Research study details

Esports in Hong Kong has a short history. It dates to 2012 when a Hong Kong player, Lau Wai Kin (“Toyz”), represented a Taiwanese video gaming team—The Taipei Assassins (TPA)—won in the finals of an international online video game competition in Los Angeles. It hence aroused media attention. It is followed by an allocation of HK$100 million by The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) in funding for Cyberport to promote esports in 2018.

To develop esports in Hong Kong, Hong Kong has competitive advantage in information and communications technology, as evidenced by ranking 2nd in IMD World Digital Competitiveness Rankings, showing that Hong Kong ranked top in broadband penetration rate and average speed of broadband. The edge of information and communications technology is, however, counteracted by a lack of recognition of esports as sport, an absence of a task force or independent government department on esports, no related educational policy concerning the training of esports players, a lack of stable salary for esports players and exclusive attitude among public. While many of the respondents expressed support for the development of esports in Hong Kong, another survey surprisingly found that most of college students and middle school students who participated in esports did not seek parental support.

If you are interested in this paper, please refer to:

Lam, G., & Wong, O. W. K. (2024). Esports development ecosystem in Hong Kong: an application of a systems thinking literacy approach, Leisure Studies, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02614367.2024.2328086