Where will China become the largest single market in the global e-sports industry and the new track develop?

In 2021ChinaJoy China International Digital Interactive Entertainment Exhibition, many sports-themed mobile games, online games and e-sports competitions appeared. Photo by Chen Yuyu/Bright Picture

At the 2021 China International Intelligent Industry Expo, the audience experienced the mecha fighting game. Xinhua news agency

Source: iResearch Cartography: Lu Yuanzhen

In the League of Legends Global Finals in 2021, China Club reversed its championship and achieved a Grand Slam. Bright pictures/vision china
EDG team won the championship and eight games were selected as the official project of Hangzhou Asian Games … … Recently, the news of the e-sports circle has been constantly brushing social networks, so that the once niche e-sports has entered more people’s horizons. From the prejudice of "doing nothing" to winning the honor on the international stage, China e-sports has grown hard all the way. The huge audience, the supportive policies introduced one after another, and the continuous expansion of the industrial culture in the border have made the e-sports industry an emerging industry with great potential. At the same time, how to face the problems of scarce professional talents, low social recognition and immature organization and management system is still the key to the long-term sustainable development of the e-sports industry in the future.
"Breaking the circle" attack: the user scale has soared and e-sports has been popular.
On November 5th, the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee announced that eight events, including League of Legends, the glory of the king and Peace Elite, had been selected as the official events of the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games. Prior to this, e-sports projects have always appeared on the stage of the Asian Games as performance projects. On November 7th, the EDG team defeated the DK team of South Korea to win the 2021 League of Legends Global Finals, and the major social networks were screened. In Sina Weibo, the topic of winning the EDG championship released by CCTV news was read about 3.8 billion.
E-sports "fire out of the circle", all kinds of events and industry news continue to appear in the public eye, so that the mainstream society gradually understands and begins to re-examine this new industry that young people enthusiastically pursue.
In recent years, the rise of mobile games, live broadcasts and short videos have made e-sports games have a huge user base. Since 2020, affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, people’s online entertainment time has increased significantly, and the number of users of e-sports games has expanded rapidly. In October this year, the League of Legends mobile game quickly reached the top of the download list as soon as it was put on the shelves, with a flow of over 1.1 billion yuan in the first month. According to the Research Report on E-sports Industry in China in 2021, the growth rate of mobile e-sports game market will reach 36.8% in 2020, and the growth rate of e-sports eco-market will reach 45.2%.
A large number of amateur players have evolved into e-sports users whose core demand is to watch e-sports competitions. The data shows that the number of e-sports users in China has reached nearly 500 million, an increase of 350% compared with 2015.
The online viewing volume of major events confirms the popularity of e-sports. According to data disclosed by Tencent, during the 2021 League of Legends Global Finals (S11), the number of viewers per minute exceeded 30 million, and the number of simultaneous viewers peaked at about 73.86 million. The number of videos related to the S11 event on Huya Platform exceeded 400 million, and the number of views on related topics in S11 reached 310 million. Bilibili’s highest popularity peak during the event reached nearly 500 million; As of November 6th, the number of related videos submitted by League of Legends in bilibili exceeded 300,000, with a year-on-year increase of over 100%, and the total number of related videos played exceeded 2.5 billion, with a year-on-year increase of over 40%.
Although China’s e-sports started relatively late, the influence generated by the huge audience has become the basis for its rapid development. "The huge user scale of the e-sports market in China has driven e-sports to break through the original boundaries and make a transition from community culture to popular culture." Wang Xiaohui, Dean of the 5G Intelligent Media Communication and Industry Research Institute of China Communication University, pointed out that with the continuous overweight of the industry and the improvement of public recognition, China has grown into the largest single market of the global e-sports industry, with the core audience of e-sports and the revenue of e-sports events ranking first in the world and standing at the forefront of the development of the global e-sports industry.
From the birth of the first batch of e-sports clubs in China at the beginning of this century, to the establishment of the China E-sports Club Alliance in 2011, and then to winning gold and silver in major international competitions, e-sports in China has always been developing in difficult exploration. Today, it has gradually formed a relatively perfect club management system, and the e-sports industry has gradually become standardized. In April 2019, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security released 13 new occupations, including e-sports operators and e-sports players; In February this year, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security promulgated the national vocational skills standards for e-athletes for the first time. This indicates that the identity of practitioners in the e-sports industry has gained social recognition.
Under the background of relevant policies, more and more people begin to look at the e-sports industry positively. E-sports is no longer synonymous with "Internet addiction teenagers", but as a formal project, it has embarked on the road of professionalization and industrialization, becoming an emerging cultural symbol that has influenced a generation.
Blue Ocean of Industry: E-sports opens the era of multi-integration development
The S11 season has just ended, and the League of Legends derivative animation "Battle of Two Cities" was officially launched, which quickly became an "explosion". In just one month, the cumulative broadcast volume of Tencent video exceeded 300 million, and it got high scores of Douban score of 9.2 and IMDb score of 9.4. Not long ago, the glory of the king also officially announced a series of IP plans including movies, animated operas and musicals. Popular e-sports projects have begun to expand industrial boundaries, tap the content and cultural value of game IP, and integrate into the "pan-entertainment" ecology.
Driven by the fiery fan economy and various policies, the e-sports industry has entered the fast lane of rapid development and the industrial structure has been upgraded in an orderly manner. From the authorization of game research and development in the upstream, the organization and implementation of events in the midstream, to the production and dissemination of content in the downstream, a complete industrial chain similar to traditional competitive sports has gradually formed. The influence of head-mounted e-sports games and events has accelerated its commercialization process, activated many markets such as game planning, data technology, equipment support and venue operation, and spawned derivative formats such as live game, e-sports sparring and e-sports commentary. According to the data of iResearch, in 2020, the overall market size of the e-sports industry will be nearly 150 billion yuan. In 2021, the live game market in the e-sports ecological market will exceed 24 billion yuan, the e-sports sparring market will exceed 14 billion yuan, and the e-sports events, clubs and related markets will exceed 12 billion yuan.
Under the expanding market demand, in recent years, major companies have begun to make in-depth layout in the field of e-sports — — Suning established the SNG team in 2016; JD.COM acquired QG in 2017 and reorganized into JDG team; In October 2018, e-sports was formally established as a subsidiary of bilibili, and BLG Club and Hangzhou Lightning Team were successively established; In 2020, Weibo and Aauto Quicker acquired TS Team and YTG Team respectively. Internet companies not only enter the market through the formation and acquisition of teams, but also combine the advantages of their own content media to train e-sports anchors and commentators, and develop diversified businesses such as event production and artist brokerage.
At the same time, by holding city competitions and other means, urban culture and e-sports intersect, and the road of combining e-sports with cultural tourism is explored. E-sports has gradually become a new symbol of urban culture, driving regional tourism and commercial development. E-sports industrial park, cultural and creative products, theme parks, theme hotels, life museums and exhibition halls … … The birth of a variety of peripheral products and consumption scenarios has stimulated the potential of diversified integration and development.
Wang Xiaohui said that it is foreseeable that in the next few years, e-sports +5G and e-sports +VR are all popular development directions. In the new digital scene, e-sports is undoubtedly an important part of the new form of digital sports. This trend will deepen with the development of information technology, bringing development potential to all aspects of the sports industry. E-sports and digital scenes are fully integrated, releasing more opportunities.
In addition, with the help of e-sports and traditional culture, it is also very promising to realize cultural communication and culture going out to sea. In May this year, the "Wenbo E-sports Star Promotion Officer" program jointly sponsored by Chengdu Jinsha Site Museum, Chengdu Xinfeixiang Technology Group and E-sports Team became a typical cross-border integration of "E-sports+Wenbo", and realized the ecological linkage in the field of digital cultural and creative industries through the design and development of "E-sports+Wenbo" IP derivatives.
From "game" to "competition", from "competition" to "industry", the e-sports industry has gradually bid farewell to the rebellious era, stepped into the right track step by step, and grown into an important driving force for the development of the new economy.
E-sports education: the gap of professional talents is still huge
At the end of S11 season, the translator in the interview with EDG after winning the championship was "on fire", and the fluent trilingual switch among China, Japan and South Korea surprised the audience all over the world. This young lady is Cheyenne, the official English host of League of Legends Professional League, who graduated from the philosophy department of Hong Kong University. She said that since she submitted her resume to the League of Legends professional league in 2019, she has formed an indissoluble bond with e-sports. This year is the third time she has participated in the League of Legends professional league.
The e-sports industry is now attracting countless outstanding young people like Cheyenne to join it. The opening of the 2nd International College Students’ E-sports Festival is just around the corner. Not only the e-sports competition, anchor competition, creative competition and other competition sections are registered enthusiastically, but also it provides a practical platform for students who want to engage in e-sports related work in the future. As the founder and director of the International College Students’ E-sports Festival, Wang Xiaohui said that last year’s competition triggered a warm response, and the scale of this year’s competition expanded nationwide. The school’s e-sports majors participated in the organization work and gained practical opportunities, and learned more about the e-sports industry through the linkage between enterprises and schools.
Does the e-sports major really teach students to play games? In recent years, many universities, such as China Communication University, Shanghai Theatre Academy, Shanghai Sport University and Nanjing Media College, have set up e-sports related majors.
Turning to the curriculum of e-sports major in China Communication University, we can see many courses, such as game psychology, game project management, event planning, event guiding and digital video editing, etc. Combined with the media characteristics of China Communication University, this major cultivates talents including producer, director, planner and director of e-sports competition system. In June this year, the e-sports majors of China Communication University and Nanjing Communication College welcomed the first batch of graduates, who entered Internet companies, game companies, media organizations, e-sports clubs and so on to engage in e-sports related work.
In April 2020, the kick-off meeting for the development of national vocational skills standards for e-sports athletes and e-sports operators was held. It was pointed out at the meeting that the number of e-sports practitioners in China is only 50,000, and the talent gap is 500,000. From the perspective of the whole industrial chain, from brand building, event planning and execution to club management and operation, there is a big talent gap, and there is also a great demand for compound talents and high-level management talents.
"In terms of the core professional teams and professional players, there is no institutionalized and streamlined selection and cultivation mechanism at present, and the players are more ‘ Genius type ’ By mistake. At the same time, there are insufficient related professionals such as live broadcast of e-sports, overall operation of e-sports, and professional explanation of e-sports. " Wang Qinglin, vice president of Ai Media Consulting and Research Institute, analyzed that from the current situation, most practitioners take the path of engaging in related work after retiring from professional players, and less specialized training. According to the consulting data of Ai Media, there will be about 17,000 full-time e-sports commentators/anchors in 2020, and only about 1,200 professional e-sports commentators will be certified, which is far from a large number of e-sports events.
"Talent is the core resource and the guarantee for the development of the industry. Schools and industries need to work closely together." Wang Xiaohui said that the long-term sustainable development of the e-sports industry in the future needs to constantly improve the talent training mechanism, build e-sports training institutions, expand talent selection channels, and achieve professional development. At the same time, e-sports, as a new industry, also needs to improve the management system, including improving policies and regulations, building a special electronic management center, etc., to spread high-quality content and reflect cultural charm with quality games.
(Guangming Daily reporter Lu Yuanzhen)
Memorabilia of e-sports development in China
In November 2003, the State Sports General Administration officially announced that e-sports had become the 99th official sports event recognized by the State Sports General Administration.
In June, 2004, 18 players from anti-terrorism elite, World of Warcraft, FIFA Football 2004 and StarCraft formed the first national e-sports team in China.
On April 21st, 2005, the first international e-sports club established in Chinese — — World Elite(WE) was established.
In 2011, China E-sports Club Alliance was established to manage the participating clubs and professional players in professional leagues. Well-known domestic clubs such as WE, IG and LGD are all members of the Alliance.
In 2012, the IG team won the DOTA2 International Invitational Tournament (TI2) in Seattle, USA. Won the WCG World Finals in the same year.
In 2014, China Newbee Team won the 4th DOTA2 International Invitational Tournament (TI4) Finals.
On September 6, 2016, the Ministry of Education published the Catalogue of Higher Vocational Education (Specialty) in Ordinary Colleges and Universities, which added the specialty of "E-sports and Management".
In August 2018, at the Asian Games in Jakarta, China e-sports players won gold medals in League of Legends and the glory of the king International Edition.
In November, 2018, China’s IG team won the championship of League of Legends Professional League (S8), which triggered a national carnival.
In April 2019, the 13 new occupations released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security included two occupations: e-sports operators and e-sportsmen, and e-sports practitioners were officially recognized.
On November 5th, 2021, Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee announced that eight games, including League of Legends, the glory of the king (Asian Games Edition) and Peace Elite (Asian Games Edition), were selected as official events of the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.
On November 7th, 2021, China’s EDG team won the League of Legends Professional League (S11) championship, and once again screened the social network.

















































