Alisports incorporates Vainglory in World Electronic Sports Games with $5.5 million prize pool.

March 15, 2018, San Mateo, California - Super Evil Megacorp, creators of Vainglory, the world’s leading mobile esport, announce a new partnership with Alisports, the sports branch of Alibaba Group and host of the World Electronic Sports Games (WESG). Vainglory will expand its esports ecosystem by becoming part of the WESG 2018 lineup. The first mobile only esport integrated with the tournament structure for 2018, Vainglory will stand alongside some of the most prominent competitive titles including, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Hearthstone, and StarCraft II.

Chinese e-commerce giant, Alibaba, formed Alisports in 2015 with ambitions for improving the sports industry through technology. Alibaba more recently secured the Olympics sponsorship deal until 2028 alongside Coca-Cola and Samsung. In 2016 Alisports formed WESG, an international esports tournament that saw 63,000 participants from 125 countries compete for a share of $5.5 million and had a total viewership of over 375 million. WESG is now a leading tournament for some of the most prominent esports titles and sees the top competitive teams from around the world compete.

The WESG 2017 Grand Final will take place this week, March 13-18 in Hainan, China where Vainglory will be revealed during a live showcase as the new title to be integrated into the WESG 2018 roster. This will be the first-ever Vainglory 5V5 cross-region esports event, with teams representing China, Korea, Indonesia, and Singapore. The partnership with Alisports further cements Vainglory’s position as the number one mobile esport by offering Vainglory teams another significant revenue opportunity.

“We’re extremely excited to partner with Alisports, a brand that is playing a pivotal role in developing the sports and esports industries,” said Kristian Segerstrale, CEO of Super Evil Megacorp. “The partnership signifies an important step for Vainglory esports and comes at a perfect time with the recent launch of 5V5. We’re excited to offer our teams a global platform on which to compete and we hope the community will join in to support their local teams competing in WESG.”  

“Our ambition for the World Electronic Sports Games is to incorporate the most influential titles in each genre in order to unite fans and talent from each corner of the world. Our current line up sees some of the most popular games played and welcomes the best teams. We are always looking to evolve,” said Jason Fung, Global eSports Director of Alisports. “Vainglory is one of the world’s biggest mobile esport with one of the most engaged communities. We’re excited to welcome Vainglory teams and fans to WESG 2018.”  

Fans can watch the livestream at http://2017.wesg.com/series/live on March 17th from 4:30PM to 6:30PM GMT+8:00 and March 18th from 9:00AM to 10:00AM GMT+8:00 [change time according to country].

For more information about WESG 2017, visit http://2017.wesg.com/en .