The 2018 Asian Games esports demonstrations came to an end on September 1stwith the final match of Pro Evolution Soccer 2018. This year, the Asian Games included six esports as demonstration sports for the very first time. It’s the second largest multi-sport event after the Olympic Games and includes forty-six participating nations.
Before the event, regional qualifiers were held where one to three countries won the opportunity to continue on to the tournament, although not all countries participated in every esport. The regions were East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, and West Asia.
The first esports event was Arena of Valor, an international adaptation of Tencent’s mobile MOBA game Kings of Glory. China has a thriving Kings of Glory competitive scene with its own league called King Pro League (KPL). It’s no wonder, then, that China took the gold at this event, with Chinese Taipei winning silver, and Vietnam taking home the bronze.
The second event was Clash Royale, a mobile multiplayer tower defense/card game from Supercell. China won the silver medal, losing 0-3 to Indonesia in the finals. Vietnam managed to win two games against China in the semi-finals, but lost their last game for the bronze.
The third game was the highly anticipated League of Legends tournament, a kind of high-stakes Rift Rivals that had fans struggling to find streams and getting most of their information from attendees posting results to social media. Ultimately, China won 2-1 against South Korea in an intense match with the pride of both nations’ LoL fans on the line. Chinese Taipei took home the bronze.
Unfortunately, China didn’t have a showing in the final three games— StarCraft II, Hearthstone, and Pro Evolution Soccer 2018. They didn’t participate at all in SCII and PES, and failed to advance past regional qualifiers for Hearthstone. Hong Kong took the gold for Hearthstone and Chinese Taipei won the silver for StarCraft II with South Korea taking the gold.
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