With the slogan of "seeking common ground while reserving differences, chatting about sports hot topics of common concern", the Community is broadcast once a week at 10:00 p.m. on Friday during the Voice of China's "Decisive Moment" column.
From December 1st to 5th, the 2023 Shanghai E-sports Masters will be fiercely contested at the Jing'an Sports Center in Shanghai. This is the world's first comprehensive e-sports event named after a city, supported by **, and evaluated by industry associations, and has become one of the achievements of Shanghai to build an "e-sports capital" and develop the e-sports industry. In addition to Shanghai, many cities in China have also put forward slogans such as building a famous e-sports city and an e-sports city. On December 8, the 142nd episode of the program discussed the thinking behind the pursuit of "e-sports business cards" in major cities. The three "gossips" involved are Zhang Wen, a reporter from the Voice of China, Lu Wenzheng, a writer for the e-sports industry, and Tan Liwen, director of the Greater Bay Area of Sports Business.
This article is a summary of the highlights of this episode.
What are the characteristics of a famous sports city?
Zhang Wen: At the beginning of December, the Shanghai Esports Masters was held at the Jing'an Sports Center in Shanghai. There are many famous esports events, but the big events we are familiar with seem to be those named after English abbreviations, and the events named after the city are not very prominent. At the same time, more and more cities, including Shanghai, have put forward the goal of building an e-sports capital and a famous e-sports city. More and more cities want to associate with e-sports, and even put the word "e-sports" before the famous city, what are the considerations?That's our topic today.
We know that in fact, in order to enhance their memory in the outside world, many cities will strive to create a "xx city" title. Sports are often one of the leveraging points, for example, Dalian was known as the "football city" in the early years. In addition, when it comes to marathon cities, ski cities, etc., everyone will always blurt out some domestic and foreign cities. In the eyes of the two, what conditions are needed to become a famous sports city?
Lu Wenzheng: First of all, the city needs to have a certain reputation. Then sports should have a good mass base in the city, for example, Dongguan is famous for basketball. The landing of professional events is also very important, for example, when you talk about Chicago, you have a lot of ideas about the Chicago Bulls. Another is the "famous scene", New York has staged many famous moments and miracle moments of basketball. And then there's the sports industry. For example, Quanzhou has many sports brands and relies on sports-related industries to develop its own economy, or Chongli relies on skiing and related tourism to drive economic development. All of the above are necessary and important conditions for the formation of a famous sports city.
Dongguan basketball is well-known throughout the country and deserves the reputation of "Famous Basketball City".
Tan Liwen: If you look at a single project, there are two main forms of becoming a famous city. First, the city has long had the head IP of a certain project, for example, when it comes to football, Real Madrid and Barcelona are associated with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Madrid and Barcelona are famous football cities. Second, the city's project development has a certain brand effect. For example, Las Vegas in the United States is a resort for combat and martial arts, and Meizhou and Jiangmen in China have a deep background in football and volleyball respectively, and these three cities are often regarded as famous fighting cities, football cities and volleyball cities.
I also found a subtle point, that is, if the sports resources of each project are particularly developed, people may directly label it as a "famous sports city", rather than a famous city of a certain project. For example, Paris has high-quality sports clubs and tournaments such as the French Open, Paris Saint-Germain, and the Tour de France, so we will rarely describe Paris as a football city or a cycling city.
Esports gives new life to modern cities.
Wen Zhang: Some cities may need a specific project to endorse or promote the city, but some cities are already well-known, but they are still trying to integrate e-sports into their city awareness. For example, Shanghai is a famous cultural city, a famous sports city, and a fashion city, so why do we need to build an e-sports capital?
Lu Wenzheng: That's how I understand it. Just like we sometimes have different business cards in our work, which business card we hand over during business communication reflects what aspect of our image we want to show to the outside world. Some cities hand out e-sports business cards, the purpose may be to have some relationship with young people;Or they are handing out sports business cards and want to create an image of the city's vitality.
In addition, I think that in order to use the title of "famous city" and "capital", there are certain prerequisites, such as the popularity, scale, transportation, and infrastructure construction of the city itself. If the relevant conditions do not reach a certain specification or level, it is a bit heavy to call it a "famous city". However, on the whole, in fact, many cities or a smaller administrative area have the motivation to do esports. For example, there is a Guicheng street in Nanhai District, Foshan City, and the local ** said a particularly practical sentence: we know that young people like e-sports, so we introduce e-sports into the local area, hoping to retain more young people to live in our city, or travel to us, in short, to gather young people. Sichuan's Panzhihua hosted the 18th League of Legends City Heroes National Finals earlier. Perhaps most people in the country only know that there is such an industrial city as Panzhihua through geography textbooks, but through the e-sports competition, everyone learned that Panzhihua has a warm climate at the end of the year, which is suitable for winter tourism.
Therefore, the introduction of esports will help esports enthusiasts develop an idea of the region and promote the development of local tourism. Some cities are not large enough to develop into "esports capitals" at present, but they are willing to have more connections with esports.
The scene of the Shanghai E-sports Masters.
Zhang Wen: What does the business card of e-sports mean to a big city like Shanghai?
Tan Liwen: E-sports has a deep connection with culture, technology, Internet communication and other industries. For Shanghai, it should be presented to everyone that Shanghai not only has the side of a traditional financial metropolis, but also has strong scientific and technological attributes. Focusing on creating e-sports business cards is conducive to letting everyone see a more comprehensive side of Shanghai.
Zhang Wen: It is equivalent to Shanghai's requirement that the business card should have high-tech content, attract young people, and support the renewal of the city.
Tan Liwen: Moreover, Shanghai has its own advantages, with a rich pool of young talents and a solid financial foundation. These are all important factors in the development of esports.
Has the "E-sports City" been officially born?
Zhang Wen: If a city already has certain resources, then it can be said that it is a matter of course to go to the e-sports track to develop. But we know that traditional sports such as football and basketball are recognized as famous cities, and from the perspective of the world, is there a city that has also successfully formed a strong connection and bond with esports?
Lu Wenzheng: I don't think it is right now, but it will appear in the next few years. For example, I personally prefer Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Riyadh is the largest city in the Arabian Peninsula and meets the conditions I just mentioned for being a city of sports, with its reputation, population and infrastructure. Now Riyadh has a well-known Dota 2 event such as the Liyadh Masters, and this year because the prize money for the event has risen to $15 million, some netizens even jokingly called the Dota 2 flagship event The International "Little Riyadh". I believe that Riyadh will also have a famous scene of e-sports in the future, combined with some of the preconditions we just mentioned, as well as the local economic strength, Riyadh may be recognized as a famous e-sports city in about two or three years.
Zhang Wen: The development of the e-sports industry has not been long in the world, and even though some big events and big clubs have begun to be stationed in a certain city, the influence of the event and the honor of the club have not yet reached the level of pride of the city. This also limits the birth of esports cities.
After the success of the Riyadh Masters, Riyadh has gradually become a focal city for esports.
Tan Liwen: This is related to the particularity of the e-sports industry. The largest IP is in the hands of game manufacturers, and in order to expand the influence of the event, the manufacturer will not take root in a certain city for a long time, so it is naturally difficult for the event and the city to form a long-term depth**. However, many tournaments are now aware of this problem. For example, the professional leagues of League of Legends and Honor of Kings are pushing the home-and-away system, hoping to let more clubs take root in the city, have more intersections with the city, and eventually become one of the labels that the city is proud of.
Zhang Wen: We talked about an important place. Traditionally, there is a strong association between professional sports and cities, whether the club is located in a certain city or a certain tournament that is visited every year. However, in the early days of the development of e-sports, the connection with the city was not strong, and well-known events were held in different cities, resulting in the whole process of talking about the capital of e-sports and the strong connection between e-sports and the city is not so smooth.
Lu Wenzheng: Manufacturers now understand this. In the past few years, major manufacturers have been talking about esports sports, combining esports with cities as much as possible, including fixing certain events to a certain city. For example, Chengdu has held important events such as CrossFire and Peace Elite this year, and the club is also moving to Erxian Bridge. It can be seen that manufacturers are trying to do something that they have neglected before, to make esports more sporty and more connected to the city.
Esports and cities are increasingly strongly linked.
Zhang Wen: Is there any way to make esports more closely related to the city?
Tan Liwen: The home-and-away system is a better choice. For an esports club, it needs to have a place to put down roots, a place to interact with the young community. A home-and-away system can help them achieve this.
Lu Wenzheng: The Shanghai Esports Masters is also filling a gap in the market. Back then, third-party e-sports events were very active, including the WCG, which was known as the "E-sports Olympics", attracting sponsorship from many 3C digital manufacturers. After the financial crisis in 2008, third-party events entered an ice age, and from the 10s, they became mainly manufacturer-run events. At present, the only third-party event in China that insists on holding competitions is the NEST National E-sports Competition hosted by the Information Center of the General Administration of Sports of China. The gratifying thing about the Shanghai Esports Masters is that the event has reached a cooperation with manufacturers and professional leagues, so that players can get a new stage for the event to practice, and the audience can also watch more games.
In particular, we need to pay attention to the role of third-party events in developing new talents. When a newcomer is new to playing professionally, he or she may encounter unprecedented pressure. If there is a third-party tournament to help them make the transition, so that they can experience the state of professional competition in a less stressful scenario, it should bring a lot of benefits to the development of esports. In addition, as long as the third-party event can continue to land, it can also form its own driving effect.
The top e-sports events are dominated by manufacturer events.
Zhang Wen: Speaking of the Masters, we know that in the tennis world, the Masters is a level, which is held in a fixed group of cities every year. Can esports also form a similar mechanism, with Masters and Grand Slam positioning events, held in fixed cities every year?If this mechanism is not easy to implement, the bottleneck is mainly in the **??
Tan Liwen: The Shanghai E-sports Masters is dominated by **, and the Tennis Masters is dominated by the professional tour, and the main body of the tournament is different. As for whether e-sports can form a tour mechanism, I learned that the e-sports Asian Cup, which is being planned by the AESF Asian Electronic Sports Federation, has a certain tour form. Therefore, if you want to realize the tour mode of tennis, I think it is necessary to have an association to lead and establish a relevant system.
Lu Wenzheng: Riyadh may be the city of the future of esports Grand Slam. The first tournament was held in 2022, and after the success of this year's event, it has been confirmed that the Esports World Cup will be held every year in the future. The Esports World Cup will be a multi-event third-party event, and the impact should be very prominent. As Riyadh's model becomes more and more recognized by the industry, it is believed that more cities around the world will integrate with esports in a similar form.
The "capital of esports" is about to rise everywhere.
Zhang Wen: In the end, we set our sights back on China. At present, Shanghai is building an e-sports capital, and Shenzhen issued the "Several Measures on Building an International E-sports Capital" this year, mentioning keywords such as digital economy and high-tech. In addition, the construction of Chengdu as the "capital of e-sports culture" is together with Chengdu's own Tianfu cultural propaganda. With so many cities in China trying to relate to the concept of esports, do they have the same ultimate goal, or do they have their own focuses?
Tan Liwen: According to my observation, everyone is mainly working in the two directions of the event and the club, on the one hand, they hope to continue to land top competitions and international competitions, and on the other hand, invite well-known clubs to settle in. On the basis of these two directions, there are some other industrial extensions. Everyone's idea is actually quite clear. High-quality events are scarce, and once they can be implemented for a number of years, they can achieve the effect of cities and events.
Lu Wenzheng: In fact, all sports events and club IPs have a so-called "leading effect", which drives the development of other industries. These events and clubs gather traffic, and where there is traffic, there is an opportunity to convert into benefits. In the same way, the common pursuit of e-sports in major cities also includes the combination of cultural tourism, digital economy and a variety of e-sports-related offline formats. Some time ago, when Chengdu held the CFS World Finals, it was combined with the famous classic Wenshu Fang in Chengdu. During the event, visitors will see a lot of CF-related elements at Manjusri. It can be seen that for Chengdu, a major consideration for the introduction of e-sports is to promote local cultural tourism and economic development.
Zhang Wen: It seems that China has the opportunity to produce more esports capitals.
Virtual racing is also a prominent entry point for esports in Shanghai.
Lu Wenzheng: Yes, there are many typical cases in other cities. For example, after Xi'an attracted the WE club to settle in, it gave the club a high standard of reception etiquette. Another example is the Foshan Village PL, which is led by the working committee of the local street, with the background of ** support, and the cooperation of professional clubs and e-sports-related enterprises. We know that there have been a lot of village BA and village super recently, so there are some spontaneous concepts of inter-village e-sports in the e-sports circle. Among them, the organization and implementation of village PL in Foshan are relatively more professional.
Zhang Wen: Talking to you today, I realized two problems. First, when e-sports first entered everyone's field of vision, everyone felt that there was a certain difference between e-sports and traditional sports in terms of events, talent cultivation and winning and losing logic. However, when e-sports developed to a certain extent and needed to have a strong relationship with "people", it began to resemble professional sports again.
Second, many cities in China are vying to become e-sports capitals, and they value the attraction of e-sports to people, especially young people. Rather than building an e-sports capital, it is better to gather talented young elites to settle in the city and become an engine for urban development. The combination of these two points creates more possibilities for esports to establish a strong relationship with the city. Perhaps, as Wen Zheng said, in the next two or three years, from the whole of China to the world, e-sports capitals will begin to appear. Thank you both for participating in this discussion, and I'll see you next time.
Note: The ** used in this article is from osports and the Internet.