Over the past week, the esports industry in China has seen multiple key partnerships and investment in esports, and grassroots talent development.
Among the top stories: Tengjing Sports (TJ Sports) launched a talent training camp for China’s League of Legends Pro League (LPL) Spring Season; Drodo Studio partnered with ImbaTV for the Auto Chess Mobile esports league; Chinese esports organization LP raised $1.31M USD in a series A funding round; One Game Agency partnered with Imba TV for Dota Pit Minor; and esports organization Hero established a FIFA 
squad.
Every week The Esports Observer presents the biggest esports business news in China,
including investments, acquisitions, sponsorships, and other major news from the region.
Credit: LPL
TJ Sports Launches Talent Training Camp for LPL Spring Season
On March. 19, TJ Sports, a joint venture of Tencent and Riot Games in China, announced a talent training camp project for China’s LPL Spring Season, from March 15 to May 18. This project will be in partnership with internet coffee bar WYWK—the main sponsor of esports organization Invictus Gaming —and tournament platform VARENA.
According to the announcement, the project will be divided into three parts, including a registration stage from March 15-26, a player select stage from March 28 to April 20, and a training stage from April 24 to May 18. Players can choose three different options to register and be selected, including “online selection” from March 28 to April 20, “WYWK offline selection” from March 28 to April 13, and “official offline selection” from March 30 to April 14. It should be noted that each of these options have different rules, regulations, and requirements.
The “WYWK offline selection” and “Official offline selection” will be hosted in multiple Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Changsha, and Wuhan.
Players who pass the selection stage will be officially invited into a League of Legends training camp for 34 days of professional training. Players can be picked by LPL teams during The LPL Spring Season Draft on May 18.
Credit: Drodo Studio
Drodo Studio Partners with ImbaTV for Auto Chess Mobile, Bans Steamer Over ‘Cheat Copy’ of Game
On March 14, Drodo Studio, the Chinese game developer of Dota Auto Chess, partnered with Chinese production company ImbaTV and publisher Long Mobile to create an independent Auto Chess mobile game. Pre-registrations for the game have already broken 594K at the time of writing. ImbaTV will support Drodo Studio in building a global esports tournament system, for both Auto Chess and Dota Auto Chess.
Three days after announcing plans for the tournament, Drodo Studio and ImbaTV posted a statement saying “We Say NO to All Cheating Behaviors!” on Chinese social media Weibo. In this statement, Drodo Studio listed multiple behaviors from streamer Wu “2009” Sheng (a former LGD Gaming Dota 2 Player) that Drodo Studio believes constitute cheating. In addition, ImbaTV and Drodo Studio banned Sheng from attending any future Auto Chess esports tournaments, due to streaming a “cheat copy” of Auto Chess.
“Drodo studio rejects and prohibits Wu ‘2009’ Sheng from streaming ‘Dota Auto Chess’ and making a profit from it. In addition, Sheng will not be invited to any esports tournament authorized by Drodo studio,” the developer said in a statement on social media. “Drodo Studio will use legal means to protect our intellectual property.”
This announcement has created a major discussion within the Chinese esports community, such as “how to identify cheating behaviors in the game industry,” ”how to protect small and medium game developer’s ideas and rights from big game publishers,” and if “the playstyle of a game be part of a game’s intellectual property.”
Esports Organization LP Raises $1.31M in Series A Funding Round
On March 19, Beijing esports organization Lao Pao (LP) revealed that it has raised close to ¥10M RMB ($ 1.31M) in a series A funding round. Co-leading the round was Chinese VC firm Xiaoyao Capital, and two unknown individual angel investors.
LP was founded by Zhang “Vgo” Nuoyu and Hou “bigun” Hao in December of 2017, both former Counter-Strike professional players. LP has competed in multiple esports games, including PUBG , PUBG Mobile, Hearthstone , CS:GO , and Street Fighter V .
Credit: Hero
Other Esports Business News
- On March 11, Production company ImbaTV announced that it is in partnership with One Game Agency (OGA) for the AMD Sapphire Dota 2 Minor. ImbaTV will become the exclusive Chinese content producer for the Dota 2 Minor, running April 22-28. This tournament is the fourth Dota 2 Minor in 2018-2019 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC), with a $30M total prize pool.
- On March 10, Chinese esports organization Hero announced that it has formed a FIFA team in the country. The Hero FIFA team will compete in all EA Sports FIFA tournament series in China, according to Hero. Hero is best known as one of the top Honor of Kings team in China, having won three King Pro League (KPL) championship titles, including the 2018 KPL Spring Season, 2018 KPL Fall Season, and 2018 KPL Winter Champion Cup, earning a total of $2M in prize money.
