html On July 9, at the Suntec International Convention and Exhibition Center in Singapore, NV, the "Purple Force" of the WRL Division (Mainland China Division), defeated the dark horse JT of the same division and won the first official global event of the League of Legends mobile game - the 2022 Global Championship. Cup (ICONS 2022) trophy, and the team’s jungler Long also won the first Global Champions Cup FMVP in history.
022 The perfect ending of the Global Champions Cup, just over a year after the League of Legends mobile game e-sports plan was announced at the 2021 Global E-sports Leaders Summit on June 16 last year.
Last year, " Sports Weekly " focused on what exactly is League of Legends mobile game e-sports and how to do it? Ask Feng Xiao (Eric), the operator of the League of Legends mobile e-sports WRL division and the general manager of new game e-sports at Tengjing Sports. One year later, facing the staged answer sheet handed over by League of Legends mobile e-sports, we asked again. What has League of Legends mobile esports done this year? What kind of difficulties and thoughts are accompanied by it?
The leader’s sense of mission
The topic inevitably starts with this Global Champions Cup. Twenty-four top mobile game teams from eight major regions around the world participated in this competition, gathering in the Lion City to compete for championship honors and a prize of US$2 million. Among them, FPX, JDG, NV and JT represented the WRL division and eventually occupied three seats in the semi-finals.
On Weibo, the reading volume of "2022 Global Champions Cup Finals" exceeded 100 million in a day or so. The high level of attention is inseparable from the outstanding performance of the WRL division. Before the start of the finals, the WRL division also organized a cross-border linkage event between Tencent NBA female host and League of Legends mobile game host to warm up and support the finals.
Feng Xiao mainly attributed the strong dominance of the WRL division to China Mobile’s overall global leadership in e-sports. Thanks to the efforts of some mobile e-sports pioneers such as KPL and PEL, the overall professionalism, player competitiveness and training level of China Mobile e-sports clubs are ahead of their opponents.
In his opinion, the WRL division is very similar to the LCK division before S8. It has monopolized almost all international competition championships for a long time. In the Bird's Nest of S7, there was a scene where two Korean teams met for the finals, which has become an eternal pain for many Chinese e-sports people. The strength of LCK also benefited from the overall level of South Korea's e-sports .
is similar to LCK in terms of strength, but their thoughts are different. The WRL division serves as the leader, and what it will strive to do in the future is to drive other divisions through itself to enhance global competitiveness.
Feng Xiao hopes to share the accumulated experience, including competition training methods, with other competition areas simultaneously. More cross-regional competitions will be set up in the future, so that the Chinese mainland competition area can invite more Japanese, Korean and Southeast Asian teams to participate, and Chinese players can also go to other competition areas as foreign aid.
In this competition, strengthening communication has become a consensus. Whether it is Long, the FMVP player in the finals, or Leo Faria, the global head of League of Legends mobile games, they all mentioned to varying degrees the importance of strengthening exchanges and learning in the competition area during interviews. This also gave the WRL division a stronger sense of mission after winning the championship.
Harvests this year and difficulties in the general environment
Looking back on this year, from the official proposal of the League of Legends mobile game e-sports plan last year to the successful holding of the first Global Champions Cup. The League of Legends mobile e-sports WRL division has gone through the qualifying stages of the LPL track, the influential track and the national competition track, and finally created its own WRL division professional event system, during which activities, events, programs and There are endless new ways to play.
However, in Feng Xiao’s eyes, the core of League of Legends mobile e-sports has mainly done three things in this year. The first is to build a competition system that gives everyone a chance. Whether they are from LPL clubs or grassroots teams, or from well-known clubs in other leagues, or even artist idols outside the industry. As long as they are interested in mobile game competitions, everyone will have a fair chance to enter the mobile game competition system.
The second point is to create a more open and cooperative alliance. This open and cooperative attitude is not only for the live broadcast platform, but also for business partners. As soon as the mobile game professional league was launched, a large number of sponsors such as OnePlus mobile , Wahaha, Kia, PUMA and so on, broke the record for the number of sponsors in the new league in one fell swoop. On the one hand, this is because sponsors are optimistic about the e-sports project of "League of Legends Mobile Game", and on the other hand, it also benefits from a more open strategy. "Whether it is a live broadcast platform, a business partner, or even all competition organizers, we are open-minded and willing to assist them." Feng Xiao said.
The third point is to constantly make new attempts. More attempts and breakthroughs have been made both in competitions and derivatives. From the influential track program "'s top rising star " in the form of a light variety show to the joint brand launch of event promotion songs, one after another innovative cross-border programs and activities have left a deep impression on this new generation of e-sports projects that dare to innovate.
In addition, the official also attaches great importance to the basic quality training of players and employees, such as the first WRL player training camp held before the start of the first professional league. For all professional players who are eager to join WRL, this is undoubtedly a "pre-job training". In the training camp , there are not only physical training , but also a series of targeted courses such as legal contracts, competition psychology, business value, media public relations, etc.
According to Feng Xiao, the training camp will continue to be held as a classic project, and its purpose is to tell players what professional qualities they must possess in addition to meeting professional and technical standards to become a qualified professional player. And as a global mobile e-sports project, what kind of style should China's young e-sports people show to the world.
Behind these attempts, the year of League of Legends mobile e-sports has not been smooth sailing. Feng Xiao bluntly said that the biggest difficulty encountered was the unfriendly environment.
Due to repeated epidemics, both the live broadcast platform and its partners are facing great pressure. For an emerging project like League of Legends mobile e-sports, it is more difficult to obtain resources from it. "The pressure we faced when we were doing LPL ten years ago was much greater." Feng Xiao said with emotion. "At that time, every platform had money, and everyone was willing to try something new. Now everyone is emphasizing on lowering costs. It has become a big difficulty to increase efficiency and maintain the continuous growth of a new project. "
It is precisely because of the epidemic that the first League of Legends mobile professional league WRL can only choose to start online before the start of the league. A series of whimsical game viewing experiences have to be shelved in the end.
However, neither the achievements nor the difficulties faced have stopped the exploration of mobile e-sports. How can we find our own path different from the League of Legends client game? What is the future of mobile e-sports? Mobile game esports teams are also constantly exploring new possibilities.
Qualitative changes will occur only with precipitation
Regarding the future direction, Feng Xiao said that the positioning will not change no matter what. Mobile e-sports will continue to operate as an independent e-sports event, and the WRL division will also move towards becoming a division with global influence.
will continue to rely on PC games in the future, including the overall influence and professionalism of the LPL division in e-sports, and continue to build the WRL division into a professional, professional new league that can provide different viewing experiences.
will also boldly create differentiated content that belongs to the WRL competition area. Whether it is the future stage format, the entire visual packaging, or even the entire e-sports language and e-sports expression, we will take a more unique step and use trendy methods to capture more young people. audience.
Regarding how mobile games can help Chinese culture go overseas, Feng Xiao said with a smile, “The biggest way to go overseas is to conquer all competition regions!” This is indeed the case. E-sports has always been more willing to listen to the voice of the winner.In this Global Champions Cup, after every victory, players from the WRL division will be interviewed by other divisions. This in itself is an opportunity to show the style of Chinese e-sports players and make audiences and media in other competition areas willing to get to know Chinese players.
At the same time, the WRL division should also be the leader. Through new competitions and competition systems, we should strengthen exchanges between divisions, use experience to help other divisions improve together, and enhance competitiveness and enjoyment. In the process, Chinese culture is spread subtly.
However, Feng Xiao believes that the most important thing to do in the future is to persist in the right way, because any sports event needs time to settle.
Take the content of the event as an example. Today’s mobile game events are completely different from what they were half a year ago. This is due to the continuous introduction of new heroes and the higher professionalism of professional players and coaches, which has significantly improved the depth of the event. In the future, whether it is the expansion of the hero pool or the update of new versions that are in line with e-sports events, these will take time.
In addition, the people and stories during the competition also need to be settled. For example, FPX.0711, who participated in this competition, had played in the League of Legends PC game before and also played in the Honor of Kings game, but he never had a good platform to prove himself. League of Legends mobile eSports is his last ditch effort to pursue his dream of becoming a professional player. If he failed, he would have to say goodbye to professional e-sports, but he took advantage of it.
and NV.long, who won the FMVP of the Global Champions Cup this time, had previously lost to FPX in the League of Legends mobile game professional qualification and national competition track. However, they overcame their inner demons in this Global Champions Cup and defeated them in the semi-finals. Opponent, he performed outstandingly and became more courageous as he fought, reaching the finals in one fell swoop and winning the 2022 Global Champions Cup FMVP.
These players and the stories behind them need to be settled. When there is more accumulation, there will be grievances and resentments, the audience will be involved in the emotions, and more and more star players will appear in the event, which will attract the audience to be more willing to watch the WRL competition.
"These things will change after a certain stage. For example, in the LPL competition area, you will clearly feel that the league has changed qualitatively in the third and sixth years." Feng Xiao, who has worked in the LPL event project team for many years said.
Epilogue
When interviewing Feng Xiao a year ago, recalling the scene when the LPL competition was just starting, he laughed loudly and said that pioneering wasteland was the fun. A year later, he admitted that the situation facing mobile e-sports is more difficult than when the LPL was opened more than ten years ago.
Fortunately, everyone is convinced that we are running on the right path. It's just that there is less excitement when I started running and more calm thinking.
believes that those accumulated experiences and stories will eventually lead to qualitative changes at some point in the future. Because this is not a sprint, but a longer marathon.
