The following article comes from Esports, author of the Esports Editorial Board
At the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics a few days ago, the festival that spanned a whole year was finally fixed in Lichun, and the imagination of "going to the future together" was opened with ice and snow sports.
In the last month of 2021, we interviewed the heads of some e-sports projects in China, including those selected for the Asian Games, to depict the footsteps of those who "picked up the level" through the content of the "pick up". We try to think from their perspective about the changes that the Asian Games will bring to the entire Chinese e-sports industry in 2021, and reflect the reflection on the future direction of the entire industry through the changes.
Based on different projects, communities and development backgrounds, no one can give a universal answer to the complex concept of esports, and when we put the answers given by these leaders together, another magnificent picture may emerge.
In the final months of 2021, all of China's young adults are beginning to realize that League of Legends and the culture behind it have reached a point where they cannot be ignored, whether from the perspective of cultural development, public perception, or global communication.
As the most influential sector in the entire League of Legends community at present, e-sports, it will also debut in The Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2022, as a highly popular e-sports project in the whole Asian region, its attention may become one of the most concerned projects in all the competitions of the entire Asian Games.
From EDG winning the title in November, to "Lone Warrior" after the broadcast of "Battle of Two Cities" becoming the last song to dominate the short video cover at the end of the year, from Jinx's story of finding itself to make choices, to Meiko's Grand Slam... If from 2018 onwards, League of Legends as an e-sports project began to show the characteristics of its trend, changing the characteristics of the old subcultural community of e-sports in one fell swoop, then by the end of 2021, almost no one will question the influence of League of Legends on the current cultural ecology of Chinese young people as a trendmaker of the times.
In the face of everything in the past, Jin Yibo, CEO of Tengjing Sports, said that "walking on thin ice", looking back at the ten years from the Hangzhou Asian Games, league of legends is on the ice surface that may break at any time, building a railway track that allows Chinese e-sports to lead to the trend, along the road that no one has ever walked.
PART 1
A decade-long rush
In the summer of 2013, Jin Yibo took the PLAYERS from the WE Club with the Chinese sports delegation to Incheon, South Korea, along with Ding Junhui and Pan Xiaoting, who were also in full swing. Ten years ago in the summer, in the public perception, the distance or intersection between esports and sports was blurred for most people.
In the era when copyright owners explored the possibilities of e-sports, League of Legends was the hottest game on the market at that time, and as a marketing activity for games, LPL also came into being. No one knows how far it can go, and in the rapidly changing gaming market, it's not giving you enough time to perfect a game into a sport, which has often taken nearly half a century of effort over the past hundred years of sports history.
From a simple logo, the 2013 League of Legends Pro League is a sword and an axe cross pattern, as Jin Yibo said, "A look is a very game thing, our materials are very game, at that time we did not completely change." In fact, we began to change to sports from 2014 and 2015, including later we changed the logo and changed it to a very simple red. ”
Such a transformation starts with the logo, but it is by no means something that can be done by doing some simple transformation of intentions, which is a systematic project inward and a difficult reversal outward.
In Jin Yibo's eyes, when S7 came to China in 2017, he truly sensed from external feedback that e-sports was becoming one of the important pillars of the League of Legends system, and it was at that point in time that a large number of Chinese spectators felt the charm of sports attributes in the core of e-sports for the first time in the iconic large stadiums in four cities across the country.
Whether it is the smiles in Wuhan and Guangzhou, or the tears in Shanghai, they have formed an extremely important interaction in public perception.
Subsequently, fate pushed the Chinese League of Legends players to the competition stage of Mahaca Plaza in Jakarta, with the results of sports development accumulation, on August 29, 2018, fate favored the sports road of The Chinese League of Legends.
Behind the gold medal is an emotional fusion, and the power accumulated by this fusion can be gradually released in the next "four years and three crowns".
If in the past few years, this sentiment has pushed China's e-sports system closer to the old sports concept, it is no longer a simple performance of skill, but a complex symbiotic relationship with multiple emotional values.
After the emotional agreement, Jin Yibo believes, "I hope that in the Asian Games in 2022, whether it is our players, our ecological practitioners, including us, and sports can really integrate, we take the initiative to embrace a little." ”
From the marketing of the game to the full range of sports integration, League of Legends has taken about a decade, and in Hangzhou in 2022, it may be the moment for us to test the results of this integration.
PART 2
A train that makes the audience proud
If integration is a mechanism of inward exploration, then in the past decade, League of Legends esports has been more important to build an outward sense of identity.
In 2021, we have gradually sorted out a value evaluation system about e-sports, and League of Legends undoubtedly has the most basic means of continuous influence, and it is constantly spitting out the old and new, guiding in a more positive direction.
When the emotions born in the competition are finally embodied as a descriptive sense of identity, both the event and the club and the players have the possibility of measuring value.
In the interview, Jin Yibo also mentioned building the audience's sense of identification with the LPL, which he described as a sense of pride accumulated over time.
From 2013 to 2022, League of Legends esports has left a linear path on the timeline to this day, rather than some sporadic points of light.
Jin Yibo describes this long-term cultivation as a moving train. At a certain point in time, the audience may get on the bus at the starting station in Taicang, and leave for a while at the Huanglong Stadium in Hangzhou because of work and study, but when they meet again at the Pudong Football Stadium in Shanghai, everyone's good memories have actually been saved in the car, find their own position, start again, and still meet these like-minded friends again.
The magazine previously did a cover feature about the League of Legends audience, and the interviewees in the middle ranged from the audience around 1985 to the post-05 generation. When an event serves a spectator spanning more than 20 years, some things have become fond memories that will be left at that time forever, some things are becoming new emotions, and when these parts come together, we see the imprint that different stages of growth have left on these projects.
For most e-sports projects, ten years of glory has been an unattainable achievement, but Jin Yibo wants to make league of legends e-sports and IP have a longer-term influence, he hopes to be like the Premier League, can be a grandfather with his grandson into the league of legends arena. If this sense of identity can continue, then even if it is not the League of Legends game, but other products that continue its IP and values can fulfill his wishes.
PART 3
Make people feel that esports is no longer special
During the interview, Jin Yibo also mentioned a very interesting understanding, he emphasized the concept that is in front of everyone, but we often overlook: the copyright owner of LPL, and the organization he is CEO of is called Tengjing Sports.
Why emphasize this concept, because in the esports industry, very few event companies, clubs or other service agencies directly reflect themselves as a sports company in their names.
The name Tengjing Sports is more like a gesture of getting yourself out of the past and immersing yourself in it. Behind the "sports", Jin Yibo said, "We talk to some sports people, they may think that (e-sports) is not (sports)." There are several reasons, number one, that esports is certainly competitive, but are you physical? Is it educated, is it an ingredient in education? I think physical can be debated, so are you bring enough ingredients? I think the ingredients we originally bred are really not so prominent. In the past, we still emphasized competitive confrontation, and we should do something in the aspect of breeding. ”
Based on this starting point, in the past two years, we have gradually seen changes in the field of LPL in the field of public perception. Organize the certification and examination of club personnel, design a richer sports concept construction, from the players who enter the youth training camp to the staff involved in the organization and management of the event to form the concept of sports in their work.
With the accumulation of time, whether it is the image of the players displayed in front of the screen or the set of systems behind the support of the operation of the league, they are changing towards standardized sports. In the end, Jin Yibo hopes that the audience can truly equalize the difference between League of Legends esports and other sports in perception.
Jin Yibo has been doing e-sports for twenty years, and he feels that if it takes another ten years, the audience will see a high spirit, a support system of systematic science, and a rich sense of national honor, then when people mention e-sports, they will not realize that it is different from other sports, that is, an ordinary member of many sports, maybe his wish will be truly realized.
About Tencent Esports
Tencent Esports was founded on December 9, 2016. As the most competitive e-sports brand in China, Tencent's e-sports business has been deployed since TGA in 2010, and after years of exploration and accumulation, it is helping e-sports to become a new "super digital scene", adding more possibilities to our lives and creating more beauty for the world. In the future, Tencent E-sports hopes to work with all partners to jointly bloom the diversified values of e-sports in more fields and jointly help realize the vision of "science and technology for good".