Alibaba announce $5.5million eSports tournament



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Alibaba, a prominent Chinese e-commerce company, has announced that it will be hosting the "World Electronic Sports Games" a $5,500,000 eSports tournament that will host disciplines such as Dota 2, CS:GO, StarCraft 2 and Hearthstone.

Today Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba revealed the World Electronic Sports Games, a $5,500,000 event hosting tournaments for eSports titles such as Dota 2, CS:GO, StarCraft 2 and Hearthstone. Alibaba reportedly invested over $15,000,000 into the project, prize money included. Additionally the prize money will be subsidised by crowdfunding, allowing for the respective amounts to grow in size. The main aim of the tournament is to attract viewership from over 100 countries and regions across the globe. Qualifiers for the event have been said to start as early as April 2016, with the finals held in December 2016 in Shanghai, China. AliSports have expressed that in the future the event will be hosted outside of China.

Thomas Zilliacus, Chaiman of YuuZoo and YuuGames, said:



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We are very proud to have been selected by Alibaba Group and AliSports to be their partner and to organise their eSports events throughout China. This comes hot on the heels of YuuGames organizing some of China’s largest eSport events, the highly successful ESCC and CIG games, in partnership with key Chinese Government entities. We are confident that we can make Alibaba’s World Electronic Sport Games a hugely successful and leading event in China’s massive gaming market. As a new partner to China’s largest e-commerce group, we are not only looking to reinforce our position as a leader in China’s eSports sector, but also to discuss opportunities with Alibaba Group to jointly grow YuuZoo’s other China-based businesses, including our gaming business, payment business and social e-commerce business.

CEO of AliSports, Zhang Dazhong, had the following to say post-announcement:



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Sports is a multibillion dollar business in China, with massive growth potential. That is why Alibaba is investing heavily in this vertical. Linking sport and technology enhances the quality of life. That is what we want to do through AliSports. We are happy and proud to have YuuZoo as a partner. In YuuGames, we have found a partner who shares our ideals. With YuuGames’ much lauded successes in organizing the top eSport events in China, it was easy for us to choose them as our official partner in organising our events. We look forward to working with them as we kick off World Electronic Sport Games in April.

One of the highlights for this event is the fact that it will sport a larger prize pool than the official Valve-endorsed CS:GO majors ($1,000,000) and WME|IMG/Turner Sports' ELEAGUE ($1,200,000), claiming to be the largest CS:GO tournament of 2016.

Following are the announced prize pools for the four main eSport titles present at the tournament:

Dota 2 - $1,500,000

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - $1,500,000

Starcraft 2 - $400,000

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft - $300,000

*The prize money will be subsidised by crowdfunding, allowing for the respective amounts to grow in size.

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