There has never been a time like this.
There has never been a federation like this.
The world is still in the throes of the COVID Pandemic, and will be so for some time… not months, but years.
And it will be many years, if at all, before the patterns and habits of this unprecedented time are in the past.
One of those changes has been, and will continue to be, the need for virtual alternatives to conventional sports.
It was not a coincidence that the IOC initiated the Olympic Virtual Series in the Spring of the second pandemic year.
The Olympic organization had begun considerations of virtual sport before the pandemic, but the restrictions that the world faced forced the issue, in the Spring of 2021 and indefinitely.
The Virtual Sports Federation was established with this environment in mind: the expeditious need for consistent, effective virtual sport.
We are dedicated to the concentration of the essential expertise, tools, and perspectives that are necessary to enable disparate sports federations to bring virtual disciplines to the world quickly and effectively.
We have been working on the VR technology and international sport requirements of this effort for many years, and we can support the sports federations’ need to implement these alternatives by centralizing operational bases and expertise and distributing their applications most efficiently to the federations.
For instance, the Virtual Sports Federation would not require entry into the Olympic Program, as it would not be the official sanctioning body by which these sports would be presented at the Games.
But we would, where relevant, standardize the many processes and judgements that are so different from conventional federation practice, but which are necessary to develop and present virtual sport.
These would include game evaluation and selection, player recruitment and training, virtual staging, and creating and managing effective relationships and agreements with game developers and publishers.
For instance, our experience with the International Racquetball Federation and One Hamsa, the developer of Racket:Next, was and is the first of its kind, and is working well.
That experience is transferable, and we can transfer it and apply it, with many of the same federation people with whom we have worked on virtual sport before.
Therefore we are a hybrid: working closely with other federations, for the good of all.