Esports organizer VSPO announces Asian Champions League
1 October 2024
Big international esports news out of Shanghai! VSPO, one of Asia’s largest esports events organizers, has announced a brand-new tournament called the Esports Asian Champions League, or Asia Champions League or simply ACL. While a lot of details about the new concept are yet to be revealed, we know already that VSPO is aiming to create an annual tournament that features various popular esports titles and a season consisting of six months.
Game titles not revealed yet
As is usually the case when it comes to major announcement of new esports events, people want to know which titles will be featured during the event. With regard to the recently announced Asian Champions League, this is not clear yet, though the event’s first official introduction video does show glimpses of a few famous and hugely popular esports titles. These include League of Legends, PUBG and Street Fighter.
VSPO made a first mention of the Asian Champions League during an announcement ceremony held at the INS Park in Shanghai, in China. There, Dino Ying, one of the co-founders of VSPO, explained what the idea behind the ACL concept is and how they want to use it to positively impact the development of esports in China and the rest of the Asian continent. This stretches as far as the Middle East, where the Esports Asian Champions League was named as an official partner of the Esports World Cup in Saudi Arabia. The kingdom is particularly known for using the growing appeal of esports to improve its own image in the world, particularly with regard to human rights.
“ACL will elevate Asian esports to new heights”, says Dino Ying, “As esports becomes a widely recognized form of sports thanks to its success at the Asian Games, the Olympic Esports Week and the Esports World Cup, we believe that international multi-title esports tournaments represent the future for esports, and ACL marks a commitment to that future.”
(The ACL’s first introduction video can be found here)
Boost for Asian esports
By creating the Asian Champions League, VSPO wants to build a major platform via which esports players and fans from all over the continent can improve their skills and experiences. It will be led by the newly founded Asia Champions League Foundation, which will have its own management and its own objectives.
“A key focus of ACL is to create more opportunities for top teams from different Asian countries to compete throughout the year,” explains Jonny Wang, co-founder at VSPO and chief executive of the ACL, “More high-stake regional rivalries are something that fans would love to see and what we want to deliver through ACL.”
While the first official intro video for the Asia Champions League does offer some hints as to which titles will be involved in the first edition of the event, we don’t know when this first edition is supposed to take place yet. VSPO has not revealed information in this regard yet, though if we consider their wish to have seasons of six months each, a kick-off sometime next year looks likely.
Image credit: VSPO