The World Electonic Sports Games (WESG) is an international esports championship tournament based in Shanghai and organized by AliSports back in 2016. Don’t play play, WESG possesses the highest winning prize of any third-party tournament and also focuses on following the Olympic standard. Players are selected from local and regional competitions to compete at the highest esports stage. And now, AirAsia has come on board as the Official Airline Partner of the WESG in Asean. The sponsorship deal includes flights, media value and cash prize, falling in line with the airline’s commitment to support the region’s top talents and reaffirms its effort in digital initiatives such as esports. Good job la AirAsia.
According to AirAsia Group Berhad Executive Chairman & AirAsia X Group CEO Datuk Kamarudin Meranun:
In terms of esports enthusiasts, Asean is one of the fastest growing regions in the world with 9.3 million fans, a number expected to grow 36.1% every year through to 2019. As an innovative digital company, we are thrilled to be the title sponsor and to contribute to esports by supporting Asean’s top professional esports athletes to compete at the global tournament. We also believe this sponsorship puts us at the forefront of the expansion of esports across Asean
The WESG hosts a total of six games, such as Dota 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offesive, Hearthstone, StarCraft II, Vainglory and Pro Evolution Soccer. Not to mention, the total available prize pool goes up to a whopping $5,500,000. No joke one sia.
The tournament will be an offline event, covering 38 countries compared to last year’s 14. Major offline regions would include and not limited to China, Japan, USA, Canada, Russia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. Maybe got chance that Singapore can see some action ah. Prepare to get hyped.
The WESG will take place from June 2018 to 2019, with the Asean online registration in each country beginning from 29 June to 31 July 2018. The countries involved will run its own online tournaments followed by national finals from 1 August to 30 September. Following which, the Asean Regional Grand Finals will be held in November 2018 followed by the International Grand Finals which will be held in March 2019. All interested participants can register here.
