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When you think of esports in the Asia Pacific, you probably don’t think of Taiwan.
Powerhouses like South Korea and China dominate the publicity – and rightly so at times.
Both countries have a strongly developed esports presence, from gaming houses to stadiums and scholarships. All these are put in place because these countries have believed in esports for some time. Korea’s KESPA is one of the reasons esports exist as they do across the world today, but much of the APAC region is nowhere near as fortunate.
Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand. All these growing regions have teams in the Overwatch Pacific Championship, and this is by design. “We felt we couldn’t just build esports in more mature regions” said Eddy Meng, Director of Operations at Blizzard Taiwan.
“If we didn’t have something that served the fans in the Asia Pacific region, there was a big hole,” he continued. “From the very beginning we wanted teams from all over the region. We reached out to Thailand and were able to secure them after their team was formed at Blizzcon last year. At the last minute we were able to talk to Blank esports – we literally talked to them hours before we locked in the teams and schedule. It came together like a miracle.”
It’s this focus on APAC esports that Blizzard is trying to develop for their properties, cornerstoned by their new estadium venue in Taipei. As a hub for live LAN Blizzard esports, this open to the public venue will make it so regular events and seasons like the OPC can be hosted and easily visited by the region’s players.
“We had such a crowded calendar. The best way to execute on a full program across all our esports was to have a facility,” explained Eddy. “China, South Korea, both have very developed ecosystems – we thought there was a lot of talented teams outside of these, and the best way to build this was to have something here in Taipei to anchor that.”
Taiwan is almost the perfect spot for this sort of thing, allowing low ping gaming for scrims and practice not only within the region, but against the surrounding powerhouses of South Korea and China. This sort of high level experience on a regular basis is what’s previously kept those two countries so far ahead.
When you can play with the best in each particular game on a weekly basis, the skill level of pro-play in that region is bound to get a boost. With that in mind, opening the gates for the rest of the region to the same skill level pool can never be a bad thing.
The teams involved seem to be feeling this already. The opportunity offered for experience and exposure to a new fan-base has helped keep Overwatch fresh as an esport. There’s a bunch of differences in the strategies, compositions and general playstyles shown off in the OPC, the mix providing engaging competition. Getting extra viewers tuning in to this exposes new teams to cheer for, rivalries to watch and opportunities to explore.
“Any step is a good step at this point,” said Andrew ‘RQT’ Haws, captain of Blank Esports. “Local tournament organisers are doing what they can [in Australia] to create a healthy scene but it’s not even remotely close to even the western Asian regions.”
But not everyone shared the same optimism that this will help immediately. There’s a lot more to be done to back this plan up, and plenty of room for expansion to help better fill this void.
“It does a lot for us, but not so much so for the Australian scene. There’s no pathway for others to get here, and we’ve got the only slot,” explained Jordan ‘Gunba’ Graham. Australia is already proving it’s value as a source for esports potential through Blank. If the Overwatch Pacific succeeds in its goals the potential for more leagues like this grow the pool of entrants will grow with it. Fostering healthy leagues within the countries OPC features seems a strong next step.
The hope of all this is simple – that all the region growing their esports presence have a new way to continue that. It’s also something to point to to establish legitimacy. For esports to take hold in countries – to become valid career paths – there must be support from both inside and out of the industry. Steps like this, IEM Sydney and the Riot presence in Australia are all big steps toward making this a reality.