Refract Technologies, developers of Tic Tac Bow and Virtual Taekwondo, had key leadership role holders also sit on committees in Singaporean Esports Organizations

by W

3 years ago

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The esports community has highlighted potential conflicts of interest over the Olympic Esports Series event, as developers of multiple Olympic Esports developers were also found to have connections to local Esports organizations.

Virtual Taekwondo Olympic Esports Series — Image Credit: World Taekwondo

First discovered on r/esports and reported via The Esports Advocate (TEA), the uproar revolves around two companies- Project 99 and Refract Technologies, with multiple staff from the latter also sporting connections to esports organizations in Singapore.

The main issue raised is as follows- two games developed by Refract Technologies (and one of them published by Project 99) were selected as part of the Olympic Esports Series 2023.

These titles are Virtual Taekwondo, a VR version of the martial arts competition as well as Tic Tac Bow, a mobile game meant to represent archery.

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While not naming any specific organizations, The International Olympic Committee did confirm that local organizations were involved in the event selection- specifically name dropping Archery and Taekwondo.

“As is the case with the Olympic Games, the local organizing committee was able to propose events on the programme for IOC consideration. The featured events put forward were Taekwondo and Archery. The games corresponding to these events were developed by a local collaborator, Refract Technologies, and approved by the IOC as they fully met the same criteria as other games included“, the statement reads.

The original report goes on to imply this has to do with the key members of Refract Technologies holding positions in various esports organizations across Singapore- where the Olympic Esports Week event is set to take place this June.

GamerBraves has verified information from TEA that multiple members of Refract Technologies leadership also sport positions in organizations ranging from Singapore Esports Association to the Global Esports Federation.

The members and their specific organizations are as follows:

Name	Position (Refract Technologies)	Affiliated Esports Organization	Position (Esports Organization)	Affiliated Esports Organization (II)	Position (Esports Organization)
Michael Chng	CEO	Global Esports Federation	Digital, Technology & Innovation Commission	N/A	N/A
Chong Geng Ng	Executive Director	Global Esports Federation	Board Member	Singapore Esports Association (SGEA)	President
Eugene Koh	Co-Founder	Singapore Cybersports & Online Gaming Association (SCOGA)	Founding Member	Singapore Esports Association (SGEA)	Nominated Exco Member

GamerBraves has reached out to SCOGA, SGEA, and The Global Esports Federation for comment, and will update with their statements as they come in.

SCOGA has denied any involvement with the Olympic Esports Series, also saying that founding member Eugene Koh is not an active member in the organization.

“While it is true that Mr Koh is a founding member of SCOGA (2008). However, he has not been on the executive committee of SCOGA since 2016 and hence does not maintain any oversight or decision-making on SCOGA’s initiatives”, the organization told Gamerbraves.

“SCOGA is also not directly involved with the Olympic Esports Week”, they said.

UPDATE 1:

SGEA has also responded to request for comment, denying that they had any influence on the selected games.

“SGEA was not involved in the selection process of the game titles. For this year’s Olympic Esports Week, the sports federations were responsible for submitting the eligible virtual sports titles to the International Olympic Committee for consideration. The IOC deals directly with the sports federations on the selection of titles”, a representative tells us.

UPDATE 2:

Global Esports Federation has also denied any involvement with the “planning and operations of the Olympic Esports Series” in a statement to GamerBraves.

Suspicion From Fans

The original report’s suspicion comes from the opaque nature of how the Olympic Esports Series chooses its entries- while some categories sport well-established brands like Just Dance (Dance) and Gran Turismo (Motor Sport), the two titles instead appear to have been custom made for the event.

Tic Tac Bow, for example, was only released on the first of March- the same day it was announced as an Olympic Esports event.

Still, considering that the partnership with Refract Technologies was announced as far back as 2021, it would make sense if part of that deal was about finding a way to get specific sports translated into Esports, rather than working with pre-existing games.

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