China wows world by staging stunning gaming showpiece in testing times

The deafening roars of the spectators and the deluge of support messages from fans worldwide on social media were testament to just how much this year's League of Legends (LOL) World Championship meant to the global gaming community, especially amid the trials and tribulations of a difficult 2020.

And even though the 6,000-plus fans left Shanghai Pudong Football Stadium struggling to come to terms with home team Suning Gaming's 3-1 defeat to South Korean squad Damwon Gaming in Saturday's final, their passion for the event remained undimmed.

With all the group and previous knockout matches played behind closed doors, tickets for the final were in seriously hot demand. Organizers could easily have filled the 37,000-capacity arena multiple times over but only made 6,312 seats available in compliance with local epidemic prevention regulations.

All tickets were free via a lottery system, which within four hours of opening online on Oct 12 had a million registrations－working out at over 4,000 people a minute.

In the end, a total of over 3.2 million people tried their luck in the lottery. For the majority who missed out on the hottest tickets in town, watching online along with the tens of millions of gaming enthusiasts across the globe was the next best thing.

"Allocating tickets for any major sports event is a big challenge, but especially so for the League of Legends World Championship. Hundreds of millions of our fans have enormous passion for the event and were desperate to witness the final," said Leo Lin, co-CEO of local organizer TJ Sports.

"Our focus has always been our fans. It's very important that they have a fair chance of getting a ticket and have a good experience throughout the process. The online lottery system was specially designed and encrypted by our developers. The people who showed up in the stands are extremely lucky."

This year has presented extra challenges for organizers amid the upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In common with the rest of the sports world, China's League of Legends Pro League (LPL) was forced to hit the pause button when it temporarily suspended the action in February.

Nicolo Laurent, the CEO of Riot Games, which developed LOL, admitted this year has been a "crazy journey" but lavished praise on local organizers, saying China's successful control of the epidemic was crucial to the world championship not falling victim to the pandemic.

"The uncertainty of the pandemic, sports shutting down around the world, many events canceled and full seasons entirely postponed－but during all that time, League of Legends e-sports proved its resilience," said Laurent, who had to go through a strict epidemic prevention process to enter China.

"We needed to take extreme measures to make sure the show is safe. Safety is the priority. We got a lot of help related to COVID testing, quarantine measures and daily body-temperature checks. There are also many safety procedures inside the venue. The city of Shanghai has offered immense help to make sure this happened."

Welcoming the elite players and league staff from across the globe was another logistical challenge for organizers.

The foreign teams made it to Shanghai in late September, when they were all subject to nucleic acid tests and a 14-day isolation period.

Throughout the group and knockout stages, teams stayed in designated hotels where frequent medical testing was conducted.

"There wasn't much to do to pass the time in the hotel. Mostly we trained. Sometimes I would watch shows online or go to the gym," said Hong Haoxuan, aka Karsa, of TopEsports, which fell 3-1 to Suning Gaming (SN) in the semifinals.

"Due to the pandemic, the matches before the final were staged behind closed doors. For some of the younger players of our team, it was their first time playing in the world championship. But it's a pity that there were no fans cheering for us."

John Needham, Riot Games' global head of e-sports, was among the foreigners who had to observe the epidemic protocols upon entering China. He praised the process as smooth and comfortable.

"I want to thank the Shanghai local government…We have our own medical staff at the hotel testing us and keeping us safe. We have a lot of protocols in terms of the players' travel, but so far it's been great here," said Needham.

The success of this year's worlds is framed against a backdrop of a booming Chinese e-sports market.

According to the 2019 Global E-sports Development Report published by Tencent E-sports and Penguin Intelligence, the number of Chinese gamers and e-sports fans reached 350 million in 2019, with that number projected to reach 400 million by the end of 2020.

The Chinese e-sports market was valued at 13.8 billion yuan ($2 billion) in 2019. In 2018, there were only about 71,000 people working in China's e-sports sector, but last year employers could not fill all of the 331,000 vacancies due to a talent vacuum, illustrating the industry's huge potential.

"If you asked me 10 years ago, my answer would be South Korea was the crystal ball of global e-sports," said Laurent. "I think now China is taking over. From the market perspective, China is making a lot of policies and investment, and it really understands that the future of sports lies in e-sports.

"Last year I was in Paris for the 2019 world championship final. When I met the local officials there, they all asked me to tell them how they do it in China. I think China is now taking the lead."