Shanghai firm to launch Asia's 1st multi-title eSports tournament

Shanghai-based VSPO has announced it would launch an Esports Asian Champions League, Asia's first international, multi-title eSports tournament, in 2025.

The new tournament would be the region's most diverse and accessible eSports event to date, with VSPO expecting "tens of thousands" of athletes to attend. It would establish a virtual gaming arena across the continent for a six-month season every year, with XR experiences and cloud connection. It would allow athletes of key titles from one country to compete with rivals in other countries via the cloud, with ease as well as artificial intelligence-powered immersiveness.

The ACL is now a partner of the Esports World Cup. Currently, VSPO and the EWC are evaluating which games will be played and how the ACL can be aligned with the Global EWC Qualifications for 2025. The new league aims to cover seven to 10 titles at launch. The inaugural season will last for about six months and will produce more than 300 million minutes of eSports content for fans, said Jonny Wang, VSPO's co-founder, who will be the new chief executive of the ACL.

The ACL announcement was made at a ceremony at INS Park in Shanghai on Tuesday night, which was attended by Saudi Arabia Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan, vice chairman of the Savvy Games Group; and Ng Ser Miang, vice president of the International Olympic Committee, and local officials.

"A key focus of the ACL is to create more opportunities for top teams from different Asian countries to compete throughout the year," Wang said. "More high-stake regional rivalries are something that fans would love to see and what we want to deliver through the ACL."

The ACL fits well with Shanghai's strategy to establish the city as a global eSports capital, with more eSport events, venues, and teams. Shanghai hosted 1,902 eSports events in the first half of 2024, drawing 2.7 million visitors. These included eSports competitions, gaming concerts, carnivals, and exhibitions, according to the Shanghai Publicity Department.

Founded in 2016, VSPO has produced more than 4,000 matches every year that captivate an online fan base of over 800 million. It has been an integrated operator of global eSports tournaments such as the eSports series that featured at both the Jakarta Asian Games 2018 and the Hangzhou Asian Games 2023.