On November 18th, the “Busan e-Sports Arena” opened. At the same time, G-Star, the largest international game exhibition in Korea introducing new games and hosting game competitions, held the “G-Star Cup 2020” and the “2020 Grand Prize Ceremony” on November 20th at the Busan e-sports arena.

         According to the Korea Creative Content Agency, the size of the global e-sports market was 1.3 trillion won, of which Korea's share was high at 13.1% in 2017. Also, there are about 170 million e-sports viewers worldwide. This is far more than 110 million viewers in the Major League Baseball of United States. Even in the 2018 Asian Games, e-sports were adopted as a pilot event, and it will be upgraded to an official event in the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games. In line with this, the Busan Metropolitan City and Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism paid 3 billion won each to build the e-sports stadium in accordance with the project to build a permanent stadium for local e-sports. Marin (21, French) said, “Since Korea is a global game powerhouse, many foreigners visit Seoul to watch Korean game competitions. Now, I am really excited to watch e-sports competitions in Busan.” 

         With a dedicated area of 2,739m2, the main stadium, auxiliary stadium, facilities for athletes and officials, and spaces for audience convenience are available, and the main stadium is differentiated according to the improvement of viewing services such as premium viewing space and a sports bar. The main functions of the stadium are hosting e-sports competitions and hosting game events. Also, the auxiliary stadium has 128 seats, with waiting rooms, goods stores, and cafes. 

         Han Sang-Min (Team Leader, Busan Information Industry Promotion Agency) said, “We will hold self-events like the Global e-Sports Summit this year and various types of e-sports competitions, events, and performances will be held from next year at the Busan e-sports arena. Also, if people and corporations come to Busan through fun events and many programs, it will be possible to implement policies that can contribute to fostering the cultural industry, such as creating business opportunities and training human resources for e-sports. Especially, e-sports are popular in China and Southeast Asia, etc., so it will be possible to attract tourists to Busan. Therefore, I think it can help boost the local economy and tourism industry in Busan. We will try to make a success story for Busan to become an e-sports mecca city.”

By Kim Seung-Gyu, Cub reporter

tmdrb2505@pusan.ac.kr