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August 20, 2019

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Top players in Shanghai for major championship

By Zhu Shenshen | 00:00 UTC+8 August 20, 2019 | Print Edition

World-class eSports teams are in Shanghai to attend the TI9, an eSports championship with a top prize pool of US$33 million.

Shanghai is planning to build itself into a global eSports hub and top-level matches, such as TI9 (The International Dota 2 Championships), a keen eSports audience and huge market potential will achieve that target, players, team managers and sponsors told the media yesterday.

China is one of the fastest-growing eSports markets, according to Nicole LaPointe Jameson, chief executive of Seattle-based eSports organization Evil Geniuses.

Compared with western audiences, Chinese fans are more “straight-forward and direct” in showing their passion, which creates a cool eSports culture, said Jonathan “Loda” Berg, coach of Sweden’s Alliance team.

As a sponsor of the two teams, Hong Kong-listed Razer sees a big future for eSports.

“ESports means much more beyond just a gaming event,” said David Tse, Razer’s global eSports director.
“Players have become true sports athletes and stars, especially in China and Asia with a bigger number of fans.”

The market for eSports in China is valued at more than 100 billion yuan (US$14.3 billion) a year, according to analysts.

Razer has established a global eSports division to support 18 teams competing in major eSports events and Tse hopes to have regular events in China.

Razer is just one of many sponsors in the booming eSports sector.

For example, Chinese team LGD has more than 10 sponsors at the TI9 competition.

“Now we have home venues and sponsors, just like the Barcelona FC team and an NBA team in eSports,” said Pan Fei, LGD’s general manager.

With Evil Geniuses and LGD in leading positions, TI9’s final session is on August 25.

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