South Korea’s Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok used the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 to press a single point: that esports should stay on the program. Korea’s League of Legends team swept its group at the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 on Wednesday, as its biggest star, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, said he hopes esports stays on the Asian Games program. His appeal, reported by the Korea JoongAng Daily, landed as the sport’s long-term place in the games was in open question.
Faker’s call to protect esports
At the group stage, Faker spoke as a player with unusual standing. South Korea’s League of Legends squad swept Chinese Taipei 3-0 at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games for back-to-back gold medals, finishing undefeated, and Faker became the first esports athlete to compete at three consecutive Asian Games, while Canyon, Zeka, and Gumayusi secured South Korean military service exemptions.
The Korea JoongAng Daily reported that the Korean six-man squad was drawn entirely from the LCK, the country’s top league, and that it opened the tournament with lopsided wins before reaching the semifinals with a perfect record. The result gave weight to Faker’s argument that the discipline belongs at a continental multi-sport event.
From demonstration to medal sport
Esports arrived at the Asian Games in stages. According to the Korea Herald, Faker carried the South Korean flag at the Jakarta-Palembang Games in 2018, when esports debuted as a demonstration sport, and he won silver there before taking gold four years later in Hangzhou, when esports became an official medal event.
That progression matters because viewers often blur the line between watching competitive gaming and traditional sports wagering. Competitive esports at the Asian Games is a structured, medal-awarding discipline with national delegations and qualifying rules, a different world from sports betting, which is covered in the OneFootball IN betting analysis of betting sites for readers who want to understand that separate market. The two sit in different regulatory and institutional categories, even when they share an audience.
At Hangzhou, the program was narrower than it is now. Medals were awarded in seven esports events at the Hangzhou Asian Games: Arena of Valor Asian Games Version, DOTA 2, Dream Three Kingdoms 2, FIFA Online 4, League of Legends, PUBG and Street Fighter V: Champion Edition.
Eleven titles at Aichi-Nagoya
For Aichi-Nagoya, the roster grew. The 11 esports titles for the Asian Games 2026, to be held in Japan’s Aichi and Nagoya, have been confirmed by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), and the esports list for Aichi-Nagoya 2026 was announced during the 93rd OCA executive board meeting in Harbin, the People’s Republic of China.
Separately, Dot esports reported that the 11 medal events are spread across 13 game titles, up from seven at Hangzhou, with some fighting games bundled under a single medal while titles like League of Legends and Pokémon Unite stand alone. The Korea JoongAng Daily noted the expansion brought in new genres, including the Japanese puzzle game Puyo Puyo and the football title eFootball.
As animationxpress.com set out in its report on the expanded esports lineup, the OCA confirmed 11 titles following the 93rd Executive Board Meeting in Harbin, up from the seven featured in the previous edition. The 2026 program spans fighting, Moba, battle royale, racing, puzzle and sports-simulation genres.
The debate over a separate esports event
The future question flared during the Games themselves. Reports circulated that esports would be dropped from the Asian Games after Aichi-Nagoya, prompting a formal response from the governing body.
On 28 September 2026, OCA director general Husain Al Musallam said in a statement that “the OCA has not made or issued any decision regarding the removal of esports from the Asian Games” and that claims esports is leaving the programme “do not reflect the OCA’s plans.” According to Gambling.com, the statement followed the OCA signing a host city contract with Kuwait on 19 September 2026 to stage the inaugural Asian Esports and Mind Sports Games in 2027, a new standalone continental event. The Olympic Council of Asia published its position on its official channels the same day.
The denial sits awkwardly against the record. That directly contradicts a decision document published on the OCA’s own website: according to the minutes of the OCA executive board’s 90th meeting, held on November 26, 2024, the board “unanimously approved the proposal of the esports, Martial Arts and Mind Sports Committee to remove the esports from the Asian Games Programme after the Aichi Nagoya Asian Games and hold a separate Asian Esports and Mind Games.”
How India’s 2025 law treats esports
India moved on a parallel track. The promotion and regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 was passed by Parliament in August 2025, and it bans all online money games and establishes a regulatory framework for esports and social gaming in India.
The rules followed in 2026. As of May 1, 2026, India has a single, enforceable framework for online gaming, esports gets formal recognition, and online money games get a complete ban. According to a Drishti IAS summary, the Act classifies online games into esports, online social games and online money games, recognising esports as legitimate competitive skill-based sport.
The separation is explicit. The rules explicitly mandate that an online money game is entirely ineligible for recognition or registration as an e-sport under the National Sports Governance Act, 2025.
Quick summary
- Faker said at Aichi-Nagoya 2026 that he hopes esports stays on the Asian Games program, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily.
- The OCA denied on 28 September 2026 that esports would be removed, even as a 2024 board document recorded a removal proposal, according to Gambling.com.
- India’s Online Gaming Rules took effect on 1 May 2026, formally recognising esports and banning online money games, according to TalkEsport.
What recognition means for Indian gaming
On paper, recognition gives Indian players and studios a legal category and a regulator. In practice, delivery has lagged: TalkEsport reported that as of 1 September 2026, the Online Gaming Authority of India had registered no esports games, with no title, BGMI and Valorant included, holding a certificate under the new rules. The story stands at that point, with the OCA affirming esports will keep its medal status while the Indian register remains empty.
