Ryan Goodrich
A press conference was recently held with the Shanghai municipal government. During this, a spokesperson answered a question regarding the esports industry in the city. The spokesperson had several things to say.
The impact on esports: For a quick perspective on how things in Shanghai have impacted esports, here’s some statistics. More than 80% of the Chinese esports industry’s teams and organizations are based out of Shanghai. Additionally, 40% of Chinese esports events are held in the city. Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus, more than 400 offline matches have been affected to varying degrees.
Switch to online tournaments: They first called organizers to prepare to switch to online tournaments as this would be the safest option for carrying forward with competitive leagues. The events most affected in the esports industry will receive priority support from the government.
Speed up content production: The second item the spokesperson brought up was speeding up the process that pushes out new content in esports, video games, streaming platforms, and other industries online so that the need for offline events is reduced.
Preparing for Worlds: The third item addressed was preparing for League of Legends Worlds 2020. Despite the epidemic occurring, the government wanted to be clear that it would continue to set up the proper infrastructure and environment for esports. No one wants to see Worlds fail, least of all the hosting city. League of Legends’ esports scene has been impacted greatly by the Coronavirus, with the LPL delayed since January and the LCK being played without live audiences.
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