Hello Esports Enthusiasts!
Apologies to all for my long hiatus, especially while so much is going on in China esports. I am going to attempt to round up the major stories from the last two months, including the League of Legends World Championship a/k/a Worlds 2020 currently underway in Shanghai.
To avoid overwhelming everyone, I am going to break this round-up into two issues. Today’s will focus on:
Global News
League & Tournament News
Club News
On Friday we will continue with:
Research & Data
Local Development
Media & Streaming
Brands & Marketing
“Esports Plus”
Governance
Beyond Esports
Also, in service of this newsletter’s mission to quickly make readers smart about China’s esports industry, the format of this week's roundup will be less analysis, more “lightning round”.
One announcement before we get started: next week I am following the herd in moving this newsletter over to Substack. So look out for future issues coming from Substack instead of Mailchimp, and please take a moment to add cebnd@substack.com to your contacts so you don’t miss an issue!
OK, buckle up!
- John
GLOBAL NEWS
►Key global esports stories that impact China’s esports industry
Riot Games Initiates Legends of Runeterra Esports Program with Seasonal Tournaments. Of interest to anyone studying Tencent/Riot's strategy to cultivate a global esports scene for the new online games Riot launched on the 10th anniversary of League of Legends (LoL): Legends of Runeterra (LoR), Valorant, and Wild Rift.
Tencent’s Gaming Stakes Draw U.S. National Security Scrutiny. These words I wrote two months ago are coming back to haunt me: “If the U.S. broadens the WeChat EO to an offensive against Tencent, much of the gaming and esports sector in the U.S., one of the few economic bright spots of 2020, could be largely uprooted.” Right now, President Trump’s administration appears to be too distracted with the election to effectively address the legal challenges, but the danger here is far from over.
LEAGUES & TOURNAMENTS
►News about China's professional esports leagues and competitions, organized by title
Worlds 2020 (LoL)
The month of October belongs to Tencent, Riot Games, and Shanghai, as Worlds 2020 dominates the esports world. The four teams heading to the semifinals on October 25 include favorite Top Esports and Suning from China, in a face-off guaranteeing that a Chinese team will make the finals on October 31, which will be the first live event played in the new Pudong Football Stadium. Here is a quick roundup of key stories from the last few weeks:
3.2M people applied for the 6,300 League of Legends World Championship tickets. Per SportsMoney (Chinese), “Due to the epidemic prevention and control, this is the strictest audience admission in history, requiring multiple checks and verification such as ID card and face recognition." (translation)
League of Legends World Championship Finals Will Feature a Live In-Person Audience
3.2M people applied for the 6,300 League of Legends World Championship tickets. Per SportsMoney (Chinese), “Due to the epidemic prevention and control, this is the strictest audience admission in history, requiring multiple checks and verification such as ID card and face recognition." (translation)
Underdog PSG top LGD in worlds play-ins. PSG.Talon’s “Cinderella Story” made it the most-watched team in Play-Ins.
Top Esports reverse sweeps Fnatic in epic 5-game series, the first reverse sweep in Worlds history.
A ton of incredible content has been made for every market, including this spectacular ad by Nike for the Chinese market. I was particularly intrigued by this unique bit of crossover content from MORE Sports: a collaboration between the Celtics' Gordon Hayward and LPL host Candace Yuan, showing his fluency of LoL and breaking down LPL plays, with Chinese subtitles.
Other LoL News:
TJ Sports Teases Two More Global Partners for Worlds 2020, Will Limit Player Salaries and Add Luxury Tax in LPL. (With this the LPL becomes the first esports league in the world to adopt salary caps and other rules from traditional sports meant to balance competitiveness among teams. Lanxiong Sports (Chinese) has a detailed breakdown of the so-called "Financial Fairness Rules" [财务公平规则], which will be introduced in phases, with 2020 considered a trial year to set baselines.
Honor of Kings
Honour of Kings Champion Cup gets first e-sports live audience in China since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. TS Gaming defeated opponent DYG in a best-of-seven game, taking home $1.93M USD/¥13.4RMB out of the total $4.6M USD prize pool. Total viewers were estimated at 350M.
KPL Union and CCEA Co-Host ’China Esports Patriotism Education’ Event
PUBG / Peacekeeper Elite
Peace Elite League Season 3 Features $3M Prize Pool, Becomes Highest Prize Money Esports Seasonal League in China. (Click here for the same story in Chinese media). Each of the top 12 teams at the end of the season will receive a bonus.
Tencent Esports to Invest $14.5M to Reinforce Peacekeeper Elite Esports Ecosystem, Includes a $2M Global Championship Event. The Peacekeeper Elite Championship will be held Nov 13-15 at Shanghai Oriental Sports Center.
Not esports but on-topic: Josh Ye of SCMP makes a case in his Kaleland newsletter for Peacekeeper Elite as the Fortnite of China, a medium with "metaverse" potential.
Overwatch:
San Francisco Shock win second consecutive Overwatch League title. Seoul Dynasty beat favorite Shanghai Dragons to win the Asia division, but then lost to the SF Shock, winner of the North America division. Despite a tumultuous year, viewership continued to rise, and the OWL picked up IBM as a major sponsor midway through the finals in a 3-year deal.
CS:GO
ESL announced details of the IEM Global Challenge for the closing months of 2020, including a return to China for IEM Beijing-Haidian 2020 as an online competition, from November 6-22.
Dota2
The International Prize Pool Surpasses $40M, already breaking the prize pool record for a single event, and with almost one year to go before it occurs.
PSG.LGD Wins China’s First Dota 2 Offline Competition During COVID-19 Pandemic
Perfect World to Host $200K Perfect World Dota 2 League, setting up a potential conflict for China’s Dota2 teams scheduled to play in the CDA league, ironically formed by Chinese pro teams in the absence of publisher support for a return to competition.
Valorant
Riot Games Southeast Asia unveils collegiate plans for VALORANT, which include designating Talon Esports as Riot’s exclusive partner for Hong Kong pro and collegiate VALORANT First Strike competitions, and Taiwan pro First Strike (Taiwan Mobile and TeSL will run First Strike for collegiate).
Multi-Title Competitions
AESF held a signing ceremony in Chengdu for the "AESF Asian Esports Masters Cup China" [亚洲电子竞技大师杯中国赛], one of the only major international multi-title competitions to include Blizzard and Riot titles, via competitors Tencent and Netease. Titles will include LoL, Arena of Valor, FIFA 2020, and Warcraft III, but no date has been set. First Automobile Works Groups signed a three-year agreement to be a chief partner.
Ubisoft's Steep 《极限巅峰》will be the official game of China's Digital Ice and Snow Games, which will be held to promote the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
The First China-Japan-Korea Esports Tournament is Postponed to 2021 (Chinese)
CLUB NEWS
►The business moves of esports teams and owners
China’s First Female Honor of Kings Team Fire Panther Will Compete in 2021 KGL, the KPL development league. (Click here for a Chinese version of this story.)
Weibo acquired HOK team TS Gaming, and Kuaishou acquired HOK team YTG. YTG’s ask was $US9.17M USD/¥61M RMB.
Talon Esports raises $2M seed round to accelerate growth in Asia Pacific. (Click here for a Chinese version of this story.)
Chengdu Hunters End Partnership With Royal Never Give-Up
Guangzhou Charge Owner Nengking Group Launch Esports Umbrella Brand Ultra Prime
Edward Gaming Faces Backlash for Handling of Sexual Harassment Allegation
Chinese Chat Service Company TT Acquires Dominus Esports, Secures LPL Franchise. According to Lanxiong Sports, TT Voice has more than 60M users and owns KPL club TTG.xQ. TT Voice was also the designated video platform for online KPL events earlier in the year.