More than 40,000 spectators, giant screens, players glued to their keyboards and more than US$1 million prize money for the winners: welcome to the world of eSports in China, a country that has become a leader in competitive video game playing.
The final of the world championships for League of Legends, one of the most-played video games on the planet, took place Saturday in Beijing's "Bird's Nest", the national stadium built for the 2008 Olympic Games.
"The atmosphere is great! It's better than at home, no?" said Yu Yating, a 23-year-old customer service manager dressed in a cosplay outfit: long green wig, white minidress and a plastic golden scepter.
"I've been playing League of Legends since 2013 because I love the monster fights - it relaxes me," she explained, as screams broke out in the stands when the competitors arrived; ready to do battle.
Soon, one of the players slaughtered a virtual dragon, prompting howls of excitement.
"Oh, huge!," said 19-year-old student Qian Feng, one of the spectators following the multiplayer game on three giant screens that were practically the height of the stadium.
Two-thirds of the audience were male, between 15 to 35 years old. Some, like Qian, had travelled hundreds of kilometers to watch the final in person.
Tickets for the event cost between 280 to 1,280 yuan ($40 to #190) and sold out in minutes, with touts hawking them on the black market for up to 13,000 yuan.
The size of the audience for the League of Legends final, a game owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent, matched that of the 2017 Europa League final between Manchester United and Ajax - without including the tens of thousands of fans streaming the match live through specialist websites.
The fast-growing sport sees teams of professional video game players fight for large sums of money in front of an audience, usually in multipurpose arenas or stadiums. And its popularity is only expected to grow.
There are currently 191 million eSports fans around the world, and numbers are projected to increase by 20 percent by 2020, according to video game specialists Newzoo.
As purists question if video games even qualify as a sport, eSports are inching closer to official recognition after last weekend's meeting of Olympic representatives in Lausanne, Switzerland left open the possibility for a future Olympics event.
Ludovic Ehret
Agence France-Presse/Beijing
The final of the world championships for League of Legends, one of the most-played video games on the planet, took place Saturday in Beijing's "Bird's Nest", the national stadium built for the 2008 Olympic Games.
"The atmosphere is great! It's better than at home, no?" said Yu Yating, a 23-year-old customer service manager dressed in a cosplay outfit: long green wig, white minidress and a plastic golden scepter.
"I've been playing League of Legends since 2013 because I love the monster fights - it relaxes me," she explained, as screams broke out in the stands when the competitors arrived; ready to do battle.
Soon, one of the players slaughtered a virtual dragon, prompting howls of excitement.
"Oh, huge!," said 19-year-old student Qian Feng, one of the spectators following the multiplayer game on three giant screens that were practically the height of the stadium.
Two-thirds of the audience were male, between 15 to 35 years old. Some, like Qian, had travelled hundreds of kilometers to watch the final in person.
Tickets for the event cost between 280 to 1,280 yuan ($40 to #190) and sold out in minutes, with touts hawking them on the black market for up to 13,000 yuan.
The size of the audience for the League of Legends final, a game owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent, matched that of the 2017 Europa League final between Manchester United and Ajax - without including the tens of thousands of fans streaming the match live through specialist websites.
The fast-growing sport sees teams of professional video game players fight for large sums of money in front of an audience, usually in multipurpose arenas or stadiums. And its popularity is only expected to grow.
There are currently 191 million eSports fans around the world, and numbers are projected to increase by 20 percent by 2020, according to video game specialists Newzoo.
As purists question if video games even qualify as a sport, eSports are inching closer to official recognition after last weekend's meeting of Olympic representatives in Lausanne, Switzerland left open the possibility for a future Olympics event.
Ludovic Ehret
Agence France-Presse/Beijing
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