Five thrilling moments from the inaugural finals at the Olympic Esports Series 2023

The inaugural finals at the Olympic Esports Series 2023 are officially behind us. The three-day event was packed with intense action, nail-biting finishes and high-level esports competition that we know and love.

Competitors from all over the globe gathered at the Suntec Convention Centre in Singapore for June 23-25 to fight, race, shoot and dance their way to Olympic glory across ten competitions. Exhibitions for Rocket League, NBA 2K, Street Fighter 6, Virtual Table Tennis and the Arena Games Triathlon helped fill out a hectic schedule of esports as part of the Olympic Esports Week.

It's hard to narrow down highlights in such a packed event, but here are five thrilling moments from the finals at the Olympic Esports Series to check out.

A mad dash through the woods

The motorsport event at the finals at the Olympic Esports Series was one for the history books. A rising star in the Gran Turismo scene, Kylian Drumont, snatched a first-place finish by executing the perfect tyre strategy.

The race featured a handful of stress-inducing rumbles between Drumont, Chile's Angel Inostroza, Great Britain's Will Murdoch, and Spain's Jose Serrano. There were multiple points in the race where the Toyota Hybrids bumped into each other while going hundreds of kilometers an hour as players tried to overtake one another in the sprint through Deep Forest Raceway.

Nearly every moment of the 42-lap circuit was jammed with excitement, making the motorsport final one that Gran Turismo players, fans and onlookers will remember for years to come.

Two minutes to impress

The Olympic Esports Series 2023 ISSF Challenge featuring Fortnite was a competition that few Olympians, esports players and even Fortnite veterans had experienced heading into the competition on June 24. Players such as Lucas 'anon' Malissa had rarely competed in a tournament that combined target shooting and in-game navigation all within Fortnite.

The three Olympic Esports Series winners were used to competing in the typical battle royale competitions like the Fortnite Championship Series (FNCS), but they were excited to try something new. All finalists in the competition had won the FNCS at some point in their careers, making many of their sub two-minute course finishes all the more impressive.

Even Chinese Taipei's Wu Chia-Ying, who finished fifth in the 25m pistol women's event at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, was in awe with what she was witnessing. She has some experience with shooting video games – although not Fortnite – and admitted she could learn quite a bit from the stacked roster of Fortnite finalists.

Thrilling Armageddon tiebreaker

While it wasn't the match for the first-place trophy, the third-place chess battle betwen Nguyễn Ngoc Truong Son and Aleksandr Rakhmanov truly came down to the wire.

Two games in their series were drawn, while Rakhmanov won game 2 as White and Nguyen game 4 as Black, requiring the tiebreaker. In that game, Nguyen was White and had five minutes to play his moves, while Rakhmanov was Black and had four minutes – but would win in the event of a tie.

Nguyen appeared to make an error by giving up a free bishop, but managed to move a pawn to the end of the board in the endgame to promote it to a queen, drawing a resignation from Rakhmanov.

Third time’s the charm

William Foster, who goes by Fozzy in the Tennis Clash community, was the man to beat in the tennis finals at the Olympic Esports Series. The Englishman had gone back-to-back in the 2022 and 2023 Roland Garros eSeries competition. He considered himself the best Tennis Clash player in the world.

France's Anass "Anteo" Benghazi knew that all too well as he lost to Fozzy in both those Roland Garros eSeries competitions. That's why it was so special when Anteo defeated Fozzy in a shocking upset before taking down He "Kafe" Shenghao in the finals.

A photo finish

Team Fuego, made up of Lou Bates, Marlene Bjärehed, James Barnes and Martin Maertens, had a comfortable lead as the final race in the Zwift finals of the Olympic Esports Series kicked off, which meant they could win the overall title even if one of the three opposing teams took first place -- which is exactly what happened. That didn't make the race to the finish line any less exciting though.

While he wasn't fighting for first, Maertens was trailing the pack as the remaining two racers neared the final climb to the finish line behind the race winner. Something triggered within him as he pumped his legs hard and stole second place.

The yells of Maertens' teammates sent a blast of energy through the crowd, and it's a great example of how passionate these competitors are through every moment of the tournament.

In the end,the finals at the Olympic Esports Series included too many exciting moments to count. And that's before you consider the exhibition matches held as part of the Olympic Esports Week – including a heavyweight Japanese Street Fighter champion and an up-and-coming Thai challenger as well as round-robin bouts between the national NBA 2K teams from Brazil, the Philippines, and Turkey – only added to the electric atmosphere at the venue.