The President of the International Esports Federation (IESF), and Chairman of the Saudi Esports Federation, Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud recently attended the Esports Asian Champions League ceremony and talked about his experience and how esports can be used to enhance relationship between Saudi Arabia and China.
“With esports, so many tournaments are either online or offline. And the innovation here is how do we bring those two worlds together and start to bring together a region that, quite frankly, is the most advanced esports wise in the world and has some of the best players in the world,” said Prince Faisal.
He talked about how esports and gaming in general is bridging the gap between players through online arenas, VR, AR and XR. The tournaments bring teams across different nations together, with the fans following behind both physically and virtually. Prince Faisal considers this not just an innovation, but also a step towards the future.
“Esports is one of those things that really bridges different gaps. It's a sport, so it brings together ministries of sport, it brings together athletes, it brings together events like the Asian Games and, you know, the Olympics and things like that. It's also a fan engagement. It means tourism. So when we host events like the Esports World Cup, we had a huge number of Chinese fans come to watch the Chinese teams play,” Prince Faisal further added.
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Saudi Arabia’s interest in gaming and esports
Saudi Arabia is also set to create the first ever gaming city, with every corner dedicated to gaming. The city is expected to be a one-stop for every person who loves gaming. A small glimpse of the gaming city of Qiddiya was also given to visitors at Tokyo Game Show.
The Saudi video game investment, Savvy Games Group has also been investing across esports and acquired ESL and FACEIT. They also invested over $250 million in Shanghai-based VSPO who was the host for Esports Asian Champions League.