A step towards recognition: A1 summed up the results of the year in the development of cybersports at the reporting and election meeting of the Belarusian Association of Computer Sports

Belarus has made an important step towards official recognition of computer sport as a sport at the national level. The Belarusian Association of Computer Sports (BACS) and the Belarusian Cybersports Federation (BCF) have joined their efforts in the official recognition of cybersport, which was announced on December 15, 2023 at the reporting and election meeting of the Belarusian Association of Computer Sports, which was held at the central office of A1. Denis Bogush was elected the new chairman of the BACS.

Today, the main task of domestic cybersports and accordingly of all organizations in this sphere is to get official recognition as a sport, as it has long been done in the neighboring Russian Federation. Nowadays, tens of thousands of people are interested in computer sports, including young people, teenagers, and adults. The aim of uniting the two structures is to bring computer sports to a professional level, to create a national cybersports team, to represent the country in international sports competitions.

Previously, BACS and BCF had their own plans for the development of computer sports and were engaged in organizing sports competitions, tournaments and forming a professional community.

The Belarusian Association of Computer Sports developed a profile program for the development of computer sports in Belarus, prepared more than 20 different legal acts, starting from the anti-doping program and ending with the training program for coaches, referees, and commentators. So that Belarusian gamers could improve their skills and interact with each other, the Belarusian Association of Computer Sports and A1 constantly organize large-scale cybersports tournaments: Fight Club, VOKA League, Big Belarusian Tanks, Universus, The International Dota 2 pubstomp, activities at the Unicon&Game Expo Minsk, and others.

BACS always pays special attention to industry-specific events. For example, over the last 3 years, 9 meetups were held, which were attended by representatives of cybersports clubs from all regions of the country, interested brands and partners in joint cybersports projects, representatives of government agencies. Training courses were organized and conducted, including: 3 schools of cybersports commentators, 1 school of coaches, 1 school of organizing referees – that's 70 graduates. The Belarusian Association of Computer Sports together with the A1 Company took an active part in the ICT Forum "TIBO-2023", where they organized a cybersports platform with a total number of over 30,000 visitors. More than 40 cybersports tournaments in 17 disciplines were held at the stand.

BCF, in turn, has organized more than 40 sports tournaments with more than 12 thousand participants over the last 3 years. Tournaments of META series, Belarusian Esports League, Belarusian Esports Student League, national qualifiers for the World Championships, as well as the Xmas Party tournament among children from family-type homes, the Energetic Challenge Cup tournament among employees of the Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant and the Belagroprombank JSC Cybersports Championship 2023 were held. In 2021, the Belarusian Cybersports Federation and UNICEF signed a memorandum of cooperation, and, together with UNICEF, an online forum "UNICEF Talks: Designing the Future" was organized in honor of the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Children's Fund”. Among the social projects, the BCF has a fully equipped classroom for cybersports and IT studies at the Vladimir Karvat Secondary School № 182 in Minsk.

The first joint event organized by the BCF and BACS was the Belarusian Dota 2 Championship, the success of which was largely determined by the synergy of joint efforts of the professional community that has been formed in Belarus.