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Sept. 11 (NBD) -- E-sports, which debuted at the 2018 Asian Games held in late August as a demonstration event, will become a medal sport at the 2022 Asian Games.

The games featured in the demonstration program this year include League of Legends (LoL), Arena of Valor (AoV, also known as Honor of Kings), Clash Royale, Hearth Stone, StarCraftⅡand Pro Evolution Soccer.

China won gold medals for AoV and LoL and a silver medal for Clash Royale.

Kenneth Fok Kai-kong, the son of Hong Kong tycoon Timothy Fok Tsun-Ting, presented gold medals to e-sports teams at the demonstration event, making his debut in the e-sports circle. He also made a speech as president of the Asian Electronic Sports Federation at the opening ceremony of the demonstration event.

The Chinese e-sports industry is expanding rapidly as young investors including Kenneth Fok Kai-kong and Wang Sicong, the son of Wanda Group's chairman Wan Jianlin, as well as game producers such as Tencent and NetEase made inroads into the domain in recent years.

In 2011, Wang Sicong bought pro-gaming team Catastrophic Cruel Memory for 500 million yuan (73.0 million U.S. dollars) and then renamed the team Invictus Gaming. 

Following Wang's entry into the e-sports area, thousands of new e-sports clubs emerged. 

According to a set of data revealed at the China International Comics and Games Expo 2018, there was a marked rise in the number of e-sports clubs this year with the popularity of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds in the game field. 

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com acquired the Roster and LPL spot of QG Reapers and established JD Gaming in May last year. Video streaming website Bilibili formed Bilibili Gaming in December of the same year.

Gaming companies including Tencent, NetEase, Giant Network and Hero Entertainment also highly value the e-sports market. As the designer of AoV, Tencent announced in June this year that it will put more resources and capital into the niche sector. In other news, NetEase announced the 2018 Netease Esports X Tournaments kicked off on September 2.

It is noted that the e-sports market has great potential. Research data provider Newzoo shows that the global gaming market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.3 percent to hit 180.1 billion U.S. dollars by 2021. 

Another report released by game market researcher CNG revealed the market size of the Chinese e-sports industry stood at 77 billion yuan (11.2 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017 and is forecasted to exceed 88 billion yuan (12.8 billion U.S. dollars) this year.

Currently, e-sports teams and games are exploring ways of making profits. A person-in-charge at Tencent told NBD that Tencent has been learning the operation models of top sports clubs like NBA or FA Premier League. Enterprises from traditional industries such as automobile and finance have sponsored Tencent's League of Legends Pro League and its King Pro League, the top professional competition for its mobile MOBA title Honor of Kings, which has produced considerable copyright royalties for the company. 

Email: zhanglingxiao@nbd.com.cn