It has been quite some time since I attended an eSports event. A few years at least. So when my girlfriend sent me a photo over WeChat of a subway advertisement for the CCGA (Chinese Cyber Games Awards) and that it was in Beijing, I was definitely interested. I instantly messaged a few friends in China to see if they could help me attend. After a few days I had an invitation.
Fast forward to the night of the event, and I left work early and hopped on the subway to go to BaiZiWan on Line 7. Essentially the middle of nowhere in Beijing. The area is an old-style industrial park, that just so happens to have an art hall you can rent for events. Walking through the smog in a poorly lit industrial park at night in the middle of nowhere was not how I expected to be attending an eSports awards show.
Walking up to the event I was greeted by a new friend who had managed to get me the invitation. He helped me get signed in at the front desk where I received the “gift” the hosts were giving to the audience and VIPs. He then took me on a quick tour of the venue as there was no one there yet — fans or otherwise. The event was quite small, It could seat roughly 250 people including VIP seating.
I asked about taking photos, and where I could go with just my spectator’s invitation. He said “Ill grab you a media pass, hold on” and ran off and came back with a media pass a few moments later. Not that it seemed to matter; no one ever checked anyone’s credentials that I saw the entire night.
The venue itself was well done. They had a really nice red-carpet walkway for fans to take pictures of the eStars (the term Chinese people use to describe someone who is e-famous) as they were announced to walk down. Media lined up in front of the backdrop and took photos and videos as the celebrities paused for quick 1-minute interviews with the hostess before disappearing down a dark alley to the VIP room behind the venue.
A few of the celebrities had walked down and signed the backdrop, and done their interviews when a familiar face suddenly appeared on the red carpet — Benson He. For those of you who do not know, Benson He used to be in charge of SteelSeries for the Chinese market, and was my boss’s boss during an internship I had done in 2012. I think we were both equally surprised to see one another; it had been a few years at least.
He came over and we started talking; we eventually made our way to the VIP room, where some of the other celebrities were hanging out, taking photos and signing media badges for people.
This is when I got to meet Li ‘Sky’ XiaoFeng — arguably the best Warcraft 3 player of all time, and more importantly, my favourite player of all time. Now, I have interviewed Sky before through World Elite’s manager at the time, KING. But I was never able to meet Sky in person, even though I did see him at IEM Shanghai in 2010. I have been looking up to Sky for as long as I can remember, in my opinion he made the World Cyber Games the event it was. He was a legend. A God. And here he was, sitting two feet in front of me as I was talking to Bian ‘alex’ Zheng Wei, China’s most prolific Counter-Strike player of all time. It was a surreal moment.
Eventually the conversation dropped, and Sky turns to alex and asks “are you two friends?”, to which alex replied “nope”. I explained that alex and I used to be on the same team, wNv (me as a staff writer, and alex as a pro-gamer). And that I had interviewed both alex and Sky a few times when I worked at Fnatic a few years ago. Neither of them remembered, so that was a little awkward…
We talked about Chinese eSports and what they are both doing now (alex is a full-time caster, and has a top 4 Chinese CS:GO team, and Sky is the CEO of his own gaming gear company in China, Taidu). Before the award ceremony began we walked into the venue, and the VIPs went to their special seats, and I hung back to take photos from the sidelines since VIP seats are assigned by name, and media wasn’t supposed to be in there.
Sky turned and asked why I was not going to sit with them, and I explained I was not allowed. He said okay, and went to his seat. A moment later he called over for me to come sit down; his marketing manager had to fly back to Shanghai, so her seat was open.
Who would have thought that when I came to this event just to take pictures and have some fun, a childhood hero of mine would be inviting me to sit front-row VIP with him? Surreal.
We settled in and the ceremony began. They showed videos with scenes from SK Gaming’s Believe, wNv Surreal, and a lot of World Cyber Games clips showing the old-school players back in the day. It was a nice trip down memory lane. One I think the players appreciated as well as their faces lit up as they remembered the events they attended almost 10 years ago.
The award show itself was not organized very well unfortunately. Staff were running on stage during speeches to remove equipment, VIP and staff alike did not know what the procedure was — who goes on stage, when they go on stage, when to exit, etc. It got a little awkward at times. But it all worked out in the end.
The live music on the other hand was definitely a memorable experience. The music itself was okay, but they went all out in terms of showmanship. They played two sets while I was there, the first one was okay, but the crowd was not really into it — it felt very out of place for an eSports award show. But when they came back on for their second set…well, I’ll let you be the judge:
Everyone was laughing and enjoying it now; it was impossible not to.
After alex and Sky accepted their awards, I had to head home so I missed the rest of the event unfortunately.
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ESports has come an extremely long way, and yet sometimes it feels like it hasn’t progressed at all since I was introduced to it in 2003. The audience has grown, the player base too, and the amount of money floating around the industry is incredible compared to the early years. At the same time, a lot of familiar faces are still struggling, trying to find or maintain their place in the scene, and even though there is more money, success hasn’t come any easier. ESports is still in its infancy, which isn’t a bad thing. I think it just goes to show how much potential this industry has. It’s exciting.
