Apart from becoming millionaires overnight, the team, whose average age is less than 20, received people's adulation fit for Olympic champions. Thousands of fans waved Chinese national flags at the venue, lustily cheered them to keep up their morale during the contest and followed it all up with a resounding standing ovation to salute and celebrate their victory.
The glory on the world stage marks the coming of age of competitive or professional e-sports in China.
The gaming boom has been fuelled by the rapidly increasing prize money at local tournaments, backed by heavy investments by software developers and gaming publishers. On top of that was the support of the Chinese government. Not surprisingly, e-sports have seen strong growth momentum over the past several years, said industry insiders.
Kenneth Chang, deputy secretary of the organizing committee of the China Universities E-sports League, said, "The increasing prize money at e-sports events has attracted many players, even middle school students, some of whom are seriously considering professional gaming as a career option."
According to a report from sohu.com, a major online news portal, total prize money at e-sports competitions worldwide reached $9.91 million in 2011. By 2015-end, it ballooned to $64.54 million, or up 551 percent over a four-year period, or around 138 percent year-on-year.
Chinese e-sports players have been quick off the blocks in the race for all that prize money. As many as 117 professional gamers won about 7 percent of the total prize pool in 2011. In 2015, the corresponding figures were 393 Chinese professional players and 22 percent, the highest in the world, country-wise.
Clearly, handsome rewards are attracting more players. But, there's something more happening here. Even the number of spectators and viewers has been rising steadily. Folks in millions, it seems, simply love to watch Chinese champs in e-sports action－a fact that brings joy to broadcasters, live streaming apps and advertisers alike.
Fittingly perhaps, China's General Administration of Sport had recognized e-sports as the 99th sports discipline in 2003. It even set up a national e-sports team in 2013, in tune with the fact that the country's e-sports universe hit 127 million participants in 2015, the world's largest. Together, they created a market whose 2015 revenue reached 27 billion yuan ($4.07 billion).
That's not to suggest the market has peaked. Far from it.
