Keyboard warriors take Shanghai by storm

Asian esports players and enthusiasts have enjoyed a thrilling and unforgettable May in Shanghai, where the Hero Esports Asian Champions League (ACL) brought together the region's esports community for the first time.

Ji Dongkai, a native Shanghai Counter-Strike 2 player better known as "Jee", could hardly hide his excitement and pride when his team, Tyloo, achieved a hard-fought victory in the grand finals on May 16. Marking a strong end to his ACL journey, Ji and his teammates obtained a ticket to represent China at this year's Esports World Cup.

Hosted by Asia's largest esports company Hero Esports, the ACL is the region's first international multititle esports tournament, gathering over 10,000 players and more than 1,200 teams from around the world. Its grand finals, held from May 16 to 18, drew an international audience of nearly 50,000 to Shanghai and garnered over 140 million views online, according to the organizer.

With a total prize purse of $2 million, the ACL Grand Finals took place at three venues simultaneously, and included nine game titles and competitions, namely Street Fighter 6, Counter-Strike 2, Defense of the Ancients (DotA) 2, Honor of Kings, Teamfight Tactics, Delta Force, Crossfire, the Legend Cup of League of Legends and the Valorant Champions Tour.

Seven of the nine titles offered winners direct passes to the World Cup, the world's largest comprehensive international esports tournament, which takes place in Saudi Arabia between July 7 and Aug 24.

"The ACL is bringing the best teams and people together from around the world through esports. It is not a Chinese event, but an Asian event," said Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, vice-chairman of Savvy Games Group and honorary chairman of ACL.

"Asia is the home and base of esports, with the best players and teams. All of them have a passion for esports as an industry, and I think it could be something that goes global.

"No one can be stuck in one area, as we are all part of a global community," added the prince, who was appointed president of the Saudi Esports Federation in 2017.

China now has the world's most esports participants, recording about 490 million last year.

A total of 124 official and professional events above the provincial level were held in China in 2024, with Shanghai hosting the most — representing 17.8 percent of the total — according to a report released by the Electronics Sports Committee of the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association.

Last year, the EWC recorded that 250 million hours of its content had been watched online, and that over 500 million individual users connected to its media to watch the matches, half of which were from China. Among the 2.6 million visitors to Riyadh watching the games in person at last year's event, 50,000 came from China, according to the prince, who expects that number to rise this year.