ONE Esports launches with Dota 2 championship series

Asian sports media property ONE Championship has announced its first event series as part of its new esports venture, ONE Esports.

The first two confirmed events to be hosted during the 2019-2020 season both fall under a series of Dota 2 World Pro Invitationals, each boasting a $500,000 (£410,887.50) prize pool.

The ONE Dota 2 Singapore World Pro Invitational will take place at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on December 20th-22nd, with the ONE Dota 2 Jakarta World Pro Invitational following on April 17-19th next year at ICE BSD.

Chatri Sityodtong, Chairman and CEO of ONE Championship commented on the venture in a release: “I am excited to announce ONE Esports’ official launch of Asia’s largest esports world championship series. There is a natural crossover between martial arts and gaming fans in Asia. The opportunity to bring everyone together under Asia’s home of millennial live sports is something that we have worked very hard on.

“ONE Championship is committed to bringing its same brand of large-scale event production and live broadcast capabilities, unique world-class content production, global media distribution, storytelling expertise, and marketing experience to ONE Esports. With ONE Esports, ONE Championship is without a doubt Asia’s largest producer of millennial sports content.”

ONE Esports has partnered with tournament organiser PGL Esports to produce the upcoming events, according to a LinkedIn post. Coinciding with the launch of the company’s esports arm, Carlos Alimurung has been announced as its CEO – following on from his posts at Battlefy, Univision, and LG Electronic.

Carlos Alimurung, CEO of ONE Esports also discussed the announcement: “The opportunity to build a multibillion dollar esports business in Asia is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. ONE’s DNA is about celebrating inspirational stories and heroes, which will be instrumental in enriching the region’s entire esports ecosystem of amateurs, pro players, game developers, leagues, organizers, country agencies, and brands. The team is very strong, and I’m excited to incorporate their ideas and energy to execute our strategy.”

Esports Insider says: We’re seeing a lot of crossover between traditional sports and esports, but it’s mostly the former opting to get involved with the latter – this is no different. While ONE Esports has been known of and expected for quite some time already, the first two events seem like they’ll do a decent job at bringing the venture a lot of attention.

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