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| Spectators crowd the Seoul finals of the "Summoners War World Arena Championship" at Blue Square in Hannam-dong, Seoul, on Oct. 14. / Courtesy of Com2uS |
By Yoon Sung-won
Korea's e-sports industry is extending its boundaries to the mobile sector on the back of explosive growth of mobile games here.
From its early days in the late 1990s, the e-sports industry in Korea has long been led by online computer games such as Blizzard Entertainment's "StarCraft" and Riot Games' "League of Legends."
But Korean game firms such as Com2uS and Netmarble Games have continued to push to make their mobile games as competitive e-sports for about three years. They are starting to achieve tangible results through international competitions.
Released globally in June 2014, "Summoners War" by Com2uS has been one of the most successful Korea mobile games on the global stage in the last three years, posting 1 trillion won in sales alone for the first time as a mobile game made here.
Com2uS launched the "Summoners War World Arena Championship" (SWC) in March and has hosted regional finals in nine cities around the world including Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Tokyo and Seoul since August. Sixteen finalists will compete for the championship at the finals scheduled to be held in Los Angeles on Nov. 25.
"The regional finals in North America in September and October have drawn millions of spectators. In particular, the SWC competition in Los Angeles, which was livestreamed through Twitch, had more than 30,000 concurrent viewers," a Com2uS official said. "We have long pushed to expand our global user base to run an international e-sport competition."
Netmarble Games is also expediting its mobile e-sport business with its mobile game "Penta Storm."
Launched on April 25 here, "Penta Storm" is the Korean version of Tencent's "King of Glory." In this game, players join teams to compete with opposing teams to capture each other's base.
In March, Netmarble Games' mobile business head Han Ji-hoon said, "In 2017, we will first open the tournament and league for amateurs before starting season-based regular leagues for professionals with a promotion and relegation system."
The company plans to host the "Penta Storm Asian Cup" in Seoul next month. In this rivalry, 12 teams, who won tickets to the finals from Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Korea, will compete for the top notch. A total of 600 million won has been offered for the cup match, which is the largest amount of prize money offered at a mobile e-sport competition so far.
"Though many mobile e-sport events still appeal only to those who actually play the game, the viewership will gradually increase as more of the general public opt to play mobile games as convenient entertainment in their hands," an industry source said.
