China News Service, Beijing, August 17 (Reporter Xing Chong) 2000 tickets were sold out within 8 minutes, and 350 million people watched the game live on the online platform... There is no doubt that the e-sports Beijing 2020 King of Glory World which ended on the evening of the 16th The Champions Cup finals triggered an online and offline e-sports carnival.
Under the epidemic, traditional businesses such as cultural performances have been greatly impacted, while online games and e-sports education have benefited from the rapid development of the "home economy". Data show that in the first quarter of this year, China's e-sports users reached 480 million, an increase of 8.3% from the previous quarter.
However, the e-sports industry is a complex of online and offline formats, and the operations of e-sports venues, e-sports clubs, and e-sports events have also been affected. According to statistics, more than 500 e-sports events in China were suspended or postponed due to the epidemic in the first half of the year.
Industry insiders pointed out that the holding of offline events is a sign of the restart of the e-sports industry, and the combination of online and offline will help the healthy development of the entire industry chain. The World Champions Cup finals is the first large-scale cultural event held in Beijing under the normalization of epidemic prevention and control this year.
Liu Shaojian, party secretary and director of the Beijing State-owned Cultural Assets Management Center, said that the reason for choosing the e-sports event of King Glory is to promote the rapid recovery of the cultural consumer market and boost consumer confidence.
In the long run, this move is even more focused on building a Beijing e-sports industry brand. This year, Beijing issued a medium- and long-term plan for the development of cultural industries, proposing to focus on building brands such as Beijing e-sports events, mass activities, parks and clubs. Shijingshan District, Haidian District, and Economic Development Zone have also issued corresponding industrial support policies for each region. On August 15, the Beijing E-sports Industry Development Association officially landed, which is expected to become the "base camp" for the development of Beijing's e-sports industry.
The epidemic is a "danger" and an "opportunity". With the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, the online trend of the e-sports industry is ignited offline, and it is "riding the wind and waves" in many parts of China. Shanghai proposed to build a "global e-sports capital". In June this year, it released the e-sports venue rating method, which gathered a number of industry experts to rate the 17 e-sports venues in Shanghai. This year, some areas in Guangzhou introduced policies to address e-sports companies, The maximum amount of support for e-sports venues is 10 million yuan.
In order to consolidate the talent foundation, as early as 2016, the Ministry of Education of China included "e-sports sports and management" in the professional catalog of colleges and universities. In 2019, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China designated "e-sports player" and "e-sports operator" as new professions; In June of this year, the Ministry of Education of China included e-sports workers in the freelance scope of college graduates for the first time.
The popularity of the online industry, the restoration of offline events, and the continued strengthening of policies have also continued to "justify" e-sports.
Glory of Kings was originally a mobile game. Due to the low threshold, it attracted a large number of younger age groups, so many people regarded this as a "primary school game". After its launch in 2015, the number of daily active users of Glory of Kings has exceeded 50 million, reaching a peak of 95.35 million during the Spring Festival this year.
The huge market potential is destined to be more than just a "primary school game". E-sports at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games became a performance event for the first time. The first gold medal came from the international version of the King's Glory. The Chinese team won the championship in four games, interpreting the "Glory" of the "King"; the world championship held in Beijing this time The Cup is the official highest-level professional promotion event. Both online and offline are hot or will be another opportunity to change the stereotype.
Some people in the industry pointed out that e-sports should be regarded as a new form of entertainment and sports brought about by the information age. In the finals on the 16th, the TS team came back with a 0:3 lag, defeated DYG in four consecutive games and won the championship, showing the unique charm of this competition. Endorsements by Yi Qianqianxi, Wu Yifan, Yang Mi and others Helping out is to push this "youth storm" to a climax.
Data show that the scale of China's e-sports market this year is expected to exceed 150 billion yuan. At the Beijing International E-sports Innovation and Development Conference held on the 15th, Huo Qigang, chairman of the Asian E-Sports Federation, believed that Asia has always been in a leading position in the development of the e-sports industry. Judging from the growth of the Chinese market, it is enough to lead Asia and even the world. Industry development.
There is reason to believe that China's e-sports "riding the wind and breaking the waves" will continue to usher in the "king of glory" moment. (Finish)