represented. Asia and Europe make up the bulk of the numbers with 24 and 22 respectively, with Macau's arrival in 2016 marking the last time a new member joined until now.[9]

In July 2016, Macau became the 56th member nation of the IESF.[10]

The International eSports Federation (IeSF) has voted to accept the United States eSports Federation (USeF) as a full member. The decision, taken at the IeSF General Meeting in Kaohsiung in Taiwan, means that USeF is the official recognized national governing body of esports in the US.[11]

Esports is set to expand across the Middle East with Korean non-profit International Esports Federation (IESF) recently announcing plans to enter the region. IESF has signed an memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the UAE's Motivate Media Group, parent company of Gulf Business, to expand regionally. Currently, the Esports category has over 300 million gamers across the Middle East alone.[12]

Official World Championships

So far, the IeSF has held eleven World Championships:

YearTitleLocationTitles playedWinnerRunner up
2009IeSF 2009 Challenge Taebaek, South KoreaFIFA Online South Korea China
2010IeSF Grand Final Daegu, South KoreaFIFA Online, WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne South Korea Romania
2011IeSF World Championship Andong, South KoreaStarCraft II, FIFA Online Sweden South Korea
2012IeSF World Championship Cheonan, South KoreaAlliance of Valiant Arms, StarCraft II, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 South Korea Austria
2013IeSF World Championship Bucharest, RomaniaLeague of Legends, StarCraft II, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Alliance of Valiant Arms South Korea Sweden
2014Esports World Championship 2014 Baku, AzerbaijanDota 2, Hearthstone, Ultra Street Fighter IV, StarCraft II, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 South Korea China
2015Esports World Championship 2015 Seoul, South KoreaLeague of Legends, StarCraft II, Hearthstone Serbia South Korea
2016Esports World Championship 2016 Jakarta, Indonesia[13]Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Hearthstone South Korea Finland
2017Esports World Championship 2017 Busan, South KoreaCounter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Tekken 7 South Korea Philippines
2018Esports World Championship 2018 Kaohsiung, TaiwanCounter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Tekken 7[14] South Korea Finland
2019Esports World Championship 2019 Seoul, South KoreaDota 2, Tekken 7, eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2020 Japan Sweden
2020Esports World Championship 2020 Eilat, IsraelDota 2, Tekken 7, eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2020

Official Tri-Nation Test Matches

The following online events were held by member associations and under the jurisdiction of the IeSF:

YearDateCountriesTitle playedResult
201312 October 2013 Denmark,  Israel,  South AfricaLeague of Legends4, 2, 0
20135 October 2013 Denmark,  France,  SpainLeague of Legends4, 2,

Official Test Matches

The following Test Matches were held by member associations and under the jurisdiction of the IeSF:

YearDateCountriesTitle playedResult
202016 May 2020 Azerbaijan,  South AfricaDotA 2 [15]2 - 0
202025 April 2020 South Africa,  NamibiaDotA 22 - 0
201914 June 2019 Korea,  SwedenSummoner's War3 - 0
201828 August 2018 Russia,  South AfricaTekken 7 (Male), Counter-Strike: GO1 - 0, 1 - 0
201823 June 2018 Namibia,  South AfricaTekken 7 (Male), Tekken 7 (Female), FIFA'180 - 2, 0 - 1, 1 - 1
201716 September 2017 Tunisia,  South AfricaLeague of Legends2 - 0
20179 September 2017  Switzerland,  South AfricaCounterStrike: GO, League of Legends, Tekken 72 - 0, 2 - 0, 1 -0
201730 July 2017 Namibia,  South AfricaFIFA '171 – 0
20169 October 2016 Egypt,  South AfricaHearthStone1 - 1
20166 February 2016 Ghana,  South AfricaFIFA '165 - 1
20154 December 2015 Finland,  South AfricaStarCraft II2 - 0
201514 November 2015 Israel,  South AfricaLeague of Legends2 - 0
201511 July 2015 Austria,  South AfricaFIFA '156 - 0
201527 March 2015 South Africa,  ZimbabweFIFA '152 - 0
201425 October 2014 Namibia,  South AfricaDota 20 - 2
20144 October 2014 Finland,  South AfricaStarCraft II2 - 0
20144 October 2014 Finland,  South AfricaDotA 22 - 0
20148 August 2014 Egypt,  South AfricaDotA 22 - 0
20138 September 2013 Mexico,  South AfricaDotA 20 - 1
201331 July 2013 Romania,  South AfricaDotA 21 - 0
201331 March 2013 Romania,  South AfricaStarCraft II2 - 0

References

  1. "Members of IESF". www.ie-sf.org. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  2. leSF. "IeSF". Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  3. leSF. "media > IeSF News > [IeSF News] Updates on 4th Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games and IeSF 2013 Asia Conference". Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  4. "Anti-Doping Community". World Anti-Doping Agency. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  5. leSF. "media > IeSF News > [IeSF News] IeSF submitted its membership application to "Sport Accord"". Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  6. "IeSF, 국제체육기구 가맹 "e스포츠도 생활체육"". Retrieved 28 May 2014.
  7. Jenna Pitcher. "Previously male-only Hearthstone competition now open to all genders". Polygon. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  8. [2015 IESF] e-Sports Summit with International Sports Society -EsportsTV. 3 December 2015 via YouTube.
  9. Zalik, D. & Dejan. (2019-08-25). Esportsbets.com. International e-Sports Federation Launches Initiative To Bring Esports To The Olympics.
  10. "Grow uP eSports". growupesports.com.
  11. Mackay, D. (2019-08-12). The Sports Digest. International eSports Federation Accepts United States as Latest Member.
  12. Freelance, M. (2019-11-14). GulfBusiness.com. Motivate, IESF sign MoU to grow regionally.
  13. "8th E-Sports World Championships to Be Held in Jakarta, Indonesia - Esports by Inquirer.net". 18 March 2016.
  14. "TEKKEN 7 Announces as Game Title for 10th Esports World Championship -". 2018-03-30. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  15. "DOTA2: South Africa vs Azerbaijan".
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