This week in Chinese esports: Esports Shanghai Masters, Forbes

As part of our partnership with China Electronic Athletics, we’re now bringing you the biggest headlines from the esports industry in China every week. This week in Chinese esports saw the unveiling of LPL and Nike’s collaboration, the announcement of Esports Shanghai Masters, and Forbes China select its top 10 leaders in esports.

We also have a twice-weekly newsletter that informs you of every significant happening in the business and industry side of esports, the ESI Dispatch, please feel free to subscribe here.

LPL and Nike unveiled co-branded team uniform, boost uniform and Air Force 1

LPL and Nike unveiled team kits for its 16 teams, with the theme of “All for Higher Realm.” Alongside the Nike X LPL team uniform, there’s a 2019 Season World Championship fan boost uniform and LPL X Nike Air Force 1 Low.

FunPlus Phoenix, Royal Never Give Up and Invictus Gaming will debut their uniforms during the 2019 World Championship, with the rest of the teams debuting their uniforms in the upcoming season.

China Electronic Athletics says: The co-brand uniform caused quite a stir, with most of the discontent focused on the design. Apart from Nike and the club logos, the lack of design elements has been hard to accept for some fans. Some have even said Nike has disrespected esports because of the simple products.

An example is that the NBA has produced several cultural symbols, such as Air Jordan. Fans approve the logos and designs and that ultimately lead to commercial success for NBA and its derivatives.

2019 Esports Shanghai Masters announced for November

The 2019 Esports Shanghai Masters was announced in a press conference held in Jingan Daning Convention Center. The event is co-sponsored by Shanghai Sports General Association & Shanghai Jingan District Government and hosted by the Shanghai E-Sports Association. It’ll be held on November 28th at the Shanghai Xin Jing’an Sports Center.

The 2019 Esports Shanghai Masters will include four major sectors: esports competitions, an industry forum, a national carnival, and a video exhibition. Dungeon Fighter Online, Overwatch, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and League of Legends will all be competitive titles at the event, which has a total prize pool of 5 million RMB (£568,442).

China Electronic Athletics says: Shanghai has been actively importing a variety of top entertainment IP to enrich the city culture and fashion atmosphere – though there is no IP in esports that’s at the same level of the Formula 1.

If Shanghai can create a mature esports IP, the city will speed up its case of being the “Esports Capital of the World.” This is not impossible if the cost is in an acceptable range.

Forbes China selects its top 10 leaders in esports

On Sept. 5, Forbes China selected its 10 key opinion leaders in esports, among other industries.

The people it chose as its 10 leaders in esports are as follows:

• Gao “Ning” Zhen-Ning – LoL
• Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao – LoL
• Liu “PDD” Mou – LoL
• Ming “ClearLove” Kai – LoL
• Su “Xiye” Han-Wei – LoL
• Wang “Baolan” Liu-Yi – LoL
• Yu “Misaya” Jing-Xi – LoL
• Zhang Xiang-Ling – LoL
• Xu “BurNIng” Zhi-Lei – Dota 2
• Ren Yi-Xu – Dungeon & Fighter

China Electronic Athletics says: By comparison, Uzi from esports, Li Jia-Qi from makeup, Fang Yi-Min from fashion are the most influential leaders in their domain, but esports hasn’t been able to create the same business value as others yet.

People in the industry often say that top-tier esports competitions have more traffic than top-tier sports events, such as the NBA, but it doesn’t have a similar commercial value.

Contact China Electronic Athletics:
Wechat public account: china_ea
Contact Name: Xiang Shi
Email: [email protected]

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