1. A hot event of the week in the esports industry
The IOC is considering the creation of an Olympic eSports Games
On October 14, the opening ceremony of the 141st Session of the IOC was held in Mumbai, the capital of India, and IOC President Bach revealed in his speech that the IOC is considering the creation of an Olympic Games that belongs to e-sports. "I have asked the new IOC Esports Committee to study the creation of the Olympic Esports Games," he said. ”
The esports Shanghai Masters returns in December
On October 11, the Shanghai Municipal Sports Bureau and the Shanghai Station of China Central Radio and Television signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement on the joint construction of the e-sports industry. As the core content of the strategic cooperation, the two parties announced that they will work with the Jing'an District People's Government to co-host the Shanghai Masters E-sports Tournament, which will resume this year, which is the first e-sports event to be hosted by China Central Radio and Television Corporation, and the Shanghai E-sports Self-brand Event has ushered in a major upgrade.
The 2023 Esports Shanghai Masters will be held from December 1 to 5 at Shanghai Jing'an Sports Center, and will feature four official competitions of League of Legends, Honor of Kings, Dota 2, Fifth Personality and one performance event of Street Fighter 5.
S13 World Finals Finals Finalist Report
October 15, the last day of the League of Legends S13 World Finals Qualifiers. VCS Vietnam Civil War, GAM defeated TW to advance to the S13 Qualifiers, which is also the first time that a Vietnamese team has emerged from the Qualifiers and advanced. In another match today, BDS from LEC Europe won a two-to-three victory over PSG team in PCS Southeast Asia to advance to the Swiss round with GAM.
The Dota 2023 International Tournament prize pool is at an all-time low
According to dota2.prizetrac statistics, the 2023 Dota 2 International Tournament prize pool is currently only $2.94 million, which is 70.9% lower than the approximately $9.35 million in the same period of the 2022 Dota 2 International Invitational. This figure also set the worst record for the same period in the past eight years.
Nearly 100,000 people in Brazil are still watching the S13 Global Finals at 4:30 a.m
On the fourth day of the S13 Global Finals Qualifying Tournament, Brazil LOUD played Vietnam GAM. At nearly five o'clock in the morning in Brazil, nearly 100,000 viewers were still watching the game in the Brazilian streaming room
Microsoft officially completed the acquisition of Blizzard
Microsoft announced on October 13 that it has completed a $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, following approval from the UK's antitrust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). This means that after more than 20 months of hard work, Microsoft has finally successfully acquired Activision Blizzard.
The deal is Microsoft's largest ever acquisition, far surpassing the $26 billion acquisition of LinkedIn LinkedIn in 2016 and the $7.5 billion acquisition of game publisher Bethesda in 2021. At the same time, it is also the largest action Microsoft has ever taken in the gaming market. After the transaction, Microsoft will become the third largest gaming company in the world.
LOL mobile player spend exceeded $1 billion
According to the data.ai data report, since the public beta of "League of Legends Mobile Game" in 2020, the total player spend has exceeded the $1 billion mark, ranking fourth in the MOBA mobile game. In the first half of 2023, the game's total player spend was about $188 million, with Chinese players accounting for the highest proportion, reaching nearly $141 million.
2. Inventory of business cooperation in the e-sports industry
With the official start of the League of Legends S13 Global Finals and the Dota 2 International Invitational Tournament, major brands have launched actions around "e-sports cooperation", according to statistics, there are a total of 10 e-sports cooperation this week, involving multiple dimensions, including event sponsorship, team sponsorship, etc.
In terms of event sponsorship, Mercedes-Benz has been the sponsor of the League of Legends World Championship for four consecutive years, and this partnership will last until 2025. It can be seen that the brand is increasingly tending to long-term cooperation, and the brand and the event are also deeply bound, before Mercedes-Benz cooperated with the S race to create championship rings, trophies, etc., and this year launched the "Looking for Glory" global campaign to enhance the brand's popularity in the field of e-sports.
Given the exclusivity of sponsors, with Mercedes-Benz dominating the majority of the esports market, other automakers have set their sights on esports clubs, and this week, Kia KIA's U.S. arm, KIA America, has reached sponsorship partnerships with C9 and NRG teams.
The reason for the sponsorship is largely because both teams are participating teams in the S13 Global Finals, and the traffic exposure of the S tournament has brought stronger commercialization capabilities to the participating teams.
In addition, BIG's cooperation with Pizza Hut and Spanish club DUX Gaming and German cross-border consumer electronics company MediaMarkt shows that consumer electronics and FMCG brands have a considerable sponsorship market in the esports sector, and these categories are the most active types of esports sponsorship.