Ralf Reichert, CEO of the Esports World Cup Foundation (EWCF), has detailed how a growing and increasingly active fan base, particularly in China, bodes well for the future prospects of the esports industry.
Currently, the 2024 Esports World Cup (EWC), hosted by EWCF and ESL FACEIT Group, is taking place in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh. Running from July 3 to Aug25, the multi-game tournament has attracted top gamers from around the world to the city.
In a recent interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Reichert noted that the current global scale of the esports industry is growing rapidly, along with the gaming industry as a whole.
"If you talk about the business of esports, you need to look at the business of games first, which is worth 200 billion U.S. dollars and is among the largest entertainment industries, much bigger than music and movies combined. If you look at esports, it's only a fraction of it but is continuously growing. It is only worth two billion U.S. dollars now but growing 20 percent year over year. It's going to have a billion fans soon," said the CEO.
According to Reichert, the ongoing tournament has also excelled in digital viewership, event attendance, and media coverage.
"We have a 60 million U.S. dollars prize pool, which is a huge game changer for the whole industry from a consumer point of view. We have had 177 million hours watched digitally only, which makes it among the largest esports events in the world, hopefully being the largest of all time. Over a million people visited Boulevard where the event is happening. It's really the first time an esports event is going beyond the pure game audience to hit the mainstream audience in viewership, reporting, and attendance," he said.
Reichert also highlighted the importance of the Chinese esports market and expressed optimism for further growth from both sides in the sector.
"If you look at the Chinese market, it's the most important esports market in the world. For the Esports World Cup, the largest viewership comes from China. We've had one winning team from China so far in Honor of Kings. Overall, we are proud that Chinese players are coming to the Kingdom participating, and we are incredibly excited for the future and how we can grow together," said the executive.
EWCF CEO bullish on esports industry prospects, welcomes Chinese participation
Leaders of the China Search and Rescue Team dispatched to Myanmar following a deadly earthquake recalled details of their difficult rescue operations.
The powerful 7.9-magnitude quake, the strongest recorded in the country in a century, rocked the Sagaing Region of Myanmar on March 28, with the epicenter close to Mandalay, the country's second-largest city.
As of April 2, the China Search and Rescue Team had successfully participated in the rescue of five survivors since arriving in the earthquake-stricken area in Myanmar. Chinese rescue forces as a whole had rescued a total of nine survivors.
Zhao Ming, head of the Chinese national rescue team, said in an interview with China Media Group that the high temperature increased the difficulty of rescue. Fortunately, the rescue team received support from the local people.
"We brought along some necessary medicines and equipment, and actively sought solutions locally. I think our actions inspired the local people, who spontaneously sent us some drinks and many electric fans. Of course, we also took strict measures on the rescue scene. The smell of decay was very strong at the earthquake site, so we asked our operation teams to conduct disinfection before leaving the site and after returning," Zhao said.
On March 31, the China Search and Rescue Team pulled out four survivors - three adult females and a girl - after 13 hours of hard work in Myanmar's seriously-hit Mandalay City.
At 00:40 March 31 local time, an adult female trapped for nearly 60 hours was rescued after over five hours of relentless work, marking the first survivor rescued by the team in the city.
Without pausing for rest, the rescuers immediately moved to another nearby site at the Sky Villa apartment complex.
Recalling details of the rescue mission, Li Guangnai, deputy leader of the China Search and Rescue Team, said that effective search and rescue methods improved efficiency at the dangerous and complicated structure.
"When we rescued the second and third survivors, they were in Block C of the apartment, which collapsed like a pancake. After arriving at the scene, the rescuers went to the roof according to the direction given by the survivors' family members. When we used the radar life detector on the roof, we did not find them. So we created absolute silence by suspending all rescue operations and then knocked on the floor with stones to transmit the sound to see if there was any response from the trapped people. We knocked continuously and received a response from inside. Through the sound, we quickly confirmed the approximate location. According to the evaluation of the experts on the scene, we used a method of top-to-bottom demolition for the rescue," Li said.
At 05:37 on the day, a 5-year-old girl who was buried in Block C of Sky Villa was rescued. Li said the girl was curled up in fear in the corner of the wardrobe when being found, protecting her head with a teddy bear.
About an hour later, a woman who was buried in the same rubble was successfully rescued. She was 26 weeks pregnant. At around 07:15, a 29-year-old woman trapped in Block A of Sky Villa was pulled out of the debris. She was trapped under the broken beam on the sixth floor for 65 hours.
Another survivor was miraculously pulled out alive from beneath the rubble of a collapsed hotel in central Myanmar's disaster-hit Mandalay City on April 2. The male survivor was said to be in a stable condition after spending nearly 125 hours buried among the ruins of the Golden Country Hotel building.
Zhao said that after the 72-hour "golden window" for rescue, the China Search and Rescue Team would begin to cooperate with local authorities to carry out diagnosis and treatment of the injured and disaster assessment.
"As the possibility of finding survivors in the disaster area decreases, our team can assist the local area in some other work. For example, today we officially set up an outpatient clinic on the street with the permission of the local government. Our earthquake engineering experts can conduct emergency assessments on some buildings," he said.
Chinese rescue team recalls details in Myanmar earthquake rescue missions
