John Liu über das größte chinesische eSport-Event

John Liu on the biggest Chinese esports event

Overall there are three events claiming to be the successors of the World Cyber Games. The World Cyber Arena is the one taking place this week. We sat down with Operational Director John Liu, who was able to give some insight

readmore.de: Why don’t you introduce yourself?

John Liu: Hey Guys, I’m John Liu from WCA and I am the Operational Director for the WCA.

What is your main Job here at the tournament?

Well, I organise the people and the operational side of things. Getting the legal documents down and helping to get the casters and players here, basically everything except stuff like construction.

What is the whole idea behind the WCA? It made a pretty big impact in Europe when you announced it.

Wow, that actually flatters me. From our slogan you can tell that it is all about a dreamland for the players, all of the production crew is from GTV and EG, a gaming investment company. Right now the esports scene is just crazy, we want to get on this ride and create more opportunities for the players. We also want to make it a little bit more accessible for the people, because in China it is still not really accepted as a real thing or esports, and this is where we want to help out.

Are you planning to have this event on an annual basis? Do you already have plans for next year?

Yes, we do have the plans for it. But the deal is not for sure yet, right now this is the first event and that is also why it is an invitational. For the second one there would be pre-qualifiers everywhere: Europe, America and South America. The game director in South America actually contacted us to participate but due to the time issues we had quite some problems so it didn’t work out. We also tried to get some African teams too, and they were almost here but then some unfortunate events happened to one of the players within the family so they couldn’t make it.

In Europe there have been some frequently asked questions about the game line up. You do have Hearthstone, WC3 and Dota 2 for example, but you’re missing two big games: StarCraft II and CS:GO. Why did you not include them, what happened?

Ok, let me talk about CS:GO first. It was actually our very first choice of FPS game, but we had the problem that we are not allowed to show too much blood on Chinese TV. This event will not only be broadcast on the internet, but also to the whole of China on TV. We couldn’t get the approval and so we needed a different choice, which was Crossfire. I played it myself and it is actually quite decent. It was a tough choice but we had to make it.

And what about StarCraft II?

It was pretty much the same situation: We wanted to choose StarCraft II because it is the community’s favourite. However, for China, Warcraft 3 is such a big game with a big impact. It was our first real esports game; the biggest Chinese esports stars played WC3. This is the biggest Chinese event so far so we wanted to bring back this amazing game and show the gratefulness for this game. We think we made the right choice, the responses were fantastic.

The event itself is in Yinchuan, what led you to this decision?

Well, first of all it is a beautiful city, which is also not that polluted and not so humid too. Transport is also much easier. Also the local players sometimes complain that we are so far away, so why not Yinchuan? It’s a great choice because it is close to everything. Also the hotels and buildings are just beautiful. Another major reason is that EG, the other producing company is located here. So it seemed pretty reasonable to choose Yinchuan.

It was very surprising to see two mobile game titles with such a high prize pool. We haven’t seen much of them and we know next to nothing about them.

Legend of Dota is a game in the art style of Dota 2 and it is turn based, but not entirely. It still is an RTS. You choose five heroes on your side and you need to decide when you use the skills against the opponent. In the end you try to get the upper hand of course, but it all comes down to your choice of heroes. It is really like World of Warcraft Arena, so you have a tank, a healer and so on.

But why the choice of mobile games?

Well, it’s not really „mobile games“, that is something slightly different. This is more like Indie games because it is developing so fast. We didn’t have any event so far about these games although big companies like Microsoft and Steam value and support them so much, so we want to support it as well. Mobile games don’t take that many people to develop, they have high access and of course, you can make a lot of money with them. It is actually possible to try it out at the venue if you like!

Hearthstone is packed with all the big names, but all invite only. Also when you released the news for the groups, everyone talked about the group of death. Why were there no qualifiers and raffles?

WCA just started two months ago, so we were really short on time. For this reason an invitational was the only real choice for this event. About the grouping: It is actually raffled and we have also had a video from this online. I got a lot of questions about this as well, but everyone was in one pot and got raffled into the groups.

Now that there are only two days left before the start, are you happy with everything, how have things been so far?

Well, for the players‘ management part it was alright. I really hope we get a little bit more time for the group construction so everything is well prepared. One thing was unfortunate because we had planned the event with a way bigger stadium in mind. But we had to manage some space for a food festival, which is part of this event. The good part is that the players can also be a part of this.

Do you have any idea how many people will come to see the event?

So far we already sold around 6,000 tickets and there are more people who want to buy some. But we have a limit and we are sold out.

How many viewers do you expect when it comes to Chinese television and streaming?

It’s hard to say because we are split between streaming and broadcasting on TV. There are two national TV stations that will stream, so we estimate around 15 Million viewers for the TV. We have done a lot of promotion on a professional level. We also got the advertisement on the number one Chinese TV station, which is unique, it never happened before!

What are you looking forward to the most?

Well, almost everything, because for Hearthstone there was a huge expansion, World of Tanks there was a huge patch, and of course Dota 2 as well! A lot of teams also shuffled their line up so I’m very eager to find out how they will perform!

Any last words?

Please watch WCA, this is the Dreamland for players so go and check it out!