Published on : Wednesday, August 29, 2018
Immediately on hears cheers and jeers, depending on whom one is rooting for erupted from a huge gathering of bystanders here in one of the large convention halls of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The killing, as well as the ones that followed, took place in the virtual world, created by members of two five-man teams. It was part of the grand finals of the ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018, a tournament for the video game “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.”
The ZOTAC Cup was one of three tournaments of competitive video gaming, dubbed e-sports, that was hosted at the ICBC (Asia) e-Sports and Music Festival, which took place here from August 24 to 26.
After experiencing a winning debut in 2017, the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) came to a conclusion to mount the festival anew in order to take advantage of the enthusiasm for e-sports, which gaming research firm Newzoo mentioned is anticipated to reach a total global audience of 380 million in 2018. To quote HKTB chairman Peter Lam, “last year’s festival provided enormous international exposure for Hong Kong and reinforced its image as the events capital of Asia.”
Also, the event of 2017 generated global publicity value of HK$150 million (or P1 billion) as the tournaments for “League of Legends” and “Street Fighter V” drew more than 7.4 million live online viewers, Lam said.
In 2018, the HKTB spent HK$40 million (around P270 million) in arranging and endorsing the event, which they said drew nearly 80,000 attendees, including overseas visitors.