Yangtze River Delta festival gives Minhang esports shot in the arms

With the conclusion of the 5th Yangtze River Delta Sports Festival eSports Competition in June at the LOOP Star Ring Center, esports in Minhang District got a further boost with additional cross-regional synergies.

The Yangtze River Delta eSports Industry Research Center was unveiled last month in Minhang to facilitate exchanges and cooperation within the esports industry and the interconnection of industry, academia and research.

The research center will serve to promote the interoperability and integration of players in different industry sectors in addition to upstream and downstream players in the esports field.

Representatives of esports associations in Shanghai and Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces as well as Trinity Vantage Group reached an agreement on theme esports events that are set to leverage synergies within the Yangtze River Delta region.

The Yangtze River Delta Sports Festival also hosted theme discussions featuring esports experts from Japan and Korea as well as representatives from leading players like Vivo and Giant Network, esports clubs and overseas tournament organizers. They shared their experience and insights and exchanged ideas about the future development prospects of the gaming industry.

Zhou Shengchun, Party Secretary of Huacao Town, commented: "With the momentum of the booming esports industry, Huacao has actively encouraged the pillar industry of the digital economy and spared no effort to build an international esports town."

It plans to ride the new esports wave to attract more young talent to locate their business and enjoy living in the town.

Shanghai's gaming industry demonstrated robust growth in 2024, with sales revenue reaching 155.8 billion yuan (US$21.7 billion), a 7.8 percent year-on-year increase and over 2 percentage points higher than the GDP growth.

In 2024, Shanghai hosted 2,300 esports events, drawing 2.3 million onsite visitors and generating 1.12 billion yuan in esports-related income, accounting for 47 percent of the national industry total, according to research firm GameLook.

This momentum carried into the first quarter of 2025, with city officials reporting "double-digit growth" in Shanghai's cultural and digital information industry, largely fueled by the booming online game sector.

Gaming competitions are big business for tourism and merchandisers, and Shanghai plans to solidify its prominence as a global esports hub by further integrating esports with the tourism sector to attract more international visitors.

The LOOP Star Ring Center is a new esports-themed venue unveiled in April.

It sits in the southern wing of the Shanghai eSports Center, a highly anticipated industrial base with a total investment of around 10 billion yuan and a construction area of over 700,000 square meters.

The complex is backed by Trinity Vantage Group, and SuperGen, the Chinese parent company of esports team Edward Gaming with strategic support from Tencent.

Located in the Qianwan area of the Hongqiao International Central Business District, the LOOP Star Ring Center is set to become an important platform amid Shanghai's efforts to become a global esports hub.

It hosts the headquarters of famous esports teams such as Alliance, OUG, BAODA as well as regional head offices of several leading new energy and new material companies.

Chen Boyu, head of the BAODA esports team, praised the convenient environment offered by the Shanghai eSports Center. "The easy transportation connectivity with other cities in the Yangtze River Delta means we can take part in competitions in neighboring cities more conveniently," he noted.

The venue already has a full agenda for the rest of the year, with the scheduled CS GO XPL2025 eSports Competition in July, the "Naraka: Bladepoint" eSports Championship in August, and the Shanghai University eSports Invitational in October.

In addition to hosting competitions, the center will serve as a venue for esports industry forums, fan meet-and-greets and anime conventions.