E-sports prepares for the story of "entering Asia", and the game behind the outbreak needs to be completed

　　E-sports is rising from a niche project to a popular industry that everyone pays attention to.

　　"Since it was incorporated into the official sports competition project in 2003, my country's e-sports industry has sharpened its sword for 20 years, and the great progress and dazzling performance it has made are obvious to all." At the recently concluded E-sports summit, China Audiovisual and Digital Publishing Association ranked first Vice Chairman Zhang Yijun said so.

　　Looking back at the outbreak of e-sports, from the early grassy growth and being misunderstood by the outside world to the large-scale development with "sports" as the core, the "Asian Games" is undoubtedly the most memorable milestone among them.

　　At the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, the Chinese e-sports team made the domestic public begin to face up to this brand-new sports competition with the achievements of "two golds and one silver".

And when the Hangzhou Asian Games announced that e-sports would take the stage as an official event, it made it even closer to mainstream sports events.

　　For domestic e-sports practitioners, "entering Asia" is not only a stage to show themselves, but also a rare opportunity for the improvement of social identity and the continuous explosion of business opportunities.

　　"(E-sports) can use the Asian Games to 'out of the circle'. On the one hand, going abroad to Asia and even the world, because the Asian Games will definitely bring more people than just e-sports people; on the one hand, many commercial organizations and enterprises pay attention to the Asian Games. And joining in, can help the entire e-sports ecosystem to 'out of the circle'." said Hou Miao, vice president of Tencent Games and general manager of Tencent e-sports.

"Entering Asia"

　　Walk, Raid, Kill!

　　At the moment when the Chinese e-sports team defeated the opponent 2:0, the nerves of thousands of spectators at the scene immediately changed from extreme tension to extreme excitement.

The players on stage dropped their mobile phones and hugged tightly. The cheers of the audience filled their ears like a tsunami.

　　This is the final of the "Honor of Kings International Edition AoV" at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, and it is also the first Asian Games gold medal won by the Chinese e-sports team.

　　Although this competition is mainly an exhibition match, the medals won are not included in the overall score.

But when they see Chinese e-sports players standing with tears under the rising five-star red flag like other champions, more and more people begin to believe that e-sports can win glory for the country like traditional sports.

　　Tengjing Sports CEO Jin Yibo also came to Jakarta with the team. The "League of Legends" project he was in charge of won the championship with a score of 3:1 over the old rival South Korea in the final.

After a lapse of 4 years, when he recalled the scene again, he still couldn't help saying: "This is the most glorious moment in my life."

　　Since then, Chinese e-sports has completely shaken off the earlier cognition of "reckless development" and has officially entered the public eye.

　　In the following years, China's e-sports continued to develop.

In 2018, IG took home the League of Legends global finals championship trophy for the first time in the LPL division. In 2019 and 2021, FPX Club and EDG won the championship successively.

In 2022, Shanghai NV Club will win the 2021 Peace Elite Global Finals and the League of Legends Mobile Games 2022 Global Champions Cup in succession.

　　The "milestone" events have aroused the attention and carnival of breaking through the circle, and have also successfully promoted the e-sports industry from a niche project to a popular industry that everyone pays attention to.

　　With the explosion of the e-sports market, the number of e-sports users has grown exponentially.

According to the "2021 China Game Industry Report" released by the Game Working Committee of the China Audio and Digital Association, the number of e-sports game users in China will reach 489 million in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 0.27%.

　　However, "entering Asia" has always been the biggest expectation of many domestic e-sports practitioners and players.

Not satisfied with just appearing on the stage of the Asian Games as an "exhibition match", he is more eager to be recorded on the gold medal list like an official competition.

　　That day has finally arrived in December 2020.

At the 38th Asian Olympic Council Plenary Session, e-sports was approved as the official event of the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.

Then in November 2021, the Asian Organizing Committee announced that 8 projects including "League of Legends", "Honor of Kings (Asian Games Edition)", and "Peace Elite (Asian Games Edition)" have officially become competition items.

　　The significance of the official entry of e-sports on the international stage is not only to achieve breakthroughs in the circle, but also to break out in areas such as "positive social recognition" or "commercial potential", which plays a huge role in the development of the industry.

　　In fact, traditional sports also need e-sports.

Nowadays, in addition to basketball and football, the attractiveness of many traditional sports events to young people is declining year by year, and Gen Z groups are keen to pay attention to e-sports events.

According to the "2022 Asian E-sports Industry Development Report", the global e-sports audience will increase to 532 million in 2022.

At the same time, nearly 70% of Chinese netizens agree that "e-sports is a sport".

　　The huge number of viewers pushes e-sports to the front, and the introduction of e-sports into comprehensive events such as the Asian Games will also help traditional sports events to open up new markets.

There are challenges

in global competition

　　"Entering Asia" is only the first step in the continuous outbreak of domestic e-sports.

To be successful in the Asian Games, domestic manufacturers and practitioners still need to solve many problems.

　　Unlike traditional sports such as football and basketball, which rarely change the rules, the version of e-sports games often changes.

Even the same game may have a direct impact on the competition due to different versions at home and abroad.

　　Taking the national-level IP "Honor of Kings" as an example, as the only Chinese self-developed 5V5 mobile e-sports project selected for the Asian Games, it naturally attracted the attention of countless players.

　　However, in order to cater to the preferences of global players, "Honor of Kings" has launched a "domestic version" and an "international version", but the roles and skills of the two game versions are different.

If it appears in large events such as the Asian Games, it would be "unfair" to use either version alone.

　　In fact, as early as the Asian Games in Jakarta, the version used in the "Honor of Kings" project competition is the "international version" "Arena of Valor".

At that time, the contestant, the old coach, admitted in an exclusive interview with Shell Finance reporter that he had spent a lot of time before the game to adapt to the new game characters and versions.

　　This means that in order to achieve the goal of globalization of e-sports, game manufacturers need to come up with a version that is suitable for players around the world.

To this end, Tianmei Studio specially plans to create "Honor of Kings (Asian Games Edition)" for the training and competition of players from all over the world.

　　In fact, there are early signs of creating a global version of the game.

　　In July 2022, "Honor of Kings" will launch a new international version of "HONOR OF KINGS".

With the gradual opening of the game's overseas testing, the official will host the World Champions Cup at the end of 2022, when 16 teams from all over the world will attack the championship trophy.

This means that if the event is successful, the version of the Asian Games game is likely to be HOK, or an adjusted version based on this.

　　In addition to differences in game versions, another problem facing e-sports practitioners is the high hardware requirements.

Different from traditional competitions, e-sports events have extremely high requirements for network and real-time broadcast. The holding of a large-scale e-sports competition involves many aspects of technology and execution capabilities.

　　Hou Miao still remembers that during the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, the venues holding e-sports events were relatively backward in terms of hardware such as on-site network and broadcast environment, and even most of the staff were temporarily recruited from China.

　　Hou Miao told the Shell Finance reporter that Tencent E-sports had held many e-sports events before, and during the Asian Games, the previous experience will be integrated to provide technical support for the Olympic Council of Asia and the Asian Electronic Sports Federation. The technical experience accumulated in intercontinental events is used to support the Hangzhou Asian Organizing Committee and the State Sports General Administration.

　　The same problem also lies in the great significance of forming an "e-sports national team", how to select suitable players, and how to quickly integrate players who were originally scattered from various teams through training camps.

　　Shell Finance reporter learned that after the staged selection, the preparation work has entered the running-in period of players and versions.

At the same time, the first national-level e-sports training base will be established soon.

In the future, the world's first competition training system for e-sports projects will be introduced to track players' training effects through digitalization, and generate competition training reports to provide data reference for the coaching staff.

　　"In addition to scientific management in competition training, the daily food and beverages of the contestants will also be controlled to avoid unintentionally touching dishes containing 'excitement'. In addition, etiquette training such as receiving awards and going on stage are all new issues that need to be solved. But This opportunity can show the content of the event, Chinese elements, players' style and technology on a larger stage, and it is also a good appearance of China's e-sports industry on the world stage." Hou Miao said.

The 100 billion market of e-sports industry, the

　　The entry of e-sports into Asia will undoubtedly bring a boost to the current e-sports market.

　　According to the "China E-sports Industry Report from January to June 2022" released by the China Audio and Digital Association E-sports Working Committee, the actual sales revenue of the e-sports game market in the first half of the year was 63.712 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 10.12%.

The number of users was about 487 million, a year-on-year decrease of 0.41%.

It is worth noting that this is the first time that the two main data of e-sports have experienced a simultaneous decline since statistics began.

　　For the e-sports industry, which is in a growth bottleneck period, the Asian Games is undoubtedly the best opportunity to help.

　　"After being officially selected for the Hangzhou Asian Games, people have a better understanding of the development history and competitive attributes of e-sports, and the positive social value of e-sports is constantly being amplified. At the same time, the commercial development of e-sports has also become more favorable due to the benefits of 'entering Asia'. It goes well, and the cooperation of industry partners is more active." Jin Yibo said.

　　Similar to traditional sports, the main income of e-sports commercialization comes from brand sponsorship, copyright sales, ticket sales, and peripheral derivatives.

In recent years, the outbreak of e-sports has made more and more traditional brands take a fancy to this emerging industry.

　　Take the 2022 League of Legends Spring Split as an example.

According to public data, a total of 14 brands have become event partners.

In addition to Mercedes-Benz, Nike and other cooperating partners for many years, there are also brands that have cooperated for the first time such as JD.com and OnePlus.

Behind the 17 participating clubs, there are many brands involved in 3C products, automobiles, catering, clothing, and e-commerce.

Also at the just-concluded e-sports summit, FAW Audi also officially announced as a strategic partner of the conference.

　　According to data from iResearch, the scale of China's e-sports market in 2021 will be about 167.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.5%. The industry has entered a stage of steady growth.

　　Benefited from the "entering of e-sports into Asia", more traditional industries will pay attention to the e-sports market, which will naturally accelerate the development of e-sports commercialization and expand the market size.

Hou Miao told the Shell Finance reporter that many brands that have never been in contact with them before have actively invited to discuss cooperation opportunities, and I believe there will be more business partners in the future.

　　E-sports practitioners also hope to take advantage of the situation to continue to break out.

Shell Finance reporters learned that Tencent E-sports, the leading company in the market, has successively launched derivative markets such as e-sports cafes, e-sports education, and e-sports hotels. In the future, it will create a new business model with the integration of "digital IP + urban industry".

Many well-known e-sports clubs, including EDG and RNG, have also begun to explore more diverse business fields, hoping to open up the future commercial realization of e-sports with the cooperation model of "traditional enterprise IP + derivative industries". In turn, the industry will become a trillion-dollar market.

　　What excites e-sports practitioners is that as early as the 2nd World E-sports Games Global Finals in 2018, International Olympic Committee member Angela Ruggiero said: "The International Olympic Committee is discussing, considering the future Include e-sports into the Olympic Games." These words made the industry have infinite reverie about the prospect of e-sports entering the Olympic Games.

　　In fact, Huo Qigang, chairman of the Asian Electronic Sports Federation, has repeatedly mentioned that he hopes to bring e-sports to the Olympic Games.

"The long-term goal of the Asian Electronic Sports Federation is to make e-sports finally appear on the stage of the Olympic Games."

　　This means that e-sports may have more room for explosion in the future.