Last year, the SEA Games held in Indonesia held the first ever esports event albeit only a demonstration event. This December, at this year’s SEA Games in the Philippines, there will be the first ever medalled esports event in the world. The Olympics have been contemplating adding esports as a demonstation event and looks to be making moves to make it a reality already. Next year, in the run up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, there will be the first ever Olympics-sanctioned esports event: the 2020 Intel World Open.
Esports is big and looks to only be getting bigger from here. Its no wonder some companies are diversifying into the scene.
One Championship has been a major player in the mixed martial arts scene for almost a decade and last November they announced their new event-ure: esports. It shouldn’t have been that great of a surprise though, with the signing of known gaming enthusiast Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson late last year and One’s general acceptance of his hobby.
My first question really was: “when?”. They didn’t exactly mention a specific date during their announcement and had given a vague “we plan to have esports alongside our main MMA-events” description. At each MMA event they’ve had this year, you’ll catch their promo ad showing that their first esports event will be “coming soon” in 2019 and as a teaser, One Esports had minor Tekken and Street Figher competitions alongside their “Martial Arts Fan Fest” event organised in conjunction with their 100th event in Tokyo, Japan last October.
But now their first-ever esports event is just around the corner: December 20th to the 22nd in the home of One: Singapore.
They seem to be starting off simple with their first major event: one event, one game – DOTA2. Thus far they’ve announced the attendance of some pretty big teams, with the likes of Evil Geniuses, Team Secret and Gambit on the list. With the recent run of The International finishing with record numbers and a record prize pool, its no surprise that the company decided to test the waters with DOTA2 instead of Street Fighter or PUBG, games that “Mighty Mouse” is known to dabble in.
Maybe in the future they’ll hold a more mixed bag event, maybe they’ll stick to the one event, one game route. Only time will tell.
I’ve personally never seen a company from a completely different genre of events decide to dip their feet in the world of games. What will the transition be like? Smooth? Rocky? We’ll see in December. They already have another event planned for April next year in Jakarta, Indonesia so its safe to say that they’re feeling confident.
Anyway, if you happen to be in Singapore and are interested in snagging some tickets, click here (non-affiliate link). Psst! They’re currently running a 20%-off promo, so get your tickets quick! If you’d like to know more about the upcoming ONE Esports DOTA2 Invitationals, check out their event page.
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