Keywords: "offline" and "going global"

Produced by People's E-sports

Author|Lu Wenzheng

Editor|Kevin

Hosted by the China Audio-Visual and Digital Publishing Association and the People's Government of Nanshan District, Shenzhen, and organized by the E-sports Working Committee of the China Audio-Visual and Digital Publishing Association and the Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports of Shenzhen Nanshan District, the 2022 China E-sports Industry Annual Conference was held on February 17, 2023 at the Hilton Nanhai Hotel in Shenzhen Shekou.

Sun Shoushan, member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the China Audio-Visual and Digital Publishing Association

Sun Shoushan, member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairman of the China Audio-Visual and Digital Publishing Association, delivered a speech at the annual meeting. He mentioned in his speech: "Increase the shaping of e-sports IP, deeply develop the narrative nature of e-sports IP, promote the deep integration of e-sports with music, comics, novels and other pan-entertainment formats, go deep into offline scenes such as shopping malls and cafes, accelerate the layout of e-sports towns, e-sports hotels, and e-sports theme parks, and form an e-sports industry ecology with diversified integration and simultaneous quantity and quality." ”

Tang Jiajun, Deputy Secretary-General of China Audio-Visual and Digital Publishing Association, Secretary-General of the Game Working Committee, and Chairman of the E-sports Working Committee

Tang Jiajun, Deputy Secretary-General of China Audio-Visual and Digital Publishing Association, Secretary-General of the Game Working Committee and Chairman of the E-sports Working Committee, released the "2022 China E-sports Industry Report" at the event and interpreted the report in detail. When talking about "e-sports going overseas", Tang Jiajun said, "Mainland e-sports going overseas is currently mainly held by overseas e-sports events, including self-developed e-sports games overseas events and hosting overseas e-sports events. On the one hand, based on self-developed games, develop overseas e-sports events and master the upstream IP of overseas e-sports; On the other hand, the ability of mainland enterprises to host e-sports events overseas has been increasing year by year, which has also become an important embodiment of the globalization of China's e-sports industry. ”

Hou Miao, vice president of Tencent Games and general manager of Tencent E-sports, Zhao Mingyi, general manager of NetEase E-sports, and Xiao Hong, CEO of Perfect World, also mentioned topics related to "offline" or "going overseas" in their respective speeches.

Offline: More than just events

The recovery of offline directly benefits the event.

At the end of December last year, the King of Glory World Champions Cup, the PEL that started in February this year, and the KPL of offline tickets "second space" all made people feel the public's desire for offline and enthusiasm for watching the game.

Xiao Hong, CEO of Perfect World

Xiao Hong, CEO of Perfect World, said: "In the past five years, we have held a total of 17 large-scale e-sports events, with a total of 100,000 spectators participating. Through a large number of events, our operation team has accumulated a lot of front-line experience, gathered industry elites, and realized the full independent production of various online and offline e-sports events at home and abroad. In 2023, we will shift our focus to offline and start more exciting events. ”

But if you consider the esports industry as a whole, there's much more to "offline" than just events.

There are countless cases that show that "e-sports can bring more than heat to offline" - during the League of Legends S tournament, the tourism heat brought by the event to a city, the deep binding of major events to offline consumption scenarios such as Wuhan Optics Valley Pedestrian Street and Shenzhen MixC City, and the linkage with tourism resources such as Moganshan all make people see the potential of e-sports offline in the field of "combination of data and reality".

Hou Miao, Vice President of Tencent Games and General Manager of Tencent Esports

At the annual meeting of the e-sports industry, Hou Miao, vice president of Tencent Games and general manager of Tencent e-sports, said that as an emerging sports industry, e-sports has a positive influence on spiritual cohesion, cultural exchanges and economic assistance, and has become an important starting point for the development of the digital economy. "Through the discussion of this industry annual meeting, e-sports will play a more important role in condensing the national spirit, cultural exchanges and economic assistance of the young generation in the future."

From Hou Miao's speech, it is also easy to conclude that the esports industry is no longer limited to "events" and "clubs". With the recovery of offline travel and commerce, the combination of e-sports and offline life scenes has also made e-sports a "lifestyle for young people".

"With the Asian Games approaching, 'e-sports' is bound to become a major theme for entertainment and consumption for young people." Hou Miao said, "We will leverage Tencent's own brand advantages to introduce more e-sports derivative content to urban business scenarios, continuously enrich the e-sports business model with the integration of digital IP+ urban industries, and provide effective fuel for new consumption and the growth of the real economy." In this process, we pay more attention to content-driven than pure equipment services: by opening and processing existing IP, customizing new e-sports IP, and integrating it with hotels, cafes, cinemas, and bars, fans can also experience high-quality e-sports content and immersive e-sports experience offline, thus forming new consumer trends and lifestyles. ”

At the sub-forum "E-sports and Real Economy Integration" at the 2022 China E-sports Industry Annual Conference, "offline" was mentioned nearly 40 times. The imaginative space of the combination of e-sports and various real economies made the participants look forward to it, and they did not rush to leave the venue after the meeting, and most of them chose to continue to communicate at the venue.

Ao Ran, Executive Vice President and Secretary-General of China Audio-Visual and Digital Publishing Association

Ao Ran, Executive Vice President and Secretary-General of the China Audio-Visual and Digital Publishing Association, made an opening speech at the sub-forum on "E-sports and the Integration of the Real Economy" as the conclusion of this part, which may also provide development direction and suggestions for the integration of digital and real economy: "We must continue to guide the e-sports industry to give full play to its unique value, adhere to content and technological innovation, open up a new path of digital and real integration, and make e-sports a new promoter to help the development of the real economy." ”

Going to sea: the trend of the times

In addition to "offline", another hot word at the annual meeting is "going to sea".

In Hou Miao's view, with a series of national decisions and deployments on "digital economy" and "digital and real integration", the e-sports industry has ushered in unprecedented opportunities. "Taking the Asian Games as an opportunity, Tencent E-sports will continue to improve its industrial infrastructure construction capabilities and promote the construction of industrial norms and standards. polish the e-sports technology inside and outside the stadium to bring a wonderful event experience; With the model of digital IP + urban industry integration, help the growth of the real economy; Use digital capabilities to show Chinese culture and tell Chinese stories in the e-sports version; Build a bridge between overseas and communication, and help e-sports go overseas. ”

Hou Miao believes that Chinese e-sports still have a task in the Asian Games year, that is, to reintegrate into the international stage as soon as possible. "In order to make 'e-sports going global' form a clearer picture, we suggest that we can link up with Chinese overseas enterprises in other industries, anchor common target markets and groups, share resources, and form synergy."

Zhao Mingyi, general manager of NetEase Esports

Zhao Mingyi, general manager of NetEase E-sports, also detailed the three stages of NetEase E-sports' overseas strategy since 2018 -

In the first stage, focusing on "overseas market exploration of e-sports products and the holding of related e-sports events", Japan became a market for NetEase E-sports to achieve phased results. ""Wilderness Action" and "The Fifth Personality", two IP-related landings at the national level in Japan, have become pioneers in the Japanese mobile game e-sports market. Similar to Wilderness Ops related events in Japan, including national and global events, it has become the largest related event in all esports fields in Japan, and is rated by the Japanese media as the highest level of esports events. In 2018, Southeast Asia launched the comprehensive e-sports brand "TCA", which has now become one of the largest comprehensive e-sports brand events in Southeast Asia, which not only covers NetEase related mobile games and terminal game projects, but also includes some projects of friends such as "Dota 2" to create an e-sports ecology in Southeast Asia. Zhao Mingyi said.

In the second stage, NetEase Esports is committed to building "a core event matrix that builds global, professional and comprehensive events according to market segments".

At this stage, "The Fifth Personality" and "Eternal Calamity" both achieved good results. "In 2022, more than 10,000 players participated in the registration of the "Forever Calamity" World Championship, and finally the players from North America, Europe and Southeast Asia broke the monopoly of Chinese players in this event, and became an important microcosm of the leapfrog development of the overseas influence of the "Forever Disaster" event."

In the third stage, NetEase Esports wants to get involved in more fields.

"In the original NetEase content and localized event foundation, we have expanded the commercial operation of events, including the application of new AR and VR technologies to provide one-stop e-sports solutions for global game products, continue to output high-quality content for products, events and ecosystems, expand the application scenario business territory of e-sports industry operations, and further enhance the influence of China's global e-sports industry."

In the media interview after the speech, Zhao Mingyi also said, "As international exchanges become more and more frequent, after the epidemic is over, we also hope to have more opportunities in 2023 to let more overseas players play in China, and we hope to introduce a lot of foreign aid in China's professional leagues and make some attempts in these projects." ”

Xiao Yang, Senior Director of Tencent Interactive Entertainment TiMi E-sports Center

Xiao Yang, senior director of Tencent Interactive Entertainment TiMi E-sports Center, also mentioned the content of "e-sports going global" in the sub-forum of "E-sports and the Integration of the Real Economy". "The 2022 King Honor World Champions Cup kicked off globally, with more than 100 e-sports players from more than 10 countries and regions around the world participating in this e-sports event, and the King Honor World Champions Cup was held in Shenzhen, China and Seoul, South Korea, with prize money reaching 10 million US dollars. We can see that many players are equipped with the King Glory World Champions Cup, participate in the wave of Chinese e-sports IP digital culture going overseas, feel the diversity and inclusiveness of Chinese culture, share their experience of competition, and truly promote friendship through competition. ”

The general trend of going overseas comes not only from the yearning of domestic enterprises for overseas markets, but also from the new opportunities emerging in the overseas e-sports market. Last November, the IOC's official website released a statement confirming the holding of the first Olympic Esports Week in Singapore in June this year, marking an important step in the IOC's support for the development of virtual sports and further interaction with competitive gamers in the Olympic Movement.

In addition, the east wind of the Asian Games has also promoted exchanges at home and abroad, and the responsibility of e-sports as a cultural carrier to let Chinese culture "go global" and the mission of "telling Chinese stories well" are bound to keep "e-sports going overseas" hot this year.

Regarding the story of "offline" and "going overseas" in 2023, the first China Esports Industry Annual Conference has written a good start. How the story will unfold, we'll see.