Gyeonggi Province Steps Up Esports Development and Promotion of Healthy Gaming Culture

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] Gyeonggi Province is taking the lead in promoting healthy gaming culture by substantially expanding its esports development projects and establishing the proposed Gyeonggi Game Culture Center.
The Province announced on the 29th the '2020 Gyeonggi Esports Development Plan' aimed at fostering esports, which is showing steep growth worldwide and becoming a new culture for younger generations.

The 2020 Gyeonggi Esports Development Plan includes ▲expansion of participating nations in the Gyeonggi International E-Sports Tournament ▲expansion of the scale of the Family E-Sports Festival ▲continued support for amateur promising players ▲expansion of training regions for industry-related workers.

First, the Province plans to expand the participating nations in the Gyeonggi International E-Sports Tournament (WeC) to enhance the tournament's prestige. While previous tournaments were limited to five Asian countries—South Korea, China, Japan, Malaysia, and the Philippines—this year's tournament will grow into a truly international competition with participation from 10 countries including the United States, France, and Brazil.
Last year, the Family E-Sports Festival, which operated the 'Nexon Crazy Park in Gyeonggi' booth at the Play Expo event venue in partnership with Nexon, attracted positive response with 4,496 participants. The Province plans to increase participating game companies to establish esports as a leisure culture that all generations can enjoy.
Additionally, the Province plans to continue its amateur promising player support project. As a result of supporting 26 top-ranking finalists from last year's Gyeonggi International E-Sports Tournament with skill development, education, and equipment, they achieved outstanding results in various domestic esports tournaments including the Hanwha Life E-Sports High School Challenge championship, Kart Rider League Season 2 championship, and DPG Academy Season 2 championship. Six of them joined professional teams (one to a first-division professional team and five to second-division professional teams), effectively serving as a stepping stone for amateur players to advance to professional esports. The Province plans to continue its generous support for developing promising players.
Furthermore, for esports players seeking careers in other fields, the Province plans to operate streamer courses and content creator courses to provide pathways into related industries. This year, the Province will focus educational programs on active and amateur players and expand training locations from one in the southern region to one additional location in the northern region to strengthen the foundation of esports-related industries.
Additionally, the Province plans to reinstate the 'Military E-Sports Tournament,' which was canceled last year to prevent African swine fever, to promote esports enjoyment across various segments of society.

In particular, the Province plans to establish the proposed Gyeonggi Game Culture Center to promote healthy gaming culture. The proposed Gyeonggi Game Culture Center is characterized by taking a preventive approach to enable appropriate game enjoyment rather than focusing on counseling and treatment to address excessive game immersion as a post-hoc phenomenon. The Province established a dedicated organization by newly establishing a Game Culture Team within the Gyeonggi Content Agency last month, and plans to complete business planning through gathering expert opinions in the future.

Choi Gye-dong, Director of the Economic Affairs Division, said, "Gyeonggi Province has made efforts to foster the game industry, which is drawing attention as a next-generation growth engine. Now, in addition to that, we will implement various policies to establish games as a healthy culture that anyone can enjoy," he said.

Meanwhile, Gyeonggi Province announced the 'Gyeonggi Province Game Industry Development Promotion Plan' in April last year, which allocates 53.3 billion won through 2022 for intensive support to small and medium-sized game companies and esports development.