20.05.20243 min read

Interview with the CEO of Perfect World

Since CS Major tournaments began, there have been a total of 20 Majors, but not a single one has been held in Asia. Now, the 21st Major has been announced to take place in Asia — specifically, in the city of Shanghai.

Organizers and Valve predict that hosting the event in the Asian region, particularly in China, will significantly increase the number of CS fans in this part of the world. The Major will be organized by the Chinese company Perfect World, and here is a translated interview from HLTV with the company’s CEO, Archer Wang.

“We’ve always wanted to bring a Major tournament to China and host it here. It’s been many years. In the middle of it all, COVID happened, and it became impossible,” he began, continuing, “This is very important for the Asian market. Our goal is to make Asians, especially Chinese people, much more passionate about CS.”

Except for the recent IEM Chengdu 2024 and last year’s CS Asia Championship 2023, the biggest tournament held in the Asian region was the CSGO Asia Championship 2019. This means there hadn’t been a major tournament in the region for a full four years. Perhaps because of that, the IEM Chengdu 2024 event was held on a massive scale with a full arena of spectators.

Regarding this, ESL’s VP Michal Blicharz tweeted, “Future CS2 Majors in China are going to be insane.” Archer Wang commented, “All of this surprised even us.”

“At the CAC tournament, we didn’t expect so many passionate fans to show up. But this gives us more confidence and challenges in planning future tournaments, and we hope to offer an even better experience for both fans and players,” he continued.

“We saw a huge increase in both viewers and players after we hosted The International 2019, the biggest Dota 2 tournament in China. We believe a similar result will follow after the CS2 Major.”

“We’re also considering hosting the first two stages of the tournament with a live audience. Of course, that’s a difficult task. In any case, we’ve already pre-rented several large venues for this. It will be a major challenge for us,” he said. During the Major held in Rio, Brazil in 2022, the first two stages of the tournament were also held with a live audience, which at the time was considered a big success.

At the recent PGL Copenhagen 2024 Major, the Mongolian team The MongolZ made it into the top 16, which has now allowed three teams from the Asian region to qualify for the upcoming Major. This has turned out to be an incredibly fortunate event right before the Major is to be held in Asia. Regarding this, he said, “This is truly amazing. We are very happy. Everything is falling perfectly into place.”

He continued, “The Lynn Vision team cried with joy after qualifying for the Major. We were just as happy. It’s been four years since a Chinese team made it to a Major. Of course, fans are a little disappointed that their performance hasn’t been great, but what matters is that they proved Asian players can qualify for a Major. That’s a big deal.”

At the end of the interview, he said, “This year, we’ll be hosting the Major. As for next year, it’s hard to say. Obviously, it’s not possible to have a Major in Asia every single year. But we will continue with our CAC tournament. We want to make it an annual event if possible. Maybe instead of eight, we’ll have 16 teams, just like a Major. The Chinese market and audience want to see big teams. Perfect World will fulfill that desire.”

AuthorTemujin Batbayar

Analyst from Ulaanbaatar specializing in CS2. Has competed in MESA tournaments, worked with Esports TV during the ESL Pro League, and reviewed both the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 and IEM Katowice 2024. Author of his own player evaluation metrics and known for accurate predictions. Has interviewed s1mple and ZywOo. In esports since the days of CS 1.3.