E-sports in Hong Kong
Ever since 2010, E-sports has been increasingly recognized and developed in Hong Kong, with notable examples of League of Legends player Toyz winning Season 2 World Championship with Taipei Assassins[1] and Hong Kong as a host of various E-sports tournaments.
The government has also acknowledged this upswing and has published a report in December 2017, which suggested 4 ways of boosting E-sports development in Hong Kong: improving infrastructures(e.g. E-sports centre), providing support to game developers, cultivating future e-sports player, and building up a positive reputation of E-sports among the public.
Hong Kong Esports Limited[edit]
Hong Kong Esports Limited[2] is founded in 1st February, 2013. It then go on to held three consecutive E-sports tournaments in 2013,2014[3] and 2015.
Hong Kong Esports Limited also has Hong Kong's first E-sports team Hong Kong Attitude(HKA), which currently has teams for League of Legends(LoL), Arena of Valor(AoV) and Overwatch.
Controversy[edit]
Even though E-sports in Hong Kong is getting increasing attention, there are still doubts and controversies surrounding it, which hinders its overall development. Some of there include:
1.The government has no related knowledge and experience to develop E-sports, which could really turn out to be a waste of resources.
2.Hong Kong has been lagging behind other Asian countries, namely Taiwan, Korea and Mainland China, in E-sports development, so starting to develop E-sports now means working in a disadvantageous position.
3.Hong Kong lacks essential supporting infrastructures and industries, which could slow down the growth of E-sports.
4.There is a lack of systematic training and youth development scheme, which makes Hong Kong E-sports a lot less competitive, and in turn, a lot less appealing.
5.With the current state of E-sports in Hong Kong, it is hard for E-sport organizations to find sponsors, especially international corporations.
Besides the practical problems that E-sports development in Hong Kong face, there are also some doubts regarding the nature of E-sports. These doubts include:
1.Developing E-sports would encourage youth in Hong Kong to invest more time into gaming, believing that they can earn a living from E-sports. This will hinder the development of other aspects of youth, and even make them addicted to gaming.
2.Much like but far worse than traditional sports, E-sports players lack a sustainable development after their retirement, with little position relevant to their experience of being a pro player available and little skills and knowledge in other subjects to make career changes. This is worse for E-sports players, as they generally approach retirement(or a least find it difficult to compete at the highest level due to their drop in reaction speed) at around the age of 25, they have a shorter career than most sports players, which can generally sustain their career to the age of 35 and even later.
3.Many Hong Kong people believes that E-sports is not much different when compared to just gaming, and believes it would never be a major sport, and it is better to invest into other areas, like education and healthcare.
With such diverse opinions and beliefs surround E-sports, it is predicted that any moves regarding the development of E-sports in Hong Kong will be met with great opposition.
Notable events[edit]
In 2013, Hong Kong Esports Limited was founded.
In 2013, Hong Kong Attitude, the first professional E-sports team was founded.
In 2013, Cyber Games Arena was founded.[4]
In 2013, E-sports team CGA LEGENDs(now Esport Business Development LEGENDs, EBD LEGENDs[5]) is founded.
In 2013, Cyber Games Arena Hong Kong Tournament 2013[6] was held with a prize pool of HKD100,000 in total. Hong Kong Attitude would become the eventual winner of the tournament.
In 2013, Hong Kong Esports limited organized their first E-sports tournament, games that were included as a part of the tournament are League of Legends, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, FIFA 13, Street Fighter IV.
In 2013， CGA Major League Winter Series 2013 was held[7]. CGA LEGENDs was crowned as champions.
In 2013, CGA helped organizing ESL Call of Duty: Ghost Hong Kong preliminary round.
In 2014, HKES helped organizing BlizzCon Hearthstone Hong Kong preliminary round.[8]
In 2014, HKES orginzed their second E-sports tournament, as well as their first ever university E-sports tournament, this time with Hearthstone included as one of the games hosted.
References[edit]
- ↑ https://hk.news.appledaily.com/local/daily/article/20130116/18135898
- ↑ https://hkesports.com/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCuUVqgnFgA#t=0h0m0s
- ↑ https://vs.cga.hk/
- ↑ https://lol.esportspedia.com/Esport_Business_Development_LEGENDs
- ↑ https://lol.esportspedia.com/CGA_2013_Hong_Kong_Tournament
- ↑ https://lol.gamepedia.com/2013_CGA_Major_League/Winter
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/HongKongEsports/posts/630642957025649
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