Twenty years of esports in China: from chaos to norm, from underground to front

21st Century Business Herald reporter Dong Jingyi reported from Shanghai

When it comes to e-sports, perhaps everyone will remember that night in 2021: the cheers of the dormitory building, the brushing of the circle of friends, and the hot search one after another on Weibo, "EDG has won the championship!" ”

In the early morning of November 7, 2021, the 2021 League of Legends World Championship (hereinafter referred to as S11) was held in Reykjavik, Iceland, and the EDG team from the LPL region defeated DK, a fierce rival from the LCK division, with a score of 3:2, successfully sitting on the throne of the global finals championship and helping the LPL division win the third summoner trophy.

"EDG's victory in the finals broke 150 million views in a single game, which is basically the highest peak of Weibo e-sports throughout the year, and EDG's account exposure reached 100 million on that day." Cheng Shenglin, general manager of Weibo's ACGN business department, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter.

For a time, the boom of e-sports swept the country, and S11 helped e-sports complete a real sense of breaking the circle, and after discussing and fermenting in Weibo, friend circles and other communities, e-sports ushered in wider attention and higher popularity.

According to Cheng Shenglin, the number of hot searches for overall e-sports in 2022 will exceed 3,800, which is equivalent to 10+ hot searches in a day; The popularity of the S12 Global Finals lasted for nearly a month, with 462 hot searches, setting a new high in the entire S Final.

On Weibo Night not long ago, esports was one of the important sectors, and the "Annual Impact Esports Event" was won by "2022 League of Legends Tournament" and "2022 KPL King Glory Pro League". The story of Chinese e-sports also has a more promising future.

Stormy 20 years

EDG's call for winning the championship seems to be yesterday, and the industry behind it has been in the storm for a long time. Since it was first approved as an official sport, Chinese esports has entered its twentieth year.

"I feel that there are more and more audiences and more partners with the club, and the general environment has changed a lot from when I entered the industry." Meiko, a professional player at EDG Esports Club, recalled to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter. He debuted at the age of 16 and devoted most of his youth to this cause.

According to data released by iResearch, the size of China's e-sports market reached 167.3 billion yuan in 2021, and the scale of Chinese e-sports users reached 506 million, which has surpassed many traditional sports. However, from negative video games to the touted "regular army", Chinese esports has spent a lot of time making a name for itself.

In 2003, e-sports became the 99th official sport recognized by the State General Administration of Sports, which was originally a good start for the industry, but by the following year it ushered in a major change: in order to protect the health of minors, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued the "Notice on Prohibiting the Broadcast of Computer Online Game Programs", which stopped all e-sports programs, and the fledgling Chinese e-sports fell into the trough of chaos.

But the development of the industry has not completely stopped. In 2005, "Human Emperor" Li Xiaofeng won the WCG Warcraft project championship, becoming the first champion in mainland China to achieve this project; In the same year, Bian Zhengwei "Alex" won the WEG CS World Championship. As Chinese players increasingly appear on the world stage, esports is also getting more and more attention.

In 2008, the State General Administration of Sports reclassified e-sports as the 78th official sports competition, and the official attitude recovered. In 2011, capital was injected into the e-sports industry, and in the same year, the national service of "League of Legends" was released, and e-sports clubs appeared, and China's e-sports ushered in a period of vigorous development.

Since then, many policies have been introduced for the e-sports industry, and the General Office of the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the State General Administration of Sports have clearly proposed to support the development of e-sports in special plans or policies, and the industry has truly embarked on the right track of standardized operation.

Long-term accumulation has pushed the industry forward steadily, but it is still one foot away from the outbreak.

At the 2018 League of Legends S8 World Finals, Team IG won the first S championship in the LPL division since its establishment in 2013, which was once known as the first year of esports in the circle as the starting point of the rise of the LPL.

Also in this year, the Jakarta Asian Games included e-sports as a performance event, and Chinese e-sports players represented the motherland for the first time, winning 2 golds and 1 silver.

"2018 felt a clear change in the environment." Meiko told reporters.

"The 2018 competition was on Weibo's hot search, and the influence of the event penetrated the entire industry." Cheng Shenglin said.

Recalling this landmark year, Sun Zheng, executive chairman of the LPL Alliance and head of ecology, analyzed to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that these two things have more of a detonation of the market, "to look at it as a sports content, in fact, it is the most basic logic of 'winner takes all, winner is king'." After winning the championship in 18, everyone's voice will come out normally, so you can see such a loud volume. ”

However, Cheng Shenglin believes that the landmark has brought the whole people to notice the development of e-sports events and the internal league tends to be sporty, or S11 2021, which is the night mentioned at the beginning.

"Whether it is the hot search on Weibo or the circle of friends on WeChat, this is a very boiling and out of the circle, which has promoted the entire e-sports event to move towards a more popular vision." Cheng Shenglin said.

Under its strong influence, esports events have gained the ability to benchmark traditional sports events, and the charm of esports has begun to affect a wider audience. After 20 years of journey, China's e-sports are gradually developing towards standardization, standardization, ecology and internationalization.

Progress and challenges

As the highest level of professional League of Legends in China, LPL's results can glimpse the front end of Chinese esports.

"Our overall revenue, whether it is commercial revenue or copyright revenue, our numbers have been rising, and even in 2022, when the global economy was extremely difficult, our revenue reached an all-time high." Sun Zheng said, "We already have the ability to make blood on our own. ”

Today, the commercial value of LPL has been proven. The 2023 League of Legends Pro League Spring Tournament has 15 official partners, including Mercedes-Benz, Intel, etc., in January this year, domestic sports brand Li Ning announced a strategic cooperation with LPL: the brand has become a strategic partner of the League of Legends Pro League, an official sports category partner and an official licensor of sportswear categories.

More breakthroughs are in the teams. Sun Zheng believes that many of today's teams have become so-called manufacturer teams, more invested and operated by independent manufacturers, rather than the original "rich second-generation game", "its survival logic is no longer simply 'to generate electricity for love in a personal identity and hobbies', but more has its own business logic." ”

As he says, the love of gamers seems to be the only logic supporting the early development of esports, and as it moves towards a bigger stage, it makes more sense to make progress in commercialization.

However, as a cultural industry, it is also destined that e-sports will be highly dependent on the financial support provided by the primary and secondary industries, and the development of the industry has never been separated from the economic environment. In 2022, the global economy is down, and the downstream e-sports circle is also affected, with many news such as layoffs and salary cuts, and team disbandment, and the industry is talking about the "e-sports winter".

According to the "2022 China E-sports Industry Report" released by the Game Working Committee of the China Phonological Association, in 2022, the revenue of the mainland e-sports industry will be 144.503 billion yuan, down 14.01% year-on-year, the first decline in five years; The actual sales revenue of the domestic game industry market decreased by 10.33% year-on-year.

Among them, the revenue of e-sports games in 2022 will be 117.802 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 15.96%; E-sports live broadcasts, events, club operations and other income totaled RMB26.701 billion, down 4.17% year-on-year.

Tang Jiajun, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Audio-Visual and Digital Publishing Association, Secretary-General of the Game Working Committee and Chairman of the E-sports Working Committee, said that due to the impact of the epidemic, users' ability and willingness to pay were relatively weakened, and a series of factors such as the obstruction of venue operations, the suspension of offline events, the weakening of sponsor enthusiasm and the reduction of audiences have had a direct impact on the revenue of the e-sports industry.

Changes in the environment naturally affect everyone involved. Sun Zheng said that although the revenue reached a record high in 2022, it reflected more commercial partners who had signed contracts a few years ago, and the revenue from copyright reached a new high in that year. "We also have bigger challenges, such as some business partners reducing their investment in esports, which may be more evident in our club."

When the time comes to 2023, there is also new hope in the industry, and with the improvement of policies and the recovery of the market, the e-sports industry will also have a high probability of returning to the upward period. According to the report released by the E-sports Working Committee of the China Phonological Association, with the deepening of e-sports infrastructure construction, the international recognition of the value and potential of e-sports and the opportunities for e-sports to enter Asia, the long-term development trend of e-sports is still good.

"We all feel that at least on the LPL esports side, we have come out of the so-called most dangerous or most environmentally affected trough." Sun Zheng said.

According to the "2022 China E-sports Industry Research Report", on the one hand, the official announcement of e-sports projects in the Asian Games and the continuous development of virtual sports have laid a solid foundation for the sports of e-sports. On the other hand, the rapid growth of metaverse-related industries and the accelerated integration of e-sports and entertainment industries have injected new vitality into the further development of the e-sports industry. The industry generally believes that Chinese e-sports is still a relatively new industry, and there is still a lot of room for development and improvement in the future.

Taking the rules of the event as an example, the rules of e-sports events have gradually improved in the process of development, "There are many exchanges with the Asian Organizing Committee and the State General Administration of Sport in preparing for the competition, and we will find that we still have a lot to improve in terms of rules compared to traditional sports." Sun Zheng said that the rules on doping in traditional sports will be introduced into the Asian Games events and the overall league.

In addition, the development of the public cognition of the e-sports formation chain is highly related to the development of mainland digital sports and online software technology strength, e-sports in the future super digital scenes and immersive interaction has a lot of imagination, which is also different from traditional sports a "digital entertainment consumer goods" change, "these positive meanings in e-sports, how to spread to achieve social cognition, value recognition, and even essential mass consumer goods, this is also a challenge." Cheng Shenglin told reporters.

"In the future, e-sports will definitely develop towards more refinement, regularization and process," Cheng Shenglin believes, "It is more like a national business card, in addition to good grades, the diversified professional identity of young people in this field, the positive spread of their active efforts and the competitive spirit of winning glory for the country, is also very important." ”

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