women becoming key consumers for esports - china...
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HOLIDAYTRENDCHINA DAILY8 | October 56, 2019
Women becoming key consumers for esports China has listed esports as an official sport and medals will be contested at 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.
By ZHOU HUIYING in [email protected]
As the second stop of the GirlGamer 2019 World Tour, the GirlGamer Esports Festival arrived in Seoul, South Korea on September 6, attracting four strong teams, two from China, and one each from South Korea and Singapore, PR Newswire said.
After a whole day of fierce competition, Team Charon from South Korea won the championship as well as the opportunity to represent Asia in the finals of the 2019 GirlGamer Esports Festival that will be held in Dubai later in December.
At that festival, nine teams whichwill include 45 female players will compete in the games of CounterStrike Go and League of Legends fora prize of up to $100,000.
Via GirlGamer Esports Festival,the world’s leading event to celebrate and promote women’s competitiveness in esports, participants not only get the chance to show their strength, but also receive support and encouragement from male players.
The situation where men wouldnormally dominate the Chinese gaming market is gradually changing. The rising presence of female participants now extends to esports.
China’s gaming market hasentered a stage of indepth development, and female users are becoming an increasingly important consumer group in that market, which has bolstered the growth of esports in China.
A survey released by the GamePublishers Association Publications Committee, known as GPC, and the Chinese gaming database Gamma Data Corp shows that there are 290 million female esports players in China by the end of 2018, an 11.5 percent yearonyear increase from the prior year.
The REGirls esports club, whichis made up of female professional fulltime gamers, has become one of the most eyecatching of all female esports teams since its foundation inJune 2017.
The club’s players have an averageage of 20 and spent most of their time playing the popular games suchas Honor of Kings, Player Unknown’s Battle Grounds (PUBG) and Clash Royale.
“We have won all the championships in domestic women’s competitions of the three games,” said Xu Binzhen, cofounder of the club. “Before recruiting players, we had set high standards on their game skill levels and integrity because we aim to build a professional team thatcan prove female players can also reach the level of male players.”
Living in a 200squaremeterapartment in Yizhuang, in the southeast suburbs of Beijing, four young girls of the PUBG team that was set up several months ago quickly got used to the life of being professional esports players.
The apartment has become their
dormitory, dining room and trainingarea for the team and the other six girls who came earlier.
They usually get up at around 12pm and begin group training under the guidance of their coaches at around 1 pm from Monday to Friday.
The training includes team battlesthat can last until 10 pm. The playersand coaches will review their strategies and failures after the games are over for the day.
Before the weekend, the girlsremain cut off from the world and concentrate on their computers.
During the short breaks betweengames, the girls also enjoy talking
about fashion and leisure.Several minutes later when they
stare at their computer screen again, the meticulous professional players work for the only goal that matters to them – to be the champions.
“It has nothing to do with gender,”said Qian Yiqiu, 18 also known as Xin in the game PUBG. “We are all clear that it is teamwork and the most important is what you can do for your team.”
As the youngest player in the club,Qian is now recognized as the best player in her team.
Qian gave up her college offer due
to her family’s financial situation and came to the club from her hometown of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, in June.
“I began to play shooter games inmy first year in my senior high school and my mother didn’t prevent me from playing,” she said. “To reduce the burden on my family, I decided to become a professional player instead of entering college.”
However, Qian’s teammate LongHongmin is not so lucky to get the support of her family.
Long, 23, came to the club aftergraduating from China West Normal University in June.
“I began to play PUBG in the university and became an anchor to play the game with fans after I bought my own computer,” she said.“Some net friends of mine encouraged me to join in professional competitions.”
Even though she was not all thatconfident, she had to try and posted a good result.
She began her professionalesports career in her last year in the university while her classmates were busy with graduation practice.
“I dared not tell my parents mypresent job because I am sure they will never agree,” she said. “I just told them that I found a job related with my major in the university in Beijing.”
Now Long is the team’s commanderinchief and has more than 10,000 fans on live streaming platforms.
After about 8 hours’ training, thegirls will go running in the residential area.
“It is a simple and effective wayfor physical exercise and relieving the pressure,” said Li Muzi, the manager and founder of the REGirls. “Sometimes, failure in games may bring them into a bad mood, so they need a way to releasetheir emotions.”
Li, 25, was once a professionalplayer of Honor of Kings in a domestic esports club and got the idea to
found her own club when she had different opinions on the team’s transition.
“When the team began to participate in more commercial activities that paid attention to appearances instead of skills, I decided to leave,” she said. “Fortunately, I received support from some friends who became my cofounders later.”
They have the same idea thatbeing competitive in games is of the utmost importance.
“Compared with male players,female players have a slight advantage in dealing with details while they seem a little weaker in facing mental challenges,” said Li.
“There are no obvious gender differences in esports,” said Xu. “Everything is based on strength and performance in the games. We have to seize every opportunity to participate in competitions that can help improve the level of our players.”
“It is proverbial that esports players’ professional career is shortlived, with body reflexes said to become dulled when they reach 21,” said Li. “We are making an effort to develop related positions for those who are unwilling to leave the esports industry, such as game commentator and anchor.”
Esports has made its name worldwide. In 2003, China has listed esports as an official sport.
Esports will be an official medalsport at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou after being added as a demonstration sport at the 2018 Asian Games, the Olympic Council of Asia announced in April.
China’s gaming industry generated sales revenue of 214.44 billion yuan in 2018, up 5.3 percent yearonyear, a report from GPC and Gamma Data Corp said.
The report also said there were626 million game players in China, an increase of 7.3 percent from 2017.
Kenneth Fok, president of theAsian Electronic Sports Federation, told Xinhua after the 2018 Asian Games that the organization was striving to build a bridge for esports to become a mainstream sport.
“In fact, esports has a broad audience and should be presented on a higher platform,” he said. “Mature concepts and norms from the higherplatforms such as esports athletes also need selfdiscipline in regular life, strict training and diet can guide esports to be more stable, better developed and accepted by morepeople and families.”
Gamma Data noted in its reportthat among all players, more than half are aged under 25, with many born after 1995 and in the 2000s. Compared to those born in the 1990s, those born in the 2000s are more active in the game market.
“Esports is welcomed by youngpeople and growing rapidly, so it’s important to let the young people involved have their voices heard andto help them find their way in the profession,” he said.
Ye Qian contributed to the story
Wang added: “The previousmatches were held overseas, so we had no choice but to watch them online. We are so excited that it has come to China this year.”
The strong tension and impact ofcompetitive sports naturally attract adventurous travelers, while the
beautiful scenery of the host city and different local customs also addmore flavor to their travel.
Starting with Tencent Games in2017, Harbin Ice and Snow World, one of the world’s biggest ice and snow theme parks in the capital cityof Northeast China’s Heilongjiang
province, created the game scene of canyons depicted in Honor of Kings for two consecutive years.
Honor of Kings, a superstaronline game created by TencentGames in 2015, has over 200 million registered users who can playdozens of hero roles such as warri
Chinese cities tying up with esport events to bolster tourismBy ZHOU HUIYING in Harbin
Over the past few years, it hasbecome increasingly attractive for domestic tourism cities to host esports events and the related theme exhibitions because of the booming esports business.
The finals of the 2019 International Dota 2 Championships held in Shanghai recently attracted more than 80,000 spectators from all overthe world.
For most Chinese esports fans, itwas a rare opportunity to enjoy the live competitions because this was the first time the country hosted theannual event which has been stagedin Europe and North America since 2011.
Dota is an acronym for “Defenseof the Ancients”, one of the world’s most popular multiplayer online battle arena games in which players level up as their heroes and try to destroy their opponents’ bases.
“I have played Dota for more than10 years. The game has strengthenedthe bond among my friends and me,”said Wang Jin, 25, a Stateowned enterprise employee in Shanghai who attended the event with some ingame friends from different cities.
ors, assassins and archers, fightingwith or against each other in thegame.
Within the 600,000squaremeter park that ran from Jan 5 till Feb 28 this year, the Honor of Kingstheme area expanded its construction site to 43,200 square meters from 15,000 square meters in the previous year.
About 400 sculptors workedtogether for 30 days to finish the area with 65,000 cubic meters of ice and snow, bringing tourists a uniquegame scene in the real world.
Tourists could enjoy a magnificent 3D light show that narrated thestories about the heroes in the gameevery evening in the area.
The perfect combination of traditional ice and snow sculpture art and modern science and technologybrought spectators a visual shock of trying to integrate the real and the virtual reality.
“The popular game has attractedhundreds of millions of active users and most of them are young people who are also our target customers,” said Zheng Yingzhuo, a staff member from the sales and marketing department of Harbin Ice and SnowWorld. “The professional competi
tions held in the park every weekend could attract thousands of players to participate.”
“It is a successful combination ofthe world’s largest ice and snow theme park and the most popular mobile games in China,” she said. “Itis also a crossover fusion of the mostadvanced ice and snow sculpture artand the most fashionable digital cultural and creative products.”
“Favorable development of tourism always connects with culture, soit is no accident that esports and tourism complement each other,” said Zhou Lin, a travel researcher with the Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences. “As an emerging cultural format, esports games have been widely accepted by young people who are the main force of cultural communication and tourism consumption.”
“Famous tourism cities can beseen as a highlight of esportsevents and the events can alsoattract more visitors,” she told China Daily. “Harbin Ice and SnowWorld is a new attempt to combineonline and offline products, whichcan help promote cultural innovation and build the tourism brand inthe province.”
Esports is welcomed by young people and growing rapidly, so it’s important to let the young people involved have their voices heard and to help them find their way in the profession.Kenneth Fok, president of the Asian Electronic Sports Federation
The manager of the team is watching the members of the REGirls Club playing the Player Unknown’s Battle Grounds game in Beijing on Sept 8. ZOU HONG / CHINA DAILY
The Honor of Kings theme area within the Harbin Ice and Snow World has expanded its construction area to 43,200 square meters from 15,000 square meters in 2018. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY
Coach Wang Yiling teaches tactics for the game Player Unknown’s Battle Grounds to the team’s women players. ZOU HONG / CHINA DAILY