Foreword: On December 17, the "Glory of the Whole Village|Lianghe Village GAME" national rural e-sports event jointly sponsored by Huya Live, Glory of Kings, and the People's Government of Lianghe County, Dehong Dai Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, as the first stop of the Huya Village GAME series, came to a successful conclusion in Lianghe County.
This is not the first collision between e-sports and the countryside, and today, as e-sports continues to sink, this form of inter-village e-sports is full of vitality.
"E-sports + Village", where has it gone?
The first glimpse between e-sports and the countryside is actually not good.
As early as 2017, some small counties and villages have joined the e-sports track, and most of them are based on "e-sports towns", such as Zhongxian in Chongqing, Taicang in Jiangsu, Wuhu in Anhui, Ningxiang in Hunan, etc., many of which have proposed billions or even tens of billions of investment plans. It is hoped that with the help of the agglomeration effect, the e-sports supporting industry will be developed in the form of characteristic towns and become a strategic fulcrum for rural revitalization.
Since then, however, most of these towns have lost their voices, and most of them are unsustainable, and the vast majority of esports towns that are still developing are located in the center of large cities, and the meaning behind the word "small town" has changed, in fact, it is a gathering place for urban industries. In the eyes of insiders, it is undoubtedly an extremely failed case of "e-sports +".
As early as 2017, Zhong County set aside 3.2 square kilometers on the south bank of the Yangtze River to build "three districts and six parks" and build the Three Gorges Harbor E-sports Stadium. In the same year, Zhongxian County also signed the venue for the 5-year finals of the national mobile e-sports competition CMEG.
However, this seemingly perfect start did not come to a good time.
Zhongxian County does not have a direct high-speed rail and airport, location and transportation, so that Zhongxian County to further introduce talents and industrial chain pace, the pace of building a lot of money, even if you add basketball games and music festivals, etc., can be used not much times a year, CMEG events in the e-sports circle heavyweight is not enough, the attention is average, not to mention the development of the cultural tourism industry, although the current Zhongxian e-sports town is still developing, but compared with its investment, it is still a little insufficient.
However, the combination of rural areas and e-sports has not stopped, on the contrary, the two have begun a positive collision in other forms such as e-sports + cultural tourism, "e-sports + intangible cultural heritage", especially after the explosion of village BA and village super this year, the two-way rush between rural and e-sports has become faster and faster.
On September 16 this year, Foshan's "Village PL" - the first Nanhai Guicheng Community E-sports Challenge officially kicked off in the Liang Ancestral Hall.
According to the release of "Nanhai Guicheng" (the official release platform of Guicheng Street, Nanhai City), the data shows that the total number of PL-related topics in Foshan Village has exceeded 1.7 million times on Weibo, and nearly 6,000 interactions and discussions; nearly 30 WeChat public accounts have released "Village PL"-related content to reach 2 million + fans, and the actual reading volume has exceeded 230,000; the video views of the official account of Douyin Village PL have exceeded 1.48 million, the total number of views of related topics has exceeded 4.86 million, and the effective interaction volume has reached nearly 11,000; Vertical media and self-media reprint and include to further expand the scope of communication, and secondary communication to improve the influence of content.
While being widely disseminated, the competition also effectively promoted local cultural and tourism consumption. According to statistics, on the day of the competition, the passenger flow in the business district of Shunlian Park increased by 48% year-on-year, and the sales increased by 35% year-on-year. A32 weekend passenger flow increased by 12%, sales data increased by 8% year-on-year, and the flow of people brought by Foshan Village PL effectively promoted the consumption of various business districts.
Recently, the "Glory of the Whole Village|Lianghe Village GAME" national rural e-sports event jointly sponsored by Huya Live, Glory of Kings, and the People's Government of Lianghe County, Dehong Dai Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, as the first stop of the Huya Village GAME series, came to a successful conclusion in Lianghe County.
All Villages 荣耀|梁河村GAME
Although the data is not yet fully statistical, the event attracted the active participation of local residents of different ages. In just two weeks, the event attracted more than 300 teams, which also showed a prosperous scene.
Where is the future heading?
The logic behind the continuous collision between e-sports and the countryside is actually not complicated.
For esports, sinking is always the first need.
According to the 2022 Asian E-sports Industry Development Report jointly released by Tencent E-sports, Penguin Youtuo, and the Asian Electronic Sports Federation, in 2022, the proportion of e-sports users in fourth-tier cities and below reached 36%, surpassing second-tier cities for the first time and ranking first. This means that in the future, fourth-tier cities, represented by small cities and rural areas, will become the main force of esports users.
For the countryside, or for China as a whole, the realization of rural revitalization has become the inner desire of millions of people over the years.
In the process of rural revitalization, it is extremely important to leverage and empower rural development. As an industry with huge traffic, e-sports has a unique advantage in empowering and linking the masses.
The combination of rural areas and e-sports, even if it is impossible to hold an extremely large league, can still attract some people to come, and bring real economic benefits to the local area by promoting the development of local tertiary industries such as cultural tourism scenic spots, homestay economy, night tour economy, etc
However, on this seemingly bright road, there are still many practical problems that are difficult to solve.
Guizhou Village BA site map
Due to the particularity of the rural geographical environment, there are certain risks and constraints in the conditions, scale and safety of the competition. At present, tournament organizers focus more on holding e-sports events in big cities, and rarely choose to land a single event in rural areas. Occasionally, after gusts of wind, the facilities and services associated with them have not been truly improved and guaranteed. So far, the "village + e-sports" model has not yet formed a mature event brand that can continue to operate.
Fortunately, in terms of how to do a good job in mass e-sports events, the "village BAs" pointed out the direction for us: with the help of the good mass foundation of the project, we should cultivate the Xi of rural users to watch, participate and hold games for a long time, stimulate the endogenous power of rural sports, and establish a long-term and strong emotional connection between e-sports events and rural culture.
With the continuous development of "village PL" and "village GAME", a mature rural e-sports ecology seems to be being initially built, and the author hopes from the bottom of my heart that the bright future of inter-village e-sports will come soon.