• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

China’s esports powerhouse status undermined by tough new gaming rules for under 18s

September 7, 2021 by David Barret Leave a Comment

September 7, 2021

By Josh Horwitz and Sophie Yu

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – In glass-paneled conference rooms, members of the Shanghai-based esports team Rogue Warriors tap away at their phones as they train from 11 a.m. till late, occasionally breaking for food.

“I spend 15 of 24 hours a day playing video games,” says 19-year-old Zhang Kaifeng who plays Tencent Holdings Ltd’s online battle arena game “Arena of Valor” professionally, adding that the long hours are necessary to remain competitive.

China is the world’s biggest esports market with an estimated 5,000-plus teams, but the government’s tough new rules https://ift.tt/3hbjRuv aimed at curbing gaming addiction are set to make careers like Zhang’s hard to emulate.

Provoking an outcry https://ift.tt/3h4U0o0 from many Chinese teens, the changes task gaming companies with limiting online games for under 18s to just three hours a week. Even before the changes, minors were restricted to 1.5 hours on weekdays and three hours on weekends.

Top esports players are typically discovered in their teens and retire in their mid-20s, and experts compare the intensity of their training to that of Olympic gymnasts and divers. One of the world’s most well-known players of Riot Games’ “League of Legends”, Wu Hanwei, also known as Xiye, began playing at 14 and joined a club at 16.

“The new regulations almost kill young people’s chances of becoming professional esports players,” said Chen Jiang, associate professor at Peking University’s School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science.

In doing so, the rules also undermine the big business of esports in China, where tournaments are often played in billion-dollar stadiums and livestreamed to many more. Chinese esport fans are estimated to number more than 400 million, according to the state-run People’s Daily, while the domestic esports market was worth some 147 billion yuan ($23 billion) last year, says Chinese consultancy iResearch.

Rogue Warriors, a club of 90 gamers who train in a three-floor building that includes dorms and a canteen, declined to comment on the expected impact of the new rules.

An executive at another major Chinese club said the new rules will mean many talented people will miss out on being discovered.

“The real top players are usually gifted and don’t necessarily play long hours before joining the club. Others can be very good eventually but they need a lot of practice to get there,” said the executive, who declined to be named citing the sensitivity of the issue.

The new rules are not laws per se that punish individuals but place the onus on gaming companies which will be compelled to require logins with real names and national ID numbers. Experts note that determined Chinese teenagers can still circumvent the rules if they have their parents’ support and are able to use adult logins.

Chinese authorities have not addressed the impact of the new rules on the esports industry, but Chen at Peking University said they have the leeway to grant some young esports players exemptions.

“The country can still introduce corresponding policies,” he said.

($1 = 6.4534 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Josh Horwitz in Shanghai and Sophie Yu in Beijing; Additional reporting by Thomas Suen in Beijing; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

Source Link China’s esports powerhouse status undermined by tough new gaming rules for under 18s

David Barret
David Barret

Related posts:

  1. Fate of national daycare in the hands of Canadian voters
  2. With a little help from their friends: how The Sims 4’s community has helped shape the game
  3. Pancake aims to make customers flip for its virtual home design platform
  4. Best cordless vacuum 2021: The top models for pet hair and hardwood floors we’ve tested

Filed Under: News

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • Meat-Eating In US Cities Emits 329 Million Tons Of Carbon – But This Could Be Cut In Half
  • The World’s Oldest Known Chimpanzee Is Over 80 Years Old, And He’s Our Favorite Chill Childminder
  • Mysterious JWST Object “Capotauro” Might Be The First Galaxy In The Universe
  • 4.4-Million-Year-Old Ankle Bone Suggests Humans Evolved From African Ape-Like Ancestor
  • Hib: The Deadliest Disease You Might Never Have Heard Of (Because Vaccines Are Awesome)
  • The Legend Of Ol’ Rip The Horned Toad Who Reportedly Survived 31 Years Of Hibernation And Met President Coolidge
  • Newly Discovered “Reset Button” Lets Mathematicians Undo Any Rotation
  • Bear-Sized Snow Sloths? Meet Megalonyx, The Ice Age Giants That Lived Until 13,000 Years Ago
  • Why Can’t Mormons Drink Coffee?
  • In 1997, A Zoo Chimp Amazed Scientists By Gathering Rocks To Throw At Visitors
  • YouTuber Films Laser Light At 2 Billion Frames Per Second In His Garage
  • The Time To Watch Comet Lemmon Is Now
  • Ig Nobel-Winning “Butt-Breathing” Technique Moves One Step Closer To Saving Lives
  • What Is The Oldest Religion In The World?
  • This Mini Dragon Is One Of The World’s Rarest Amphibians With Just 150 Individuals Living In One Lake
  • “Alien Mothership” Hypothesis About To Have Key Test As Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Hits Solar Conjunction And Perihelion
  • 18 Of These Rare Mammals Live In The Wild. Have We Reached A Turning Point In Their Return To The US?
  • How Comet 2P/Encke Caused “Halloween Fireballs” To Rain Down On The Earth
  • US Flight Potentially Hit By Space Debris – What Are The Chances That The Claim Is Correct?
  • Hormone Therapy For Trans Women Shifts Dozens Of Proteins To Align With Their Gender Identity
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version