Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

E-sports 's four years of rapid development

This is the first time that the LPL team has missed the global finals since 2018. It is also the return of the LCK autumn competition after five years. Is it the end of the world line?

In fact, freezing three feet was not built in a day. The dominance of DWG in the final in 2020 was already a dizzy moon, and the invincible DWG of that year made people wonder whether this was a return to the theme of confrontation between China and South Korea.

In the 2021 global finals, LCK completed the breakthrough of four South Korean teams in the top eight, and finally formed a pattern of three LCK teams encircling EDG.

How similar everything is to this year. A year ago, the No. 1 seed EDG withstood the pressure and successfully picked up the global championship trophy in the face of LCK's powerful encirclement and suppression, attracting a new upsurge for domestic e-sports.

A year later, the No.1 seed JDG lost in tears in the face of T1, which set an 18-game winning streak in the spring competition, and the challenge of the Devil King Faker. This is already the LCK No.2 seed's double against the LPL team in this year's global finals.

In the center of the stage of this year's finals, Mapu double C carried their own glory in the past, staging a legendary showdown. When the game has its ups and downs, when Gumayusi grabs the dragon, the balance of victory and defeat shakes all the time, and finally comes to the decisive game.

But at this moment, no matter who the ultimate winner is, they have made history by setting a new age for winning the championship created by Ambition.

When the war song sounded, Deft did not hesitate to pick up the policewoman, when Gumayusi snatched the dragon again to keep the game in suspense, when T1 made a desperate choice to steal, it was still the best global finals.

Finally, Deft's last dance, dance to the center of the stage, held the summoning Cup and finally realized the dream. From the qualifier to the finals, from the fourth seed to the champion.

After four years of Faker's absence from the finals, he was defeated by the runner-up; in these four years, League of Legends has become the most concerned e-sports event in the world, and the e-sports industry is developing rapidly.

Although LPL eventually missed the final stage of the 2022 global finals, before that, the LPL division had quietly completed its four-year treble and achieved something from scratch.

It seems to go back to the beginning of the story, but it is difficult to change the layers behind the foreshadowing.

With the rise of capital, e-sports has become a new release channel. Reviewing the origin of the domestic LPL team, it is not difficult to find that at the beginning of LPL, the rich second generation headed by Wang Sicong set up the team with their own interests as the driving force. Partly because of his love for the project, and partly because it is easy to gang up with top high-end players.

Their whim injected the first wave of capital promotion into the development of domestic e-sports.

Since the acquisition of TOP, LPL has ushered in a new upsurge. At this time, League of Legends or e-sports project is no longer a project chosen by the owner of the enterprise on a whim, but a delivery channel chosen by the capital group after internal consideration.

As far as they are concerned, there is no need to carefully calculate the team's own profits and losses. The propaganda power and influence of e-sports department to the whole group is the primary goal that the enterprise needs to consider.

After LPL failed to make it to the finals, a video about pointing out problems in the competition went viral. Video producers point out that the biggest problem with LPL now is that there is no mature youth training system, there are few talented newcomers in LDL, and there are only a handful of newcomers in LPL every year, and there may be a gap in the future.

For capital, they see the team as a delivery channel, not as a business. What is needed is a mature team that can bring publicity value. rather than training new people, they are more willing to spend a lot of money to form a dream team, with the strength to compete for the championship while keeping the topic.

BLG over the past two years spent a lot of cost to introduce aid but failed to harvest the corresponding results, in the eyes of e-sports enthusiasts, it may be a loss-making business. But this wave of traffic driven by bilibili live broadcast is the ultimate goal.

When the merger of Huya and Douyu was halted, bilibili wanted to take advantage of the rise to take a share of the live broadcast market. In addition to the copyright of the event, it is also important to attract all kinds of head anchors. The mutual choice between him and Uzi becomes inevitable under this premise.

In addition to BLG, which has maintained a big move in the past two years, the car track has increased its investment in LPL this year, and WBG FAW Audi and EDG have jointly created a new team name seal cutting in the LPL scoreboard.

During the World Championship, Shanghai Volkswagen Lingdu reached a cooperation with bilibili to launch it in the second way broadcast "High Energy Competition Group". In addition to the regular oral broadcast, the trademark display of the commentary station, and the broadcast of advertisements in the field, the real object was also brought to the studio, with product close-up shots between the venues and all-round display.

In addition, the make-up track also took a fancy to e-sports 's influence in the youth group and chose to continue to raise the bet. YSL became a special partner of League of Legends Professional League; Lancome placed ads in the live stream of the game.

Recalling LPL's long oral commentary at the beginning of each tournament day, the changing ads between venues, and every sponsor element in the canyon, it is sufficient to prove that LPL's own commercial value has climbed to its peak as an event.

Looking at the world, League of Legends is still e-sports head project Esports Charts announced the 2022 League of Legends global finals semi-final data, the semi-finals have broken through the million mark; T1 and JDG competition ratings reached 2.23 million.

Although it is down from 2021, the peak figure of 2 million still makes it the most influential e-sports event in the world.

For this year's champion team, they will receive a brand new trophy: the fist game and the world-famous jewelry brand Tiffany & Co. Tiffany teamed up to recast the summoner Cup.

Prior to this, League of Legends has completed cooperation with the well-known luxury brand LV to promote linked skin and products. When e-sports, as an industry and culture, is linked with the fashion circle, it proves that the commercial value of the industry has been recognized. People can not help but look forward to, after reaching a certain height, how the brand will make efforts to enhance its influence and value.

When the brand value of the event reaches a certain height, the development of the top competition districts naturally lifts all boats. At the same time of the rapid development of LPL commerce, Europe and the United States have begun to see an embryonic form, the first LCS has completed commercialization; after being separated from LCS, LEC corner overtaking has realized alliance.

Although the North American Division has had a poor record this year, it failed in the group stage. But its own operation and commercialization of the competition area is the most successful of all, has hatched the soil of NBA, with the most rich experience, the rapid operation of e-sports league into a system.

It also made spectators in the North American Division say proudly after the record of 0-9 in the first round: looking forward to a 0-18 breakthrough in history. More bluntly said that the link is too comfortable, so that the contestants have formed the habit of clocking in to and from work, and have lost the heart to compete for the highest honor.

Identity replacement, can star players change their minds? If there is no business or alliance, the event can not be maintained normally, and when the commercial value is too high. Will there be putting the cart before the horse?

Take the top star players of the NBA as an example, their worth comes more from their own commercial value. In addition to the salary and bonus paid by the team itself, more sources of income come from business activities, business endorsements, and even the share of exclusive sneaker sales.

In this case, the star players themselves are even more eager for results than the club. For star players, only by constantly breaking records and winning more championships can they maintain their popularity and competitiveness and make themselves the first choice for sponsors.

This is why in recent years, more and more star players in the NBA have cut their salaries to form a team, which is also a game for them.

When more and more capital settled in, the head players in the league ushered in the status upgrade with the accumulation of resources, and the transfer also became a multi-interest game. This is the only way for a tournament to survive in the form of a league.

Both the resident capital and the star contestants have greater performance pressure. Behind the brother LOL is the pull of the emotional fetters between the contestants, as well as the game of capital on the topic.

Some people once criticized the "fan governance team", but now it seems that this is not a kind of feedback from the flow heat to the investors. The league title is only twice a year, and the S title is competed by all teams in the world.

Although winning the championship can have a very high degree of heat and topic, it is obvious that the uncontrollability and practical difficulty have become the cornerstone of capital measurement. In order to ensure basic revenue, the major teams are very likely to spend a lot of money to compete for a star player. No matter what the final result is, first ensure the topic of the team.

In such an environment, how many star players can withstand the pressure and test and still regard winning the championship as the primary goal when selecting a team; how many team management can maintain the heart of fighting for the championship and withstand the pressure from the management to form a team with the strength to compete for strength is the next biggest test for LPL.

Conclusion: the same Faker, the same Garrio in the semi-finals.

Five years ago, all League of Legends fans were reluctant to witness two South Korean teams competing for the championship at the Bird's Nest, but they felt that our division was on the right path and had a bright road ahead. The next two consecutive championships became the best proof.

When we experienced the gloom brought by the "Westernization Movement", ushered in the consecutive championships of Incheon and Paris, experienced an Icelandic carnival and looked forward to the Asian Games. The development of LPL brand and industry scale has exceeded many people's expectations. What will the achievement mean when a large amount of capital inflows and e-sports become a new industry?

Today, we finally wake up from a series of championship honors, which seems to be teetering under the dynasty of the first division. Under the seemingly full commercial landscape, it is faced with the hidden danger of the expiration of short-term contracts.

There is still a lot of pressure to develop for a long time rather than a flash in the pan; this time, where is the way forward?

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: ID:Coreesports, author: yuan Xinmiao

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