Esports reaches big time in Wuxi

The ninth Wuxi esports competition is held in the Yunfu Building in Wuxi, on March 31. [Photo by Kan Yubing/chinadaily.com.cn]

Rui Yingchi, student of the Wuxi Institute of Technology, is excited that he was given the opportunity to show off his skills in a city-level game.

Rui, who became a summoner controlling avatars to battle in the world's popular online game League of Legends (LoL) during his spare time, competed at the video game competition held in Wuxi on March 31.

The competition, held by local sport authorities, welcomed nearly 200 participants on its first day. Most of them were young amateur game talents like Rui.

Such an esports activity has been held nine times before. To attract more players, this year the competition involves three games: Pro Evolution Soccer, Hearth Stone and LoL.

"We want to promote esports among citizens by holding these kind of competitions," said Huang Ao, who works with the Wuxi e-sports association, a local government department of the Wuxi Municipal Bureau of Sports. Huang said that the competition will run for nine months and involve around 5,000 players.

"The activity has become as influential as the Wuxi Marathon, and some players even get a shot at the world's pro games by competing in our activities," said Huang.

The Yunfu Building is selected as the base for Wuxi's esports activities during the competition's opening ceremony on March 31. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

This year the competition was sponsored by many enterprises including China Telecom, China Resources C'estbon Beverage and Yunfu Building.

"Esports are good for the brain - my son plays video games too," said Guo Jian, chairman of Yunfu Investment Holding. Yunfu Building, where the competition is held, is run by Guo's company. The building was selected a base for Wuxi’s esports activities during the competition opening ceremony on Saturday.

"We want to gather more young people and provide a platform for them, which is also a goal of our company's development," said Guo.

Besides the efforts made by the Wuxi government and enterprises, the competition is also backed by the city's fast development in internet of things technologies, including the internet, processors and sensors which support the entire process of a game.

Wuxi's development in IoT industry also attracted many professional esports tournaments to be held in the city. In late December, 2017 the city successfully held the NTF 2017 final, China's top women's pro league of LoL.