Let Chinese e-sports see hope, but the master said that playing professionally is more difficult than getting into Tsinghua University or Peking University
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Recently, e-sports fans have received exciting good news: Riot Games announced that the S7 finals will be held in China. This news instantly stirred up the e-sports circle. This is not only the first time that China has hosted this event, but also one of the few world-class top e-sports events currently held in China. At the same time, the fact that the S7 finals were held in China also proved that 2016 was the first year of e-sports in China. Indeed, in the past year, China's e-sports field has been active. First, the State Sports General Administration introduced an athlete registration system in the field of e-sports, which was a move to rectify the name of e-sports and make e-sports a "real" sports project; in September, the Ministry of Education officially listed "e-sports and management" as an additional major; at the end of the year, the State Sports General Administration even organized a national e-sports competition. This series of actions proves that the spring of the e-sports industry in China has arrived. According to statistics, the audience of e-sports will increase to 335 million people in 2017, of which 145 million will be e-sports fans, close to the number of fans of American football in 2014, and the popularity is comparable to that of popular sports events. However, e-sports has not been popular in China since the beginning.1. Old e-sports players who are still active in the e-sports circle When talking about the beginning of e-sports, we have to start from 1998. With the help of the Internet, Internet cafes have sprung up all over China. The rise of Internet cafes has made games such as "StarCraft" and "CS" popular among Chinese players. The strong confrontation of these games has led to the emergence of game competitions. At the same time, the first batch of domestic e-sports people have also emerged. This group of e-sports people are still active in the e-sports circle until now. WE team's current club manager Pei Le KING is one of these people, but Pei Le KING only understands games but is not good at playing them. Whether it is StarCraft, CS, WAR3, DOTA or the current League of Legends, he can play these games, but Pei Le KING never indulges in any one game. He knows that many of his old friends are unable to work in this industry because they are too fond of a certain game. After all , any e-sports project has a life cycle. Once the golden age is over, although sticking to one's own hobbies is "loving what I love" from a small perspective, from a big perspective, these people will be marginalized with the marginalization of this project. Of course, those who leave may go to a better place, but the dream will start a new chapter. Therefore, it is precisely because of Pei Le KING's persistence in this concept for many years that the WE team will not decline because of the decline of a game in the past ten years. 2. Swedish team guest-starred on CCTV's "Esports World" Thanks to the hard work of these veteran e-sports players, e-sports became the 99th sport recognized by the country in 2003. It was also because of the country's formal recognition that the Swedish CS team SK had the opportunity to be a guest on CCTV5's "E-Sports World", and they also talked about their views on e-sports during the show. They think that there are not many high-level e-sports teams and players in China at present, and hope to compete with the Chinese team in the world championship in the future. They also think that the greatest charm of e-sports is that the cooperation between teams can make up for the shortcomings of individual players. In addition, when talking about e-sports, they also said that the future of e-sports must be limitless, because he has played many games before, whether it is spending time or money, the ultimate goal is to PK with stronger players, but e-sports saves the boring time of upgrading and brushing equipment in the early stage, and you can enjoy the fun of PK as soon as the game starts. In addition, they also revealed that professional e-sports players can not only enjoy the fun of the game, but also have considerable income. It is understood that the e-sports system in foreign countries was already very mature at that time. Each club would also hire coaches and team leaders, and the bosses behind them were mostly wealthy, so money was never a problem in the eyes of foreign professional players. But the situation in China is different. Since e-sports has just emerged, the systems in various aspects are not mature, resulting in low salaries for players. Some even only have enough to rent a house or even eat. Not only that, the prize money for many competitions held in China is pitifully small, and some are not even enough for travel expenses, which makes many players want to quit. 3. SKY breaks the record of Chinese e-sports champions It was not until the winter of 2005 that this dilemma was broken. The "Human King" SKY defeated many powerful players to win the WCG championship that year. This yellow-skinned Chinese boy walked onto the highest podium of WCG wearing the five-star red flag, and countless people burst into tears. This championship carried too much. It changed the overall image of e-sports. It can be said to be the most important breakthrough in the history of Chinese e-sports. The honor of winning glory for the country made every e-sports person cheer and jump for joy. This excitement is unprecedented. SKY's arduous road to the championship not only had a huge impact in China, but also influenced many well-known e-sports players abroad. In 2009, there was even a documentary directed by Dutch director Jose de Putter that told the story of the Chinese king Sky's e-sports championship journey. After winning the championship, when SKY received the 400,000 yuan championship bonus, he also broke the dilemma of professional players who could not even afford to eat. At the same time, the attention brought by the honor made many club owners start to invest heavily, and since then, the salary of professional players has changed dramatically. 4. The financial crisis hit eSports Although SKY's victory instantly made Chinese e-sports the focus of the world, the good times did not last long. With the outbreak of the 2008 financial crisis, many clubs were once again unable to make ends meet, and they began to lay off employees. Some small domestic competitions were gradually discontinued, and only some large-scale competitions were still barely supported. In the following two years, the financial crisis spread all over the world, many wealthy clubs disintegrated, and a large number of large-scale competitions that Chinese players were familiar with, such as PGL and IEST, were discontinued one after another. The entire Chinese e-sports industry encountered an unprecedented cold winter. The external environment has been severely suppressed, and e-sports games themselves have encountered an unprecedented crisis. Blizzard has been fully promoting the new game "StarCraft 2", while "Warcraft" has been in a state of long-term laissez-faire. The version update speed is slow, the viewing experience of the game has been greatly reduced, and CS has reached the end of its life. At the same time, the domestic online game market has ushered in explosive growth since 2007, and it has also impacted the e-sports market. These two impacts have made it difficult for e-sports to attract the attention of new players. 5. Phenomenal products activate e-sports At this critical moment, a game called "League of Legends" rose to prominence, and its arrival once again gave hope to the e-sports industry. Since its public beta in September 2011, relying on Tencent's huge platform advantage, "League of Legends" has quickly taken off in the domestic e-sports market. Compared with DOTA, "League of Legends" is easier to use, and female players are more likely to participate in the game, which makes "League of Legends" more popular. At the same time, as the influence of League of Legends grew, various competitions followed. The TGA Grand Prix in the summer of 2011 was one of the earliest competitions of League of Legends. CCM defeated the popular WE team despite being underdogs, becoming famous overnight. At the same time, Sun Yalong, the top player of CCM, gradually became well-known to the audience. 6. Sun Yalong's journey to e-sports Sun Yalong has been an internet addict since he was young. Born in a working-class family, he was repeatedly scolded by the school and his parents for spending too much time in internet cafes during school. However, the prohibition of his parents and the school did not affect the boy's yearning for e-sports. Before the rise of League of Legends, he had already made a name for himself in the game Dungeon Fighter. He won the TGA and Asian Championships with absolute advantages. Although he had already shown his talent in the field of e-sports, he still did not get support from his family. He was very puzzled and took out all his savings, bought a ticket to Beijing and joined the then not-so-famous CCM team. So far, Sun Yalong's e-sports dream has finally come true. Because of the excellent performance of the CCM team, Wang Sicong bought it and renamed it IG team. After winning numerous honors for IG, he finally retired. After retiring, Sun Yalong, like some professional players, chose to sign a contract with a live broadcast platform and continue to shine in the e-sports field. When Sun Yalong looks back on his e-sports journey, he always sighs that when he decided to play e-sports, he almost had a falling out with his family, and being a professional player is not as easy as he imagined, he had to train until the early morning every day. The hardships of e-sports players are no less than those of any other sports, but fortunately I persisted. It's not easy to say I love you in eSports 1. It’s not easy to play eSports and it’s hard to be a professional player However, there are not many successful e-sports people like Sun Yalong. The competition in the e-sports industry is fierce and the elimination rate is extremely high, so long and intensive training is commonplace. Recently, the women's e-sports team of the well-known club OMG in the circle announced its disbandment, which made everyone realize again that behind the seemingly glamorous e-sports industry, there are actually cruel competition and a large number of cannon fodder. There are often only a small number of people at the top of the pyramid. EDG, a well-known League of Legends team, is a good example. According to EDG's media manager Zhang, the EDG League of Legends team's training starts after lunch, and it often lasts until two or three in the morning. The players train for more than ten hours every day, from basic skills such as last-hitting and laning to the team's overall tactics and coordination. These are all things that the players need to think about and train repeatedly. During this period, the coach and data analyst will also analyze and guide each person based on their characteristics. With such long-term repetitive training, the fun of playing games will slowly disappear after a period of time. Some harsh professional standards also make the game itself boring. Therefore, not everyone can stick to it. This also leads to a large number of people pouring into this industry every year, and an equal number of people leaving, but only a few can stick to the end. 2. Esports is a young profession with a short career lifespan As the level of e-sports is getting higher and higher, "younger age" has become an increasingly obvious trend in this industry. According to e-sports players, e-sports, like other physical confrontation sports, is a game for the young, and they may even retire earlier. Retired lol player Strawberry feels this deeply, saying that at 23 years old, he is considered an old man. Players always suffer the most, and they really deserve respect. I was also a professional player before, so I will take their feelings into consideration. "In his opinion, the rule maker ACE League is more about protecting the interests of the clubs rather than the players. "Esports players only have a few years in their careers, and I am considered good. If you are not a famous player, you will be eliminated soon. This society is very realistic and cruel." He admitted that Chinese esports has made progress in recent years, but it is far from enough. "I hope it can be better and the players can be treated better. A good club should not only be able to train players, but also ensure that they have a way out and a job after retirement." Generally speaking, in today's mainstream e-sports events, the prime age for players is between 16 and 22 years old, and the average sports career is only 2-4 years. As players age, their reactions and sensitivity will decline significantly, and compared with traditional sports, the elimination rate of e-sports is alarming. The reason is that the player's operating level is often limited by their age. As a competitive sport, most e-sports events have operating requirements, one of which is the APM value. Games such as "StarCraft" and "Warcraft" that require the control of multiple arms generally require players to have more than 250 APM. The requirements of "League of Legends" are relatively low, and the general professional level is also above 120, while ordinary people can hardly reach 100. As people age, their reaction speed will become slower and slower, and players in poor condition face the dilemma of having to leave. 3. Capital injection leads to industry difficulties In recent years, with the massive infusion of capital, the salaries of professional players have generally increased, and with it, more and more problems have arisen. In order to achieve better results, clubs have been poaching players from all over the world, and the transfer fees of players have also been getting higher and higher. The transfer fees of top star players have skyrocketed from hundreds of thousands in 2013 to millions now. With the rise of live streaming platforms, while increasing players' income, they are also slowly becoming a competitor to clubs. "Professional players originally had limited career options. If they performed well, they might become coaches or commentators after retirement. However, the emergence of live streaming platforms has undoubtedly given everyone more options," a team manager said. "Now the income of anchors is getting higher and higher. The income of some ordinary players as anchors has even far exceeded the salary of their clubs." Compared to receiving professional management and high-intensity training in a club, being a host is much easier. As long as you complete the live broadcast task within the specified time, you will have a considerable income. In comparison, being a host makes more money than being a player has become an important reason why many professional players now choose to leave. 4. Esports is similar to traditional sports: retirement options remain unclear Of course, being able to be a host is considered quite good as a professional player. In fact, e-sports and traditional sports are basically the same after the players retire. It is not uncommon to hear news about gold medal players living in poverty after retirement, let alone e-sports? E-sports players are thus in an awkward situation: if they play games, they can only play for a few years; if they don’t play games, they don’t have any special skills, so it’s difficult to make a transition. Coaching is often the main choice for professional e-sports players after retirement, but the reality of the e-sports circle is that clubs don’t have so many coaching positions that these retired players can start planning for retirement before they are 30 years old. In addition to coaches, e-sports commentators are the second option to stay in the e-sports circle after retirement. Many professional e-sports players choose to turn to commentary after getting tired of long-term competitive games. Unfortunately, the profession of e-sports commentators faces the same embarrassment as coaches. Due to the limitations of events and video resources, the positions of e-sports commentators are also quite limited. Moreover, e-sports commentators also have high requirements for language organization and expression skills. Currently, the proportion of professional players who can successfully transform into commentators is not large. In China, even after more than ten years of development, the entire industry still hasn’t solved this problem. After all, there are very limited “seats” for commentary, and it is obviously not enough to use it as a way out for players after retirement. A player who once won the CS world championship is now driving a taxi. I won’t reveal who it is. As for the development of this industry in China, it is obviously useless to rely solely on more players to “pursue their dreams”. People cannot use the best years of their lives to “accumulate” a complete industry. 5. The day has dawned, the dream has awakened, and it’s time to say goodbye to professional e-sports. Regarding young people playing e-sports, China's top e-sports player Li Xiaofeng once said: "The chance of playing professionally is much smaller than that of getting into Tsinghua University or Peking University. It's really a life-and-death situation." Because, in the whole year of 2016, the number of new qualified professional players in all e-sports leagues basically did not exceed 30, and the probability of this is even higher than getting into Tsinghua University or Peking University. So it’s good to have dreams, but not everyone can become the next UZI, and not everyone can win a championship like Marin at the age of 24. So I would like to warn those who want to sign up for e-sports majors that the e-sports industry is not as good as you think. Although e-sports is no longer just about playing a certain game, but all the confrontations between people using games as a carrier, it is every game played in "Warcraft 3", every bullet fired for victory in CS, every wonderful cooperation between teammates in DOTA, and every gorgeous kill completed in "League of Legends". However, it is precisely because the professionalization path of e-sports in China is still not sound that it has blinded the eyes of many young people. As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity. |
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