SHANGHAI, Sept. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — On August 30 and 31, NextWorld Forum 2023, hosted by the Saudi Esports Federation, took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
NextWorld Forum is a gaming and esports summit focusing on the new horizons and opportunities around the fast-growing esports and gaming industries. VSPO Co-founder, CFO and Head of Global Strategy Office, Danny Tang, was invited to attend the "Gaming is the Future Economy" and "Creating the Gold Standard of the Competitive Gaming Scene" forums, and shared VSPO’s experience and plans for collaborating with Saudi Arabia to build the esports industry.
At the "Creating the Gold Standard of the Competitive Gaming Scene" forum, H.R.H Prince Faisal bin Bandar Al Saud, Chairman of Saudi Esports Federation and Vice Chairman of Savvy Games Group, Ralf Reichert, Chairman of ESL FACEIT Group, and Danny Tang had a discussion about Gamers8, the recent esports event in Saudi Arabia.
Gamers8 is a flagship esports event in Saudi Arabia, which started in 2022 and includes five game projects: Dota2, Rocket League, Fortnite, Rainbow Six: Siege, and PUBG Mobile. In 2023, Gamers8 was held on July 8th in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with a total prize pool of $45 million, breaking the record of the Dota2 event, Ti10 (40 million USD) in 2021 and becoming the highest-paying esports event in history and one of the most eye-catching esports events globally. On August 20, PUBG Global Series 2, sponsored by Gamers8 and co-hosted by Krafton and VSPO, also came to an end as an important part of Gamers8. According to Esports Charts, PUBG Global Series 2 reached 163,400 views at its peak and 4.23 million total viewing hours, making it the most watched PUBG tournament of the year.
Danny Tang said at the forum, "We are honored to be invited to help create Gamers8, a phenomenal esports event. It has sparked a remarkable esports boom and given us more confidence to continue working with Saudi Arabia towards a bold and ambitious goal."
Last September, after the end of the first Gamers8, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed announced a national strategy for gaming and esports. In this way, the Saudi government hopes to encourage more young people to enter the field of professional esports and cultivate the strength to compete with countries such as China and South Korea. According to the Saudi Press Agency, the strategy aims to turn Saudi Arabia into a global hub for the global gaming and esports industry by 2030. In last November, VSPO co-hosted the first Dubai Esports Festival in the Middle East with the Dubai Ministry of Economy and Tourism and Dubai World Trade Center, and stepped up the construction of long-term infrastructure and layout of esports events in Saudi Arabia. "Saudi Arabia is a meeting point of cultures as well as an important bridge between the East and the West. In this context, we can explore together and integrate the essence of different cultures to create a unique esports experience." Danny Tang said.
With the recent conclusion of Gamers8 and the huge attention around it, the topic of how the esports industry can take such a large successful event as a reference and continue to create more creative global game feast was mentioned. The answer Danny Tang gave is that "This is just the beginning."
VSPO is a world-leading esports company that create inspiring content and products for global esports enthusiasts.
Founded in 2016, VSPO provides comprehensive esports services, including esports tournament organization and content production, esports commercialization, esports community development, esports complex operation and more.
VSPO collaborated with a number of world-renowned game labels and successfully hosted and organized a series of official and professional tournaments of famous esports games such as Jakarta Asian Games Esports Showdown, Olympic Esports Week, PUBG (PGC, PCL), PUBG MOBILE (PMPL, PMGC), Crossfire (CFPL), Honor of Kings (KPL), Game for Peace (PEL) etc.
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