Suspension of League of Legends Tournaments in China Prompts Controversy Around Gen.G
Amidst the ongoing controversies surrounding the Gen.G Esports team’s recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign nation, professional League of Legends (LoL) tournaments in China have been suspended for several weeks. Huya, the streaming platform holding exclusive rights to broadcast League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) since 2018, has halted official Chinese language broadcasts for the first time, as reported by the South China Morning Post on Sunday.
The suspension specifically affected the LCK broadcast, which began at LoL Park in downtown Seoul earlier this month. Riot Games Korea claims that the suspension in China was due to a lack of broadcasting rights, but industry experts believe it may be retaliation for Gen.G’s statement identifying Taiwan as a “country.”
Gen.G faced criticism from Chinese netizens in December after announcing a sponsored event on Facebook that would take place in Taiwan. Both the team’s manager and Gen.G Esports CEO, Arnold Hur, issued statements expressing their respect for China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, while also emphasizing Gen.G’s neutrality in political matters.
Huya, the majority owner of the streaming platform, is a subsidiary of Tencent, a multimedia giant that also owns Riot Games, the creator of League of Legends. The suspension of broadcasts is an additional blow to the LCK, which has been grappling with financial problems in recent years.
The teams associated with LCK released a joint statement on the first day of the spring season, stating that the “LCK League Corporation had not increased the league’s business value over the past three years.”
This incident is expected to have long-term consequences for Korean esports and the relationship between China and Korea. It is crucial to acknowledge that the political dynamics have an impact on the development of the esports industry, which is becoming an increasingly global phenomenon.
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The source of the article is from the blog macholevante.com