The “Beijing E-sports 2023” E-sports+Film and Television Seminar, part of the “Everlasting BJIFF” series, hosted by Beijing State-owned Cultural Assets Management Center and Department of Publicity and Culture, Work Committee of the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, sponsored by the BJIFF Organizing Committee Office, organized by Shangyicheng (Beijing) Technology and Culture Group Limited and Beijing Mingzhishidai Advertising Co., Ltd., and co-organized by the Beijing E-Sports Industry Development Association, was held in Beijing recently. 

Based on innovative trials and results of the “Beijing E-sports 2023” series, leaders, experts and guests, including Wu Xijun, Chief of Planning and Development Division, Beijing State-owned Cultural Assets Management Center, Wang Lei, Deputy Director of the Department of Publicity and Culture, Work Committee of the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, Cui Yan, Director of the BJIFF Operations Center of Beijing Radio & Television Station and Executive Deputy Director of the BJIFF Organizing Committee Office, Li Xiaohang, Vice General Manager of Beijing International Film Festival Co., Ltd. and Director of Competition Department of the BJIFF Organizing Committee Office, Li Wenhui, Deputy Director of Brand Development Department of the BJIFF Organizing Committee Office, Zhang Yuhao, Secretary General of the Beijing E-Sports Industry Development Association, Fang Ming, Party Branch Secretary and Vice General Manager of the Beijing New Film Association Co., Ltd., Wu Hao, doctoral supervisor, Class-II Professor at the Capital University of Physical Education and Sports and director of a key lab under the General Administration of Sport of China, Shi Xiang, Editor-in-chief of the E-sports magazine, and Ying Shunjie, General Manager of the Education Business Department, Jingdong Xingyu E-sports (Beijing) Culture Communication Co., Ltd., attended the seminar and had a lively discussion about the mutual empowerment and talent education for the e-sports industry among other topics under the theme of “E-sports+Film and Television”. 

　　

Poster of the “Beijing E-sports 2023” E-sports+Film and Television Seminar

According to Zhang Yuhao, Secretary General of the Beijing E-Sports Industry Development Association, as of the seminar, the “Beijing E-sports 2023” series attracted a total of 1.9 billion views of livestreaming, 5.32 million peak number of views for a single live session, and 19.13 billion impressions through news coverage. In short, the series of events attained remarkable publicity. This year marks the fourth year for the hosting of “Beijing E-sports” series. Apart from platform building, tournament organization, ecosystem construction and consumption-driven sections, events that combine e-sports with film and television are added, such as star invitational tournament, e-sports-themed screening, e-sports concert and so on. Thanks to the combination of film and e-sports, the “Beijing E-sports” brand gains increasing influence. Therefore, as the “Beijing E-sports 2023” series are about to conclude, the E-sports+Film and Television Seminar was held in fall in Beijing, during which leaders and experts were gathered to discuss new ideas and methods regarding mutual empowerment of the e-sports and film and television industries. 

　　

Different from previous editions, the “Beijing E-sports 2023” series have a special connection with the BJIFF for its launch ceremony was organized under the Game-Based Animated Films Exhibition Section of the 13th BJIFF on April 29. From then on, a series of events have been held throughout the year. The thriving imagination and influence of the film art enable the e-sports industry to make new explorations, discover new possibilities of cross-industry collaborations and contribute to the “everlasting” BJIFF. Given that e-sports became part of the official program of the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022, Beijing organized a series of e-sports exchange events with the theme of the Grand Canal at the Beijing (International) Canal Cultural Festival, the Grand Canal Cultural Belt Beijing Hangzhou Dialogue and Beijing E-sports. By means of high-quality tournaments, high-level exchanges, high-end forums and high-standard exhibitions, the e-sports and Grand Canal culture are mutually empowered, and the latter is better exposed and publicized through the former.

As Wang Lei, Deputy Director of the Department of Publicity and Culture, Work Committee of the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, indicated, the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area has leveraged its lead in clustering hi-tech industries represented by the new generation of information technology, and developed a 100-billion-worth digital tech-cultural industry cluster that focuses on hi-tech audio-visual technology, gaming and e-sports and includes digital creativity, cultural equipment manufacturing and so on. And it will continue to pay special attention and support to the development of the tech-cultural industry cluster represented by hi-tech audio-visual technology, gaming and e-sports. To this end, the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area will provide ten categories of support for relevant enterprises so as to encourage them to commercialize, conduct innovation and R&D, make contents, speed up growth, and go public. Meanwhile, it supports talent development, establishment of e-sports clubs, organization of e-sports tournaments and audio-visual events, builds a public service platform, and has set up a government investment guidance fund of RMB 10 billion. In addition, the area grants a special hi-tech innovation fund totaling RMB 500 million every year to guide investment of private capitals in fields in compliance with its industrial layout and strategic position, and construct the industry financing service system. 

　　

　　Wang Lei

Fang Ming, Party Branch Secretary and Vice General Manager of the Beijing New Film Association Co., Ltd., and many other film and television experts present explained current cases of collaboration between the film and television and e-sports industries from the film and television making perspective based on their decades of film and television making experience. For instance, web series The King’s Avatar, Cross Fire, and Go Go Squid!, web film Biubiubiu, animation Arcane: League of Legends, and director Zhang Yimou’s attempt to adapt the League of Legends for films are all closely combined the e-sports culture. In terms of target audience, e-sports and films are targeting the young audience. In particular, given that e-sports have attracted an increasingly large fan base, the chance of profiteering for film adaptations improves. There is vast space for collaborative development of film and e-sports. 

　　

　　Fang Ming

　　

The “Beijing E-sports 2023” series attained significant results with respect to combination of e-sports and film and television. In the new skyrocketing growth stage, how can the e-sports and film industries empower, support and benefit from each other, and take new course of development? Guests present shared their thoughts and advice based on their specific industry advantages. 

Li Xiaohang, Vice General Manager of Beijing International Film Festival Co., Ltd. and Director of Competition Department of the BJIFF Organizing Committee Office, started with the Game-Based Animated Films Exhibition Section under which the “Beijing E-sports 2023” was launched. As Li stated, the section consists of the E-sports Celebration for Filmmakers, E-sports Carnival and E-Sports for All among other activities, through which filmmaking professionals and enthusiasts for films and e-sports are gathered. Lou Yixiao was appointed as the Ambassador of the section, and rising celebrities including Yao Bonan, Hu Chunyang, Zha Jie, Jin Zihan and so on as Youth Ambassadors. They joined hands with four professional players of Team WE, an Honor of Kings team from Qujiang, Xi’an, to bring an appealing and fun e-sports feast on the site. The section delivered stunning results. He shared a set of data: topics related to the 13th BJIFF Game-Based Animated Films Exhibition Section received over 300 million views, and more than 2.4 million mentions. Moreover, the number of views of Huya livestreaming exceeded 19 million, and the peak number of viewers online totaled more than 3 million, showing the strong appeal and influence of the section. Besides, Li gave a preview of the section next year, indicating that events and activities of the section will be upgraded, and Lou Yixiao will be invited to be an event manager and host an e-sports party titled “Lou Yixiao with Friends”. At the same time, other elements, such as stage play and Hanfu costume, will be integrated to further amplify the inclusive vibe of e-sports, film and culture. In this way, more players will experience the charming fusion of e-sports and culture. 

　　

　　Li Xiaohang

Shi Xiang, Editor-in-chief of the E-sports magazine, focused on the e-sports industry and presented the survey results that were conducted among at least 20,000 respondents every year from 2020 to 2022 in row. Specifically, 15%-20% respondents get to know e-sports via TV series and films. For instance, certain respondents watched the TV series You Are My Glory before they started playing the game Honor of Kings, instead of vice versa. The percentage fully illustrates the possibility of mutual empowerment between the film and television industry and the e-sports industry. He also suggested that the film and television industry may adapt stories, methods of dissemination, emotions and feelings, etc. from the e-sports industry, and create more high-quality works. With those high-quality adaptations, the e-sports industry can tackle the shortage of IPs and role models. And the emotional values attached to the e-sports may be continued in the film/TV adaptations, thus creating unique Chinese e-sports IP system. 

　　

　　Shi Xiang

Wu Hao, doctoral supervisor, Class-II Professor at the Capital University of Physical Education and Sports and director of a key lab under the General Administration of Sport of China, added that more importance should be attached to the training of e-sports talents in addition to the in-depth combination of e-sports and film and television. He put forward two key points. First, the e-sports industry develops its industry first and sets up education subsequently. China started promoting e-sports talents training from 2016 on. Currently, there is a talent shortage of 1.5 million. It’s necessary to prioritize the training of e-sports talents as soon as possible. Second, it’s urgently essential to equip the e-sports industry with an active healthcare system. The “Healthy China 2030” initiative is one of the important strategies of the two national five-year plans. At present, the average career length of Olympic athletes is 7.5 years while that of e-sports players is only 2.5 years. It’s mainly resulted from fingers, eyes, cervical and lumbar spine issues of e-sports players. The future of the e-sports industry lies in the health of players. It’s important to establish the system of talent training and healthcare to solve current issues of cultural consumption related to e-sports plus film and television as well as e-sports plus economy 

　　

　　Wu Hao

During the seminar, Cui Yan, Director of the BJIFF Operations Center of Beijing Radio & Television Station and Executive Deputy Director of the BJIFF Organizing Committee Office, stated that the BJIFF Game-Based Animated Films Exhibition Section began with a small creative idea, and the current in-depth integration with e-sports and animation would not be possible without the help of various leaders. In his view, there is room and possibility for in-depth collaboration between e-sports and film and television. The BJIFF can contribute its resources of screenwriters, directors and other filmmakers as well as investment to win-win partnership between e-sports and film and television, thus facilitating the high-quality growth of the e-sports industry in Beijing. 

　　

　　Cui Yan

At last, Wu Xijun, Chief of Planning and Development Division, Beijing State-owned Cultural Assets Management Center, made concluding remarks. He first expressed thanks to all experts and guests present for their sharing, and affirmed guests’ discussion about the feasibility for in-depth combination of e-sports and film and television. According to him, e-sports, film and television, technological progress and AI will be further integrated in future, and they are likely to bring our life to next level of production and consumption. He also proposed new reflections on the way forward for e-sports plus film and television, such as how to upgrade the value system of the e-sports industry based on the building of a new modern civilization, how to define the development strategies of the e-sports industry in Beijing under the construction of national cultural center, how to construct the e-sports ecosystem in the context of digital economy, how to establish the administrative system of e-sports as a future industry, all of which will be gradually examined and worked out in subsequent “Beijing E-sports” series. 

　　

　　Wu Xijun

All the leaders, experts, scholars and guests actively joined the discussion, offered a clearer roadmap for mutual empowerment of e-sports and film and television within the framework of “Beijing E-sports” and industry upgrading, and pointed out the new way forward for the majority of e-sports enthusiasts and participants. 

The e-sports industry is advancing with the era and prospering. The BJIFF is enterprising and upward. The mutual empowerment of e-sports and film and television will further consolidate the “Beijing E-sports” brand, and amplify its authority, popularity, upgrading and inclusiveness. Hopefully, “Beijing E-sports” will stride towards new stage and ecosystem, and present more exciting cultural feasts to the general audience. 

　　

　　Group photo of guests