Asian Games 2023: China bags over half the gold medals at esports events even as Beijing maintains its harsh policies over video gaming

China won four esports gold medals out of seven matches at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, providing a morale boost for the country’s video gaming fans who yearn for recognition of their hobby amid Beijing’s hostility towards the industry.

Tens of thousands of young Chinese, some joined by their parents, flocked to Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province, to cheer teams competing in video games, which have been labelled “spiritual opium” by Chinese state media. Youth addiction to gaming is regarded as a “social problem” in China, leading to restrictions on players under the age of 18, who can only log into gaming accounts for a maximum of three hours per week.

But at the purpose-built Hangzhou Esports Centre over the weekend, the mood was different. “The matches are very exciting,” said Jin Kaijie, who travelled from the city of Zhuji in Zhejiang to watch a League of Legends competition between China and Vietnam. The title, created by US-based studio Riot Games but operated locally by Chinese gaming giant Tencent Holdings, has a huge fan base in the country. The 24-year-old Jin said he has been a fan since Tencent launched a professional tournament for the game in China in 2013.

China’s national teams won gold medals for the Asian Games versions of Arena of Valor and Peacekeeper Elite, Dream Three Kingdoms 2 and Dota 2, as well as a bronze for League of Legends. Esports turned out to be one of the most popular Asian Games events – and the most widely discussed topic on Chinese social media over the past few weeks.

Esports was the only competition in Hangzhou to deploy a lottery system for tickets due to the huge demand, as Chinese fans rushed to sign up for seats to view the events. After China won the gold medal for Dota 2 – a four-hour battle with Mongolia on Monday night – it quickly overtook China’s winning of the table tennis gold medal to become the top trending topic on social media platform Weibo.

“I signed up for every single competition during the holiday, and was lucky enough to secure a place for the Peacekeeper Elite match,” said Pu Guanlin, a 17-year-old student from the southwestern city of Kunming, who travelled to Hangzhou with his parents for the National Day holiday. It was also the first time that many Chinese people got to know esports, including the older generations.

On Saturday morning, Zhao Zhengjie, a Hangzhou native, took his 11-year-old son to watch the competition for Peacekeeper Elite, a localised version of PUBG Mobile, as the 40-year-old said it was “a very rare opportunity” for a Hangzhou native to support the debut of esports as an Asian Games medal event.