E-sports could compete with Fifa for viewers and ad dollars if Tencent and others can calm health concerns
- The appeal of e-sports fans is obvious – they’re young and highly committed to their favourite e-sports games, and represent a growing demographic
- Part of the appeal of e-sports is that it opens up new possibilities to less physically-gifted kids, and could redefine what it takes to be an ‘athlete’
Banners with pictures of star-players were lined up outside the stadium next to the fried chicken stands. A pre-game concert with top-shelf K-pop stars and fireworks warmed up the crowd. The only thing separating this from a World Cup football game was that instead of waiting for goals, we were cheering as gamers battled for supremacy on three enormous plasma screens.
The roar of the crowd at 2018’s League of Legends World Championship on Saturday in South Korea was all it took to convince this reporter – a sceptic at first – that e-sports will soon compete with the likes of the NBA and Fifa for spectators and advertising money.
“You wouldn’t know unless you see it for yourself. It’s just like the Superbowl,” said Park Young-mok, CEO of mobile game developer Nchant Interactive Inc. and former executive director at Activision Blizzard Inc. “When you’re there you see the whole thing. The passion and the fever.”
The pre-game K-pop show played with the audience’s imagination, blending reality with elements of the game itself as digital characters joined the real-life performers on the big screens. After the performers, both real and digital, exited the stage, a crowd stacked with Chinese and European fans cheered their star athletes on for a best-of-5 round battle