City to host eSports Shanghai Masters
The logo of the 2019 eSports Shanghai Masters, the city’s first eSports league, was unveiled at the Daning Convention Center in Jing’an District on Wednesday with the Shanghai eSports Association signing contracts with event providers to formally launch the league.
The 2019 eSports Shanghai Masters will take place at Jing’an Sports Center between November 28 and December 1. So far, its registered events include Dungeon and Fighter (DNF) F1 World Championships and three new competitions in Overwatch, Warcraft III Reforged and League of Legends.
eSports teams from Japan, South Korea, Europe and North America will attend along with domestic teams, including Hangzhou Spark and Shanghai Dragons. There will be more than 100 players taking part.
The association said the logo is designed to show a sense of dynamism and simplicity. The round shape indicates a combination of different game publishers, events and regions.
Bilibili Gaming, KPMG and China Unicom’s local branch were awarded commemorative plaques at the ceremony for their support to the league.
The association said besides competitions, it will provide an “eSports carnival” with various online and offline activities.
A forum on the eSports industry will be held as well as an exhibition on eSports culture.
Wang Yong, deputy secretary-general of the association, said that it wants to build a platform for all game publishers to participate. “Generally, one game operator organizes eSports competitions on its own. But now we provide third-party services and referees for all of them and make the competitions like traditional sports games. It’s a new attempt,” Wang noted.
The logo of the 2019 Esports Shanghai Masters.
Bilibili Gaming, KPMG and China Unicom's local branch were awarded commemorative plaques at the ceremony for their cooperation with the league.
The association said that, besides competitions, it will provide an "eSports carnival" with various online and offline activities and some eSports-related cultural and creative products.
A forum on the eSports industry will be held as well as an exhibition on eSports culture.
Wang Yong, deputy secretary-general of the association, told Shanghai Daily that it wants to build a platform where all game publishers can participate.
"Generally, one game operator organizes eSports competitions on its own. But now we provide third-party services and referees for all of them and make the competitions like traditional sports games. It's a new attempt," Wang said. "We first won the support of the city's sports bureau and it took us seven to eight months to communicate with game operators and get them involved."
Wang said they decided to hold the league in Jing'an District because of strong support from the district government and the convenience brought by the district's complete eSports industrial chain. Besides Jing'an Sports Center, which can host large-scale eSports games, there are many venues where small-scale competitions or training can be held.
Pang Ye, a senior eSports director with NetEase's Blizzard cooperation section, told Shanghai Daily that Warcraft III was kind of a monument for China's first generation eSports players and had always been promoted positively by them. She said the game was "very meaningful" and she hoped its glorious stories can be inherited through the Esports Shanghai Masters.
"We hope that the Esports Shanghai Masters can be paralleled with the Shanghai Rolex Masters and Formula 1 races in Shanghai and become a brand of Shanghai which can allow more people to know the eSports industry in the city and in China," she added.
