Tencent has upped the ante for mobile MOBA esports with the Arena of Valor World Cup. While details are still light on the event, it’s scheduled to take place this July in Los Angeles. Naturally, the Chinese technology giant has attached a $500,000 (about RM1.95 million) prize pool to make things interesting.
Arena of Valor easily one of the most downloaded and played mobile games in the world. It claimed some 80 million daily active players back in mid-2017, with Tencent reporting some 200 million monthly active players around the same time. The scale has allowed the company to host the Arena of Valor International Championship last year in South Korea; although it received little attention from the English speaking world.
That seems to be set to change with the introduction of the World Cup event. Supported by teams like MOBA veterans Team Liquid and Vitality, Tencent aims to build a bigger mobile esports ecosystem.
Adding to this will be a series of regional and collegiate-level tournaments. Both aimed at boosting the competitive edge of the teams appearing in the World Cup and International Championship events.
Mobile MOBA games have been pushing to catch up to their PC-based counterparts. The player base is almost comparable to those found on Dota 2 and League of Legends. Between Arena of Valor and its competitor Vainglory, it should be an interesting time to be invested in mobile esports.
[Source: Arena of Valor]
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