This just in, Commonwealth 2026 has decided to drop esports as a category, following it debut in 2022. Commonwealth Games Federation in partnership with Global esports Federation aimed to develop Commonwealth Esports strategy. The event took place in Birmingham, England, where various countries participated in all types of esports competitions.
The next iteration of the competition, Commonwealth 2026, is all set to take place in Victoria, Australia. Out of all the sports announced, esports has quietly vanished from the list. This is a surprising revelation, as Commonwealth Games Federation called the inclusion of esports to the competition a success and wanted it to be a part of all the future iterations of the competition.
Introducing the Victoria 2026 Sports Programme! 🇦🇺
Set to feature 20 sports across regional Victoria, we can’t wait to see the action packed programme in full force in just over 3 years’ time!
To read more ⬇️#CommonwealthSport
— Commonwealth Sport (@thecgf) October 5, 2022
According to a report by BBC News, they tried contacting the Commonwealth Games Federation and the Global Esports Federation for a comment, but none of them provided any concrete reason for the removal. According to their source, it seems that doping in esports may be one of the reasons for the removal of this category, as conducting year-round drug tests for every game title seemed to be problematic. Another reason was that the older members of the Games had some resistance towards esports in general.
Doping is a big issue for Commonwealth, and Adderall is a drug that is commonly used in esports by players to enhance their concentration and overall gameplay. The Commonwealth Games Federation has signed an agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency back in 2022 and that resulted into banning the use of Adderall in the competition.
Esports was an appreciated addition to the competition and many countries came to participate. Rocket League, Dota 2 and EFootball were the games where countries were competing in. Malaysia was victorious over all the other countries with 3 Gold Medals, England came in second with 1 Gold, 3 Silver and 1 Bronze and Wales came in third with 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze.
