Image source: ESL official social media.
Zhongxin.com, Beijing, February 13 (reporter Wang Hao) Chinese player Li Peinan (ID: 2023IEM) won the championship in the Oliveira Katowitz StarCraft 2 finals, which ended in the early morning of Beijing time on the 13th.
The unexpected champion made many people notice StarCraft 2. However, I noticed that national service of the game had been “gone”.
Looking back on the development of China’s e-sports for more than 20 years, many projects are like StarCraft 2, with exciting moments of winning the championship. From behind these champions, we can see the context of China’s e-sports struggling all the way.
Lost tickets
in 2001, Chinese players Ma Tianyuan and Wei Qidi won the first champion of China’s e-sports in the WCG (World Cyber Games) StarCraft 2V2 project.
Many people regard this as the beginning of China’s e-sports to gain honor in the world arena. At that time, the Internet was far less developed than now. In fact, such a memorable scene has not been widely spread. Today’s e-sports audiences may feel unfamiliar with the names of these two players.
Li Xiaofeng (ID:Sky) is the number of people who really rely on WCG scores to gain fame. In 2005 and 2006, Li Xiaofeng successively won the champion of WCG Warcraft 3 project and became the first person to defend WCG. Until today, Li Xiaofeng is still active in the front and behind the scenes of e-sports.
But before winning the championship, he walked through the “wild age” of China’s e-sports “. Li Xiaofeng, born in 1985, has a poor family and depends on his father to support his family. As a teenager, he was struggling in family, games and setbacks.
In 2002, he went to other places to participate in the competition, and finally he was eliminated halfway without any bonus. Before returning home, he lost his ticket and was regarded as a ticket evader.
The Dilemma of e-sports players at that time can be seen here. Lack of professional training, family support and necessary funds are the common features of most players’ stories.
But that was also the time when many e-sports projects grew up in China. In the ten years after 2000, many e-sports projects in China created glory in the world arena. Looking at the photos at that time, perhaps today’s audience will feel that the venue is narrow and dim, the clothes of the players are not exquisite enough, and the hairstyle has distinctive characteristics of that era.
But stripping these packages, the players get the “honor” that is no different from today “.
We are champions
If you want to select the best club in the decade from 2010 to 2020, IG deserves at least one nomination. In 2012, IG won the championship in the Ti2 (International Invitational Tournament) competition of DOTA2, which was the first Championship of Chinese club Ti. In 2018, IG won the championship in the League of Legends S8 (global finals), which was the first S championship in LPL.
With the development of more and more e-sports projects in China, MOBA games such as DOTA2 and League of Legends have been in the limelight for a while. Compared with predecessors who had worried about traveling expenses, e-sports stars have gradually demonstrated the topic degree and commercial value of not losing to entertainment stars in recent years.
In 2018, the League of Legends global finals was held in South Korea. IG, which was not expected to win the championship by many people before the match, finally laughed at the end. Outside the competition, many “stems” about IG appeared in social media, whether it was “hot dogs”, “Incheon people” or the sentence “we are champions” shouted out by commentary “, until now, people are still talking about it. This is the power of e-sports and social media.
The rise of internet, especially social media, has helped the development of China’s e-sports a lot. It has built a bridge among players, clubs and fans and provided more changeable means.
At the Jakarta Asian Games, e-sports appeared as a performance project, which is not only a certification but also a boost to the change of the social image of e-sports players.
At this time, China’s e-sports coming from the mud stepped onto the exquisite stage. “E-sports competition” is not only the competition itself, but also undertakes the roles of commodities, culture and so on. For many first-generation e-sports people, this is an unprecedented scenario.
The server is gone
Monday, February 13. When everyone wakes up and swipes Weibo, they see “Li Peinan won the championship”. I believe most people will have a question: Who is Li Peinan?
With more and more related news on the Internet, everyone got a new popular science: the project he won was closed national service.
In fact, except StarCraft, games such as Hearthstone legend, watch pioneer, and World of Warcraft all had to close national service due to the expiration of the agency agreement between blizzard and NetEase. If this situation does not improve in the future, the number of players in these projects in China is likely to gradually decrease, and the development prospect of e-sports projects is not to mention.
The agreement between the two commercial companies directly determines the development of the whole project. Such a situation will not appear in traditional sports, but the characteristics of e-sports itself determine that it has such risks.
In 2023, five years have passed since IG won the League of Legends S8 championship. This season, the brand-new IG has performed well, ranking first in LPL spring competetion for the time being. But at the same time, the staff of the club have been seeking sponsors online.
After several years of “Operation”, this club, which once had honor and traffic in Mancang mangu, encountered more difficult problems.
This is just like the current situation of China’s e-sports, which is being discussed in various social media. However, due to the particularity of the project or the unprofessional practitioners, there are always risks.
It can be predicted that China’s e-sports will remain prosperous for some time in the future, but for the individuals in this group of flowers, no one can guarantee that the road will remain flat. (Finished)
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