Huo Qigang: Development Trend and Future of Asian E-sports from a Global Perspective

On June 20, the 2019 Tencent E-sports Annual Conference with the theme of "Race at the moment" was held at the International Conference Center of the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan. At the summit in the morning, Huo Qigang, Chairman of the Asian Electronic Sports Federation, Vice President of the Hong Kong Sports Association of China and the Olympic Committee, delivered a speech on the theme of "the development trend and future of Asian e-sports from a global perspective".

Huo Qigang pointed out that after E-sports entered Asia, e-sports developed rapidly in Asian countries, but e-sports must establish its own top-level intercontinental events in addition to joining the comprehensive games.

The Asian Electronic Sports Federation has assisted the local government to set up an electronic sports organization and created two major events, the Electronic Sports Asian Cup and the Electronic Sports Masters Tour Invitational Tournament, to promote the development of electronic sports in Asian countries, and at the same time to explore the Asian University Championship as an experimental means of talent selection. Huo Qigang hopes that college students, a broad and numerous group, can promote the virtuous circle and healthy development of electronic sports.

At last, Huo Qigang shared the practical experience of the Asian Electronic Sports Federation and the multi-party cooperation to jointly promote the social cognition of electronic sports.

"In my eyes, education is the cornerstone of mutual understanding. Tencent took the lead in setting up an open class of e-sports last year, and today it is holding a grand forum here to actively create opportunities for a wide range of citizens to learn more about e-sports through their platform advantages."

The following is the original speech

hello everyone! Respected Director Sun, President Ren, Mr. Wei, and Mr. Mars, dear friends, friends in the electronic sports industry, media, and sports industry, hello!

In fact, I haven't been to Hainan for some time. Many friends didn't believe me when I talked yesterday. I first came to the beautiful place of Boao in 2003 to attend the second Boao Forum for Asia. In a twinkling of an eye, the past decade has witnessed the development of Boao. I was very encouraged by the report of Hai6 just now, and thank the Boao government for its strong support for the e-sports industry, so I hope there will be more opportunities to come to Hainan again to participate in our e-sports industry competitions and summits. Just now, the governor told me whether he could take my wife Jingjing with him when he came next time. I would like to reveal a little secret. Our first trip was to Hainan, so we have a lot of feelings for Hainan. I believe we will have more time to get together in Hainan.

Today, I came to Hainan on behalf of the Asian Electronic Sports Federation. Like Mr. Wei, I came from the traditional sports industry. Many friends asked me why I participated in the electronic sports industry? In fact, it's very simple. I see the rapid development of e-sports, and I also think that the development of e-sports can be learned from traditional sports. Just now, Old Wei also talked about many rules and ecology, which we can learn from. Our federation is the only official e-sports organization in Asia recognized by the Council of the Asian Olympic Committee. Our mission is also to promote the healthy development of e-sports in Asia and the world.

A short video just now is about the Asian Games. We have done a lot of work in the past year. Our federation has successfully held various electronic sports related activities, big and small. In Jakarta, the historic electronic sports project is regarded as a performance project, that is, in the intercontinental large-scale sports. The success of the competition cannot be separated from Tencent Powerful support from Tencent E-sports. When our country won the gold medal, I was very moved.

The promotion of E-sports in various countries has also caused great repercussions and positive repercussions. For example, before the Asian Games, the Japan Association told me that the popularity of e-sports in Japan was only 14%, but after just one week of the Asian Games, the national awareness reached 41%, which was quite different. The local legislators also told me that because E-sports entered the Asian Games, the local legislators also paid attention to the E-sports industry. In the end, the local restrictions on e-sports bonus payment were lifted through multiple rounds of debate, which greatly promoted the promotion of e-sports in Japan and other countries.

Speaking of e-sports, when we mentioned Japan just now, we will also think of South Korea, and of course China. China is a big country of e-sports and has quite a history. As an Asian organization, we also have a responsibility to assist in the balanced development of e-sports in more than 40 Asian countries. In fact, the development of the e-sports industry in various Asian countries is still very fast. Just mentioned China, Japan and South Korea, now our federation has more than 25 official e-sports associations from countries and regions, and has become our official members. In particular, Southeast Asian countries also have some representatives present today. The development of e-sports is very fast. For example, as mentioned in Tencent's report, in addition to our two gold medals and one silver medal in Jakarta, Vietnam deserves attention. Vietnam has achieved very good results in the Asian Games. They may not have won the championship, but they are the countries with the most medals. They have four medals in total, and they have participated in six projects. They have great potential for development.

At the same time, some countries have not yet established official organizations. We are trying to help them and help them develop the e-sports industry locally. It may be difficult, or it may start from scratch, but it is always necessary to start.

So I think as an Asian Association, one of our important tasks is to hold more high-level Asian events, so that the E-sports athletes from all countries can have more opportunities to compete on behalf of their countries and win glory for their countries. It is also revealed that we will hold the electronic sports project of the 30th Southeast Asia Games in Manila, Philippines, in December 2019. We are a leading role in it. At that time, the Asian Games was an exhibition competition. This time, it was the first time that it appeared in the Intercontinental Games with an official sports medal event. At that time, nine countries in Southeast Asia will participate in the competition. I believe it can be held to a high level.

In addition to the comprehensive sports games, I believe you are also very concerned about the future development of our association. We must establish our own top intercontinental events. We have three major directions. We will launch the Electronic Sports Asia Cup, the highest standard intercontinental electronic sports competition of the Federation. We are expected to hold it once every two years, Our goal is to hold the first competition in 2020, and all members of our association in Asia will participate in it, so that the strongest lineup of national electronic sports teams from all countries can be displayed in Asia and even the world.

Second, we plan to hold the Electronic Sports Masters Tour Invitational Tournament (eMaster), which will be held in different countries and regional cities every year in the form of sub stops. We are now discussing details with many E-sports associations and many governments. Each competition will choose projects according to the situation of the host city, We expect to hold such a contest in five different countries in 2020. The idea of holding the event is to have more flexibility, and consider that more e-sports projects can be included in it, especially the new projects can get a platform for display and promotion opportunities, so as to establish a more diversified and healthy e-sports ecology.

Finally, the characteristics of all sports must take into account public participation. Like traditional sports, the training of excellent athletes starts from the basic and grassroots, and is often started by schools. Taking the United States as an example, many outstanding athletes are created from the university system. We will help local university student leagues in different countries to build the Asian University Student Champions League. We will cooperate with member associations in different countries to hold the University Student Champions League every year and invite all students to participate.

I believe that today's friends here are very familiar with the development of the e-sports industry, but there are still some people who are worried about the future development of the e-sports industry, and some people who are biased and often look at the development of e-sports with colored glasses. Last year, when we held an open class with Tencent, we said that our association not only conducts competitions, but also has a lot of lobbying work to do, so as to correctly guide the healthy development of the e-sports industry.

Time relations cannot be developed, but we still want to mention several aspects: First, we need to build a cooperation platform so that friends in the traditional sports circle can also access and understand e-sports and reach consensus. Football has also become one of our entry points. Last April, we held an e-sports link with the World Football Forum, and the effect was very good, The friends present have nothing to do with e-sports, but they can understand the development of football and e-sports from a new perspective. 2、 Communication. In sports, we need TV stations and media communication. In fact, we cannot do without the media and traditional media. But traditional media do not know much about e-sports. So the Secretary General of our Association has just returned from Kazakhstan and participated in some meetings of the Asian Union. Among them, we discussed whether we can cooperate more with the official TV stations of various countries Electronic sports are more widely pushed to another field.

Time is up, I want to thank Tencent. In my opinion, education is the cornerstone of mutual understanding. Tencent took the lead in holding an open class of e-sports last year, and today it is holding such a grand conference and forum here. Through their platform advantages, they actively create opportunities so that a wide range of citizens can participate in and learn about e-sports. Today, many people in the sports circle, including Sister Yang Yang, are also here. It is precisely the combination of sports and e-sports. On behalf of the Federation's participation in traditional sports, e-sports, and friends from all walks of life, and its strong support for today's summit over the years, I would like to work together to push the e-sports in Asia and China to a new level. Thank you!