On February 13, the news that Chinese player Li Peinan won the StarCraft 2 Finals at the 2023 Intel Extreme Masters (hereinafter referred to as "IEM") Katowice not only made the entire e-sports circle excited , It also made "StarCraft", an e-sports game that has been popular for many years, shine like fireworks in the winter when Blizzard Entertainment (hereinafter referred to as "Blizzard") left mainland China.
Blizzard, which owns "Warcraft" and "StarCraft", has played its cards in the field of e-sports events since 20 years ago. These two games almost divided most of the e-sports market at that time. "StarCraft" It is also known as "the pioneer of e-sports games".
Up to now, the global e-sports landscape has been divided by multiple game giants such as Blizzard, Valve, and Tencent, and more rookies in e-sports projects have appeared. The Chinese e-sports market will usher in a new round of reshuffle.
unexpected surprise
On February 13th, in the "StarCraft 2" finals at IEM Katowice 2023, Chinese player Li Peinan defeated Korean player Maru 4-1 and won the championship. This is also the first man in China's "StarCraft" event Single world champion.
According to public information, IEM is the first global e-sports elite tournament.
Before this IEM, e-sports projects related to "StarCraft" have long been dominated by Korean e-sports.
In the 2023 IEM, three of the top four players, including Li Peinan, are Korean.
Li Peinan ranks 21st in the world in terms of points among the professional players of "StarCraft 2", and the odds of winning the championship were only 0.37%.
Before that, he had never won a cup in any international e-sports competition.
It is also because of this that a large number of e-sports fans hailed this championship as "the most gold-rich trophy in the history of Chinese e-sports."
"The influence of the "StarCraft" series in the domestic e-sports circle can no longer be compared with ten years ago. Most domestic professional players have gone through the golden career period. Although they have been striving for it, they have never achieved ideal results. With the With the closure of the server, I thought these expectations would end like this, but I didn’t expect such a surprise.” E-sports player Zeng Pan said.
Gold lettering is not working
According to public information, the first game of the "StarCraft" series was officially released in 1998. As the first product in the PC game to provide a battle network online system, with its own confrontational features, the initial e-sports events and teams were derived. It is also known as "the pioneer of e-sports games".
At the beginning of the 21st century, "StarCraft" and "Warcraft" almost divided most of the e-sports market at that time.
"StarCraft 2" was launched in the form of a trilogy in 2010. This year, Blizzard already had a corresponding e-sports department internally, and began to use its "StarCraft", "Warcraft", "Call of Duty" and other games. Build the competition battlefield as the basis.
"PC games such as "StarCraft" used to be Blizzard's golden signs. According to public information, in 2010, the launch of "StarCraft 2" doubled Blizzard's revenue stream. Today, the revenue contribution of the entire PC game department is only Accounting for about 1/4." Game industry analyst Wei Mingye further said, "Although Blizzard's current status cannot be easily shaken by anyone, with the rapid rise of other major manufacturers and developers, in fact, in recent years, Blizzard has In terms of performance or influence, they are also under certain pressure.”
Blizzard’s new financial report released a few days ago shows that revenue in the fourth quarter of 2022 will be US$2.334 billion, an increase of 8% year-on-year; net profit will be US$403 million, a decrease of 29% year-on-year.
The full-year revenue in 2022 will be US$7.528 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 14.5%; the company's 2022 net profit will be US$1.513 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 44%.
At the same time, not long ago, the news that the operation of the national server of Blizzard games was terminated and all the servers were shut down also made the industry and many players start to worry. Player Li Yi said: "If Blizzard closes the players in the national server How do the players go about the competition entrance of all the games under the banner, and how to make up for the enthusiasm of e-sports fans?"
Game commentator Zhang Xu believes that the current global e-sports map is divided by Blizzard, Valve, Tencent and other game giants, but only in terms of topicality and discussion volume, Blizzard is indeed experiencing troubled times. "Especially at this stage, with China The partners and future development of the market are still at an unknown stage, if it is not handled properly, players will start to lose confidence, and it will undoubtedly lose a big piece of cake.”
The Chinese market is worth looking forward to
In recent years, China's e-sports industry has developed rapidly and has become the world's largest e-sports market.
Data shows that the scale of China's e-sports market will exceed 180 billion yuan in 2022, and the number of users will also reach 418 million.
Domestic leading game manufacturers Tencent and NetEase have built their own e-sports systems.
Many mid-stream live video platforms have also spent a lot of money to buy the copyright of live broadcast of e-sports events.
Governments from all over the world are vying to make efforts to actively strive for the top resources of the e-sports industry, and the e-sports industry has become a veritable "sweet pastry".
In 2022, the "14th Five-Year Plan" development plans of Guangzhou, Chongqing, Wuhan and many other places all mentioned the e-sports industry.
Yunnan Province issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of E-sports Industry in Yunnan Province" focusing on the e-sports industry, and Hangzhou Gongshu District issued the "Three-Year Action Plan for Promoting the Development of E-sports Industry in Gongshu District [2022-2024]" in May ".
A reporter from the Beijing Business Daily noticed that offline watching of e-sports games is gradually resuming. Competitive games such as "Pokémon Gathering" and "VALORANT" have been approved for version numbers and will soon be launched on the national server.
Among them, "Fearless Contract" is hailed as the masterpiece of the terminal game that succeeded "League of Legends", and has become the game with the highest viewing time in the category of tactical shooting in overseas regions.
"With the closure of the national server of Blizzard games, all e-sports events hosted by NetEase will be suspended in 2023. National server players need to find new opportunities in the international battlefield. New e-sports games will enter the game, and the share of the domestic e-sports market in 2023 Facing a new round of reshuffle." Wei Mingye said.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Lu Yang Han Xinyuan