Team OG plays Team LGD in the final of the International Dota 2 Championships, at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada, in August. Dota 2 is a free 10-player online video game with two teams of players from all over the world competing against one another. Next year the competition will be held in the Pudong New Area.
The International Dota 2 Championship will move to Pudong next year for its ninth edition tournament amid rising government support for the booming eSports industry.
The 2019 competition will take place in the Mercedes-Benz Arena and will have the largest overall pool prize in eSports history of US$30 million.
A total of 18 top teams from across the world will participate, said Gu Liming, senior vice president of Perfect World, the Dota 2 operator in China.
A spate of newly released rules and policies will be initiated targeting the development of eSports in Shanghai, including the launch of a trial registration system for the games' athletes in Pudong.
The Pudong New Area government has signed cooperation agreements with Tencent E-Sports, Perfect World and other Chinese online game giants.
China's eSports market is expected to exceed 88 billion yuan (US$12.77 billion) in 2018 and to increase by another 35 billion yuan in the next two years, according to an industry report by analyst CNG.
"We will keep promoting eSports exhibitions, game platforms and top-tier events," said Wang Hongzhou, head of Pudong's publicity department. "Vocational schools in Pudong will be encouraged to offer courses in eSports and related management in the future."
With its exclusive location and abundant entertainment resources, Shanghai has always been the center of the national eSports industry, while Pudong accounts for nearly a 10th of the national proportion.
In early August, Pudong took advantage of the situation and took the lead in proposing to build a "core functional area for the development of Shanghai's eSports' industry" to further consolidate its dominant position throughout the country.
Valve Corporation, developer and publisher of Dota 2, has officially announced the arrival of its mainstream digital distribution platform Steam China in Pudong, which will strongly support the development of Pudong's eSports industry and enhance the agglomeration of the industry in Shanghai.
