Much much more common in Mobile Games and China

KOL is a step above influencer. Cuz you need to share your opinion to dev/publisher to improve the product you're an influencer at (representing the playerbase)

non-influencer > Influencer > KOL > Dev

There appears to be a meeting at Riot China HQ with China KOLs (Key Opinion Leader) being invited, the topic is of course CN VALORANT Servers

Recap of it: https://twitter.com/subzidite2/status/1639214088822878210

Map specific sponsor opens up potential cases for other maps

Imagine Lotus being something like an aroma themed sponsors

According to the EMEA League format explainer at 1:49
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vda9g4SRGdA

if EMEA Wins masters there'll be an extra spot in LCQ, effectively 2 teams from LCQ goes to champions

This should meant that the winning region in Tokyo will have 2 teams going to LCQ (just that EMEA the only region to explicitly say it)

By that meant CHAMPIONS Spots are possibly

Top 3 PAC League
Top 3 AM League
Top 3 out of 4 EU Teams at Masters (because there's 4 EU teams to Tokyo)
PAC LCQ
AM LCQ
EU LCQ
2nd LCQ of Tokyo Winning Region
(3x China as a 2x League + LCQ? << Given the by the time LCQ happened the Chinese server would be launched)

(I want to manifest "Host Region/Hometown Hero" spot, but Riot never did that)

Tencent's yearly WeGame conference has a silhouette of what is VALORANT on their poster

https://twitter.com/subzidite2/status/1637815151750676482

Conference is March 28, its possible CN Server dates might be there

So apparently outside from the RRQ VCT thing, similar case happened again but in PUBGM's PMSL

https://twitter.com/Mobile__Esports/status/1637610566989627393

To quote the text in the tweet

[PUBGM] Many Indonesian Fans were upset regarding RRQ’s lack of promotion for PUBGM.

• No post was made on the main RRQ account
• The players have no Jerseys in this picture or even matching outfits (no interest?)
• RRQ has posted minimum content on its PUBGM account.

For starters, PUBGM introduces a Partnership league PMSL replacing SEA Champs, works same as VCT by 15 partnered teams + each national league winner as a non-partner.

The league originally start as requiring $500K buyin but they changed to VCT-styled partnership with no fees. Partnered teams has a ranking that determines how much incentive each team gets based on how well they did both in-season and their social marketing game so its kinda encouraging to "Promote your team, and you get more cash".

EDIT: In case you were curious how many teams got partnered = https://liquipedia.net/pubgmobile/PUBG_Mobile_Super_League/Southeast_Asia/2023/Spring#Participants

Makuhari Messe. It's expandable and coincidentally
Is where Hololive hosted their yearly concert (and this year is actually ongoing at this venue) Holo in VCT?

edit: is netero downvoting me

language barrier can be a pain at time specially for into CN Teams
aside that orgs are being low profile til game actually launch before going full

think of how LoL operates in China, same way

https://twitter.com/subzidite2/status/1636342547663712256
Original: https://weibo.com/6882856351/Mxnl5aEAV?refer_flag=1001030103_

1. HK server stats don't transfer to National Service

2. Anti-cheating mechanism will be similar and not much differ from HK server

3. Shop mechanism similiar to LoL, can buy old skins (skins that were released in the past), Apparently the rumor mentioned you can buy past Champion skins as well,no details on how this works.

4. April pre-sale/warm-up? Potential Launch in May-June, there might be a short beta test (no stats carried over to launch) during these period

5. League server independent seems to implied the separate esports server that's also on Global release will be there for CN, both Old/New Clubs will take part and the league will allow imports (as seen with RNG)

6. Knives/Guns skins price might be cheaper than HK server

7. Patch of National Service will be equal to global servers

8. Apparently a rumor of VALORANT Mobile playtest happening in Guangzhou at the end of march too, the test will be in-person
   The main goal for Tencent per the original weibo post is to jump on bringing CN players who stick on Foreign servers

National Service is how CN netizens described "Official Chinese Servers"
Foreign/Overseas in Weibo context = anything not Mainland China

TLDR, Launch May-June if correct

Siege never really gets popular in SEA at all due to the game not being casual friendly and skill ceiling was way way high

Thai R6 league barely goes past 1K, says a lot
even CS at its peak locally here, was never past 10K

PUBG PC, it brought 88K Peak last season
nearly quadrupled of the VCL TH

For TH that's a good stat for a non-Mobile game even tho we know that they are still quite behind the most watched PC esports here (that surprises you how this game is still popular)

https://twitter.com/subzidite2/status/1636281442539044870

FPX & EDG invited to this act + 10 teams from qualifier
format sounds like old challengers, 2 groups playing BO3 Round Robin then 6 teams playoffs

This FGC is not to be confused with the rumored Chinese League, its not the same thing

^ THIS, Always thought PAC is looking like some of the team logos

So now we have three logos officially for all the three Partner Leagues

Americas (Orange, Spike)
EMEA (Red, Crosshair but looks like it came out of X Games, which is an american thing)
Pacific (Sky Blue, but somehow look more like LoL PCS)

Which one goes best? https://twitter.com/subzidite2/status/1635317311963021312

So FGC has provided me the list of Week 5 Rosters, Weibo Gaming and All Gamers finally made their FGC Qualifier debut

But RNG roster makes you question how Swerl/signed ended up there, as they were actually listed in the roster sheet
(both has yellow highlighted in the sheet I got, implying import)

https://twitter.com/subzidite2/status/1635005734038671360

4AM (or 17) could sneak in given their insane PUBG fanbase (take 4AM for example, in a 32 team PUBG Worlds in 2019 theres a pick em vote, 4AM votes was so high the other 31 team combined and votes still less)

NewHappy low make sense, despite PUBG World Champion they almost bankrupt but got saved at last minute

I would want to account the major brand from the two highest prized Chinese League PEL (PUBGM) and KPL (HoK) as well
Which meant things like eStarPro (NIP Owners), Douyu, DRG, AG, NOVA could be interest in it

However based on Wild Rift scene at the start primarily is LPL orgs at first.

Also to Indians, these team names are just chill, see https://liquipedia.net/pubg/PUBG_Champions_League/2023/Spring#Participants for example. This is just the tip of iceberg

https://valorantesports.com/news/vct-americas-2023-kicks-off-april-1/

• Top two teams NA Challenger
• Two top teams BR Challenger
• Best team from LAS
• Best team from LAN

4/4/4/2 + region that won masters gets +2 sounds understandable

2 CN is totally acceptable (or 3 to a stretch)

https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404875734698295398

August 6-26 with 16 teams

AUG 6-20 in Shrine Auditorium every match until Top 4
AUG 24-26 in KIA Forum (Formerly Lakers home stadium) for Top 4

Fun Part: Weibo posted this EVEN BEFORE GEKKO VIDEO GOES LIVE ON STREAM, Article dropped at exactly 14:00 BRT - English panel just started

At this point Weibo has announced everything earlier, Iceland Masters / Copenhagen/Turkey host countries / LOCKIN / Chinese Spots in LOCKIN & Masters / Tokyo / Champions

Title

This is a great idea ( I could relate to some of the mobile tournaments some games did an in-game qualifier so you build party and compete right from their in-game system
what results is insane number of entries like they even had to capped at 1184, maybe that's something that could be pulled off here )

Huya
Douyu
Bilibili

Based on every prize pool of other Tencent leagues: https://twitter.com/subzidite2/status/1628798509213442053/photo/1

2 Spots to masters (and a very fair to assume same will happened to Champions too) then a rumored league in the summer with mostly LPL teams interesting in it

sounds like maybe quite high of a prize pool when the league is there

another Tencent's FPS title CrossFire in China went absolute high alert by creating the new esports pyramid promising a 2nd league, university/college/developmental league

which is something that this game never consider doing it since going franchising in 2020. All it took is VALORANT to go on high alert

and even both being under Tencent each subcompany or even substudios still has to compete each other.
https://twitter.com/subzidite2/status/1628791785844801537/photo/1

To me its not surprising, not to say its fair though but what do you expect coming from the parent company themself.

This should mean they had direct spot to Champions assuming the similar pattern of it will be 4 from those three leagues + masters winner gets extra spot then 2 fixed china spots again remember the pro league rumors

Knowing Tencent had willingness to give Wild Rift Chinese league "higher prize pool than the LPL" itself tells all about what they could gave for VAL

So potentially each three now has its own home turf being exceptionally good in one specific game over the other two

emea= CS
americas = VAL
pacific = LOL

if PAC loses we get them back harder at MSI, fair game trades

go back to being a weekly boss

I guess people have preferences or being a more appealing/drawn into over PC in SEA/Brazil for those
(cant really bring China in, they just large enough to have one for everything)

lets say its come down to their favorite choices

This is likely to do with few more things

• The country is doing poorly or underperformed in the PC version

• but is on the top of the scene in Mobile version

• The PC game wasn't a popular hit (both consumer and competitive) in X areas (SEA LoL except VN is a prime example)

• The Scene of the PC Versions is really wasteland or less invested/committed vs The Scene of the Mobile Versions in that specific country (this often be a case mostly the majority of SEA, even DOTA)

This thing has many mindblown moments

• one of the most popular MLBB teams in PH actually didnt signed exclusivitiy
• Its not G2 debut in Mobile Esports and anyone who remembers the original game they debut is consider an experienced person in Mobile sene
• They actually had a chance to qualified if exRRQ plays bad

Basically Popularity Level is how Chinese platforms tells you

"If this streamer (or often called as Anchor by China netizens) is popular" instead of telling the actual number

.

You need to reminder that all Chinese platform will often not saying the number is "Viewership" but called them as "Popularity Level"

Which counts more than just viewership into it, for Huya in this case they account these

• online time,
• the number of viewers
• the number of chat activity
• the number of gifts, raffles, giveaways done through the builtin features

If you see heat somewhere below 500K this is consider "a low-watched stream"
sometimes if you streamed and had a heat of 30-40K, but in fact theres probably just only you and friend in the chat. That's why EsCharts never takes Chinese number because its technically impossible to fetch one

For a better comparision. Regular Crossfire Pro League match nets around 2 million heat while a not-big-team LPL match gets you between 6-10M Heat
https://twitter.com/subzidite2/status/1625463743865053184

The highest heat I've seen is non-American timezone Worlds with 100M Heat or something, then Honor of Kings at half of that

Other platforms like Bilibili, Douyu or Kuaishou may treat the formula differently but they have the same idea

TLDR: Chinese platform number is not 100% raw viewership sometimes it can be as 100K heat = 1000 actual people
This is also seen for NIMO TV which is a thing in SEA/Brazil (but they stopped investing a year ago) where theres a known formula that you need to /8 of that actual seen number to know true viewership. Funnily enough NIMO owned by HUYA

EDIT: https://blog.huya.com/product/295

https://twitter.com/pereirawesley_/status/1625173038005100544

Summary

All Opening Matches except LOUD = 1500
The LOUD opening match = 3000
After Opening until Semifinals = 3000

Finals = Max Capacity

https://weibo.com/7552587338/MsQZWfoLM?refer_flag=1001030103_
https://twitter.com/subzidite2/status/1625101558060052480/photo/1

Some of the teams rumored to have Chinese roster are seen here e.g. 4AM, Dragon Ranger Gaming, KingZone and Rare Atom
old teams like TYLOO/RNG is still there, qualifier runs until March 19th to determine 10 teams

(i believe this is not the Chinese league but probably among the last events before actual VCT China)

Two orgs that's were newly seen outside rumors are

• KingZone (the same "KZ" that formerly sponsored DRX in LCK, they are a Chinese Phone manufacturer)
• Dragon Ranger (formerly GanK Gaming, one of the 16 teams in Honor of Kings Franchised League: a Tencent Mobile MOBA franchised league since 2018 that sold spots at around $8-10M same to LPL and runs per league prize pool higher than LoL Worlds)

VLR now has weekly 60 resin bosses.
childe is a low tier character in abyss anyways

EU has 50x playerbase but well that's what happen to LEC vs LPL
(Still video games so all applies)

Fun Random fact, 4AM is actually owned by a former LPL player (GodV)

and another league to Tencent's list of Chinese National Leagues because Tencent always did that on their own esports,
(and it make sense why they split Chinese league separately given the list you're about to see, bonus points if you can named all the games)

LPL
KPL
PEL
CDM
CFPL
CFML
CFHL
WRL
Super League
S League
PCL

and soon to be what likely VPL.

Always remember that McDonald and a Canadian Gum sponsors PUBG MOBILE league in China, What could've been for VALORANT for Weird Sponsors that its the only place you'll get it

Extra Notes: Crowd cheering already allowed in partial capacity as of last month (so we'll get actual cheers in Split 1 LAN), with fully allowed by government in May ahead of Master

Good, getting approved in China is always meant you have now access to the biggest market out there. If done right then that's a gold fountain right there

Same could be said to India regarding market size but the difference is China already had a solidified Esports investment, while India is either Super Mobile and Complete Uninvested Wasteland (or Invested but returns dont meet the numbers) for PC at the same time

The advantage VALORANT has over CS:GO is that they had Tencent who willing to build a complete national scene, while CS under Perfect World dont really have that and is more sparse around. CF is Franchised and that can be disadvantage to CF itself (Remember that out of these 3, CS's the only game without any sort of LPL equivalent)

Otherwise someone already said, the Chinese league could be half or more of the Pacific League at one point. Same to why China split aparts from rest of Asia in many games, because they are big enough to warrant its own region regardless if they're going to win its worth doing anyway

A side note: Funny sponsor combos exists a lot in Chinese league (e.g. McDonald and Stride Gums sponsoring a Chinese PUBG Mobile League, Volkswagen/Castrol/Puma sponsoring a Mobile MOBA Chinese league << Combos that PC games rarely pulled off) so I'm looking forward to one for CNVAL

Short: It's good that this happened, Because if not it can hurt the PAC league in long run. Just Like 2015-17 Asia CS where non-CNKR have perfect lose rate against CNKR teams. (and I still believe SEA CS is killed at that moment when CN denies SEA's Major shot like 3-4 times in a row)

good luck catching up vs Crossfire

and yes, Crossfire. Not CS
(Perfect world never gave CS an actual Chinese Pro league, the PW premier league dont count
up against a Franchised CF league that sold spots at 10% of LCS seat price)

Full Crowd Cheer allowed from May 8 onward (Masters happened after this lift date)

Prior to May 8 a cheering its still allowed as Partial, somehwat 50% capacity (Major notable events outside esports benefitting the partiai lift being Wrestle Kingdom and HololiveFest for example)

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2023/01/4c848d50f9cc-japan-to-lift-covid-rules-on-events-allow-cheers-at-packed-venues.html

https://twitter.com/subzidite2/status/1615376994392473600

Conference Meeting specially for China teams in Shanghai, 12 days before LOCK//IN starts.
The chinese scene is taken care by the same company that runs LPL (TJ sports)

CFPL is the only LPL-equivalent to this type of game in China all these years
(Perfect World has never gave a LPL equivalent to CN CS
The closest were a short-scale that ended within 2-3 weeks)

It didnt happen in CODM though (not counting BR games) they fell early outside Top 4 and NA finished 1-2 this year (yeah, NA). maybe things change with VALM and R6M

Be honest ,its impossible even in Mobile (even though thats not tier 1)

Maybe stuff that is yet to be known then (I'm being optimistic thinking VCT CHINA in subtitles werent a typo) and just still using invited teams as for the reason that the game still technically unavailable over there

That's likely my tweets then so there you go
https://twitter.com/subzidite2/status/1615376994392473600

Links to that?