China claims another victory in esports as EDG team wins Valorant world championship
- The victory, the first time a Chinese team has taken the title since the tournament began, is another sign of China’s rapid ascent in global esports.
China has claimed another victory in esports, with the Chinese team Edward Gaming (EDG) winning the country’s first world championship at the annual tournament for the shooting game Valorant on Sunday.
The five-player professional team beat Spain’s Team Heretics 3:2 in the grand final of Valorant Champions 2024, amid strong European competition. Valorant is a shooting game developed by US-based Riot Games, a subsidiary of Tencent Holdings.
China’s esports industry has grown into a booming business, with “clubs” financed by the country’s young tycoons making an impact on the global arena. Separately, Chinese teams claimed wins in at least four out of the more than 20 competitive titles at the Esports World Cup, a two-month multi-game event in Saudi Arabia which concluded on Sunday.
The winning titles included Tencent’s top-selling mobile game Honor of Kings, League of Legends-spin-off Teamfight Tactics, Japanese title Street Fighter 6 and Strinova by Shenzhen-based studio iDreamSky.
The EDG club, which currently includes different teams competing for seven esports titles, was created in September 2013 by Zhu Yihang, the eldest son of Hopson Development founder Zhu Mengyi, who runs one of the five largest privately-held property companies in southern Guangdong province.
For winning the Valorant championship, the team will share a prize of US$1 million.
